Eastern Christianity

== Catholic–Orthodox ecumenism ==
Ecumenical dialogue since the 1964 meeting between [[Pope Paul VI]] and Orthodox Patriarch [[Athenagoras I]] has awoken the nearly 1,000-year hopes for Christian unity. Since the lifting of excommunications during the Paul VI and Athenagoras I meeting in Jerusalem there have been other significant meetings between Popes and Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople. One of the most recent meetings was between Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I, who jointly signed the ''Common Declaration''. It states that "We give thanks to the Author of all that is good, who allows us once again, in prayer and in dialogue, to express the joy we feel as brothers and to renew ''our commitment to move towards '''full communion'''''".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ecupatriarchate.org/ |title=Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople |publisher=Ecupatriarchate.org |access-date=7 March 2014}}</ref>

In 2013 Patriarch [[Bartholomew I]] attended the installation ceremony of the new Catholic Pope, [[Pope Francis|Francis]], which was the first time any Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople had ever attended such an installation.<ref>{{cite web|title=auto|url=http://orthodoxyandheterodoxy.org/2013/03/21/the-first-ecumenical-patriarch-at-a-papal-inauguration-not-just-since-1054/|access-date=2013-04-08|archive-date=2014-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105020411/http://orthodoxyandheterodoxy.org/2013/03/21/the-first-ecumenical-patriarch-at-a-papal-inauguration-not-just-since-1054/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2019, Primate of the [[Orthodox Church of Ukraine|OCU]] [[Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine|Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine]] [[Epiphanius I of Ukraine|Epiphanius]] stated that "theoretically" the [[Orthodox Church of Ukraine]] and the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]] could in the future unite into a united church around the Kyiv throne.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://espreso.tv/article/2019/05/11/epifaniy|title = Предстоятель ПЦУ Епіфаній: Найперше мусимо зберегти свою незалежність}}</ref> In 2019, the primate of the UGCC, [[Lists of leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia]] [[Sviatoslav Shevchuk|Sviatoslav]], stated that every effort should be made to restore the original unity of the Kyivan Church in its Orthodox and Catholic branches, saying that the restoration of Eucharistic communion between [[Catholic Church|Rome]] and [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Constantinople]] is not a utopia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://synod.ugcc.ua/data/blazhennishyy-svyatoslav-vidnovlennya-vharystiynogo-spilkuvannya-mizh-rymom-i-konstantynopolem-ne-utopiyu-315/ |script-title=uk:Блаженніший Святослав: "Відновлення євхаристійного спілкування між Римом і Константинополем не є утопією" |title=Blazhennishyy Svyatoslav: "Vidnovlennya yevkharystiynoho spilkuvannya mizh Rymom i Konstantynopolem ne ye utopiyeyu" |language=ik |trans-title=His Beatitude Svyatoslav: "Restoration of Eucharistic communication between Rome and Constantinople is not a utopia"}}</ref>

=== Rejection of Uniatism ===
At a meeting in [[Balamand]], [[Lebanon]], in June 1993, the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church declared that these initiatives that "led to the union of certain communities with the See of Rome and brought with them, as a consequence, the breaking of communion with their Mother Churches of the East … took place not without the interference of extra-ecclesial interests";<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/ch_orthodox_docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930624_lebanon_en.html Seventh Plenaey Session (Vatican Website)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031223144638/http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/ch_orthodox_docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930624_lebanon_en.html |date=23 December 2003 }}</ref> and that what has been called "[[uniatism]]" "can no longer be accepted either as a method to be followed nor as a model of the unity our Churches are seeking" (section 12).

At the same time, the Commission stated:
* 3) Concerning the Eastern Catholic Churches, it is clear that they, as part of the Catholic Communion, have the right to exist and to act in response to the spiritual needs of their faithful.
* 16) The Oriental Catholic Churches who have desired to re-establish full communion with the See of Rome and have remained faithful to it, have the rights and obligations which are connected with this communion.
* 22) Pastoral activity in the Catholic Church, Latin as well as Oriental, no longer aims at having the faithful of one Church pass over to the other; that is to say, it no longer aims at proselytizing among the Orthodox. It aims at answering the spiritual needs of its own faithful and it has no desire for expansion at the expense of the Orthodox Church. Within these perspectives, so that there will be no longer place for mistrust and suspicion, it is necessary that there be reciprocal exchanges of information about various pastoral projects and that thus cooperation between bishops and all those with responsibilities in our Churches, can be set in motion and develop.