The first Joint Theology Seminary of the new Centre for Eastern Christianity and Heythrop College will take place on the afternoon of 26th January 2011. In connection with the current concern of the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, the focus will be on the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome and the role of the papacy in the universal Church. Part of the context is the removal by Pope Benedict XVI of the title, “Patriarch of the West”. To some on the Catholic side of the dialogue, the title was irrelevant, referring to long historic conditions and thus defunct. Indeed, it has been claimed that it thus stood in the way of a genuine dialogue towards reunion in the conditions of the present. But to others and to many Orthodox, it appeared to disturb the arrangements that obtained before schism set in, especially the pentarchy of the historic patriarchates, and thus made it more difficult to retrace steps in the search for lost unity. The Seminar will look at all these issues as they affect – and are affected by – respective canonical principles and the sense of the Church’s identity we have as Catholics and Orthodox.
Canon Law and the Politics of Ecclesial Identity:
The Patriarch of the West:
contemporary Catholic & Orthodox perspectives
Dr Peter Petkoff
Wednesday 26 January 2011, 4.30pm -6.00pm
The Hopkins Room
Heythrop College, University of London, Kensington Square, London W8 5HN.
Please note: there is no charge for attendance and registration is not required. Enquiries:
j.flannery@heythrop.ac.uk. A flyer can be downloaded here.
Out of interest, here are two relevant speeches made by Patriarch Gregorios of Antioch the Melkite Greek Catholics at the October 2010 Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church to address the concerns of the Churches of the Middle East:
Dr Peter Petkoff has studied law and theology in Sofia, Leeds, Oxford and Rome and his research interests are in the area of law and religion, EC Law, Intellectual Property and Comparative and International Law. His academic appointments include working on research projects at Oxford University (European Company Law and Arms Exports), Exeter University (Comparative European Family Law) and Bristol University (Changing Nature of Religious Rights Under International Law), a visiting fellowship at the Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law and the Leopold-Wenger-Institute for Legal History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and teaching positions at Bristol, Oxford and Buckingham. He has taught EU Law, International law and Intellectual Property, Canon law and Islamic Law. Dr Petkoff is a honorary fellow of the Centre for the Study of Law and Religion at the University of Bristol, a Fellow of the Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, a Secretary of the Oxford Society for Law and Religion and a convener of the Oxford Colloquium for Law and Religion, a board member of the academic think-tank ‘Focus on Freedom of Religion or Belief’ which studies the dynamics of freedom of religion or belief discourse within the context of the international institutions. Dr Petkoff is also a board member of the research network ‘Church, Law and Society of the Middle Ages’ and a convener of Eastern Canon Law panels at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds. He is currently engaged in research projects which study the coexistence of civic and religious legal systems on national, regional and international level and the formation of Christian, Jewish and Islamic legal harmonisations in the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries.
Recent publications: Legal and Religious Perspectives of the Post-conciliar Vatican Concordats – Minorities, Human Rights, Religious Freedom and International Law, Law and Justice Journal (No 158, 2007); Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Jurisprudence of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court Religion, State and Society [Routledge], Volume 36, 2008; Neutrality in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights – coauthored with Malcolm Evans (Religion, State and Society, Volume 36, 2008; Church-State Relations under the Bulgarian Denominations Act 2002: Religious Pluralism and Established Church Religion, State and Society Vol. 33, No. 4, December 2005; The Law on Religion in Bulgaria in the Light of European Integration Orthodox Christianity And Contemporary Europe, Leuven, Peeters, 2003.