Filioque

==Recent attempts at reconciliation==
Starting in the latter half of the nineteenth century, ecumenical efforts have gradually developed more nuanced understandings of the issues underlying the ''Filioque'' controversy and worked to remove them as an obstruction to Christian unity. Lossky insists that the ''Filioque'' is so fundamentally incompatible with Orthodox Christianity as to be the central issue dividing the two churches.{{sfn|Lossky|2003|p=163}}{{efn|Lossky wrote that "Whether we like it or not, the question of the procession of the Holy Spirit has been the sole dogmatic grounds for the separation of East and West. All the other divergences which, historically, accompanied or followed the first dogmatic controversy about the Filioque, in the measure in which they too had some dogmatic importance, are more or less dependent upon that original issue. ... If other questions have arisen and taken the first place in more recent inter-confessional debates, that is chiefly because the dogmatic plane on which the thought of theologians operates is no longer the same as it was in the medieval period."{{sfn|Lossky|2003|p=163}}}}

Western churches have arrived at the position that, although the ''Filioque'' is doctrinally sound, the way that it was inserted into the Nicene Creed has created an unnecessary obstacle to ecumenical dialogue. Thus, without abandoning the ''Filioque'', some Western churches have come to accept that it could be omitted from the Creed without violating any core theological principles. This accommodation on the part of Western Churches has the objective of allowing both East and West to once again to share a common understanding of the Creed as the traditional and fundamental statement of the Christian faith.<!-- hubpages.com is on the spam blacklist; need to get this page whitelisted before it can be included <ref name=MacKinlay>{{cite web |first=Brian |last=McKinlay |title=The Filioque in the Nicene Creed: a hindrance to Christian unity |url=http://brianmckinlay.hubpages.com/hub/The-Filioque-in-the-Nicene-Creed |access-date=19 December 2011}}</ref> -->

===Old Catholic Church===
Immediately after the [[Old Catholic Church]] separated from the [[Catholic Church]] in 1871, its theologians initiated contact with the Orthodox Church. In 1874–75, representatives of the two churches held "union conferences" in [[Bonn]] with theologians of the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church in attendance in an unofficial capacity. The conferences discussed a number of issues including the filioque controversy. From the outset, Old Catholic theologians agreed with the Orthodox position that the ''Filioque'' had been introduced in the West in an unacceptably non-canonical way. It was at these Bonn conferences that the Old Catholics became the first Western church to omit the ''Filioque'' from the Nicene Creed.{{sfn|Guretzki|2009|p=11}}{{sfn|Moltmann|1993|pp=179–180}}<ref name="ThomasWondra2002">{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Owen C. |last2=Wondra|first2=Ellen K.|author-link2=Ellen Wondra |title=Introduction to theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1dK4Ay-bhbcC&pg=PA221|access-date=22 December 2011|date=1 July 2002|publisher=Church Publishing, Inc.|isbn=978-0-8192-1897-1|page=221}}</ref>

===Anglican Communion===
Three [[Lambeth Conferences]] (1888, 1978 and 1988) have recommended that the ''Filioque'' be dropped from the Nicene Creed by churches that belong to the Anglican Communion.<!--<ref name=MacKinlay />-->

The 1930 Lambeth Conference initiated formal theological dialogue between representatives of the Anglican and Orthodox churches.<ref name="KennedyKennedy2008">{{cite book|author1=David J. Kennedy|author2=David Kennedy|title=Eucharistic Sacramentality in an Ecumenical Context: The Anglican Epiclesis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6twuk5c8OSYC&pg=PA87|year=2008|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6376-8|page=87}}</ref> In 1976, the Agreed Statement of the Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission recommended that the ''Filioque'' should be omitted from the Creed because its inclusion had been effected without the authority of an Ecumenical Council.{{sfn|AOJDC|1976|loc=nn. 19–21}}

In 1994, the General Convention of the [[Episcopal Church (US)]] resolved that the ''Filioque'' should be deleted from the Nicene Creed in the next edition of the [[Book of Common Prayer|Prayer Book]].<ref name="ArmentroutSlocum2005">{{cite encyclopedia|year=2005|orig-year=1999|title=Filioque|editor1-last=Armentrout|editor1-first=Duncy S.|editor2-last=Slocum|editor2-first=Robert Boak|encyclopedia=An Episcopal dictionary of the church: a user-friendly reference for Episcopalians|location=New York|publisher=Church Publishing|isbn=978-0-89869-211-2|page=203|url=http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/109399_14370_ENG_HTM.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104041452/http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/109399_14370_ENG_HTM.htm|archive-date=4 November 2014|url-status=dead|via=episcopalchurch.org|access-date=12 November 2015}}</ref> The enthronement ceremonies of four recent [[archbishops of Canterbury]] ([[Robert Runcie]], [[George Carey]], [[Rowan Williams]], [[Justin Welby]]) included recitations of the Nicene Creed that omitted the ''Filioque''; this has been considered to have been "a gesture of friendship toward Orthodox guests and their Communions".<ref name="Buchanan2006">{{cite book|last=Buchanan|first=Colin Ogilvie|title=Historical dictionary of Anglicanism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5Ig4SDJFgkC&pg=PA187|year=2006|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5327-0|page=187}} Note: Published before [[Justin Welby]]'s enthronement</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.anglicannews.org/media/1041790/enthronementservice-v2-print_1.pdf |title=The Inauguration Of The ministry Of The One Hundred And Fifth Archbishop Of Canterbury Justin Portal Welby |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Anglican Communion News Service |publication-date=2013-03-21 |page=32 }}</ref>

At the end of October 2017 theologians from the Anglican Communion and Oriental Orthodox Churches signed an agreement on the Holy Spirit. This is the culmination of discussions which began in 2015. The statement of agreement confirms the omission of the Filioque clause.<ref name="angl_Hist">{{Cite web | title = Historic Anglican – Oriental Orthodox agreement on the Holy Spirit signed in Dublin | work = anglicannews.org | date = 2 November 2017 | access-date = 2 November 2017 | url = http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/11/historic-anglican-oriental-orthodox-agreement-on-the-holy-spirit-signed-in-dublin.aspx }}</ref>

===World Council of Churches===
In 1979, a study group of the [[World Council of Churches]] examined the ''Filioque'' question and recommended that "the original form of the Creed, without the ''Filioque'', should everywhere be recognized as the normative one and restored, so that the whole Christian people may be able ... to confess their common faith in the Holy Spirit".{{sfn|Vischer|1981|pp=3–18}} However, nearly a decade later, the WCC lamented that very few member churches had implemented this recommendation.{{sfn|Guretzki|2009|p=12}}

===Roman Catholic Church===
Popes [[John Paul II]] and [[Benedict XVI]] have recited the Nicene Creed jointly with Patriarchs [[Patriarch Demetrius I of Constantinople|Demetrius I]] and [[Bartholomew I]] in Greek without the ''Filioque'' clause.{{sfn|NAOCTC|2003}}<ref>{{cite web|author=Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations |date=29 June 2004 |title=Presentation of the celebration [of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul] |website=vatican.va |location=Vatican City |url=https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2004/documents/ns_lit_doc_20040629_rite_en.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040806145711/https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2004/documents/ns_lit_doc_20040629_rite_en.html |archive-date=6 August 2004 |url-status=dead |at=n. 17  }}</ref>

===Joint statement of Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians===

The ''Filioque'' was discussed at the 62nd meeting of the [[North American Orthodox–Catholic Theological Consultation]], in 2002. As a result of these contemporary discussions between both churches, it has been suggested that the orthodox could accept an "economic" filioque that states that the Holy Spirit, who originates in the Father alone, was sent to the Church "through the Son" (as the [[Paraclete]]), but it would not be the official orthodox doctrine, but what the Fathers called a theologoumenon, a theological opinion.

In October 2003, the Consultation issued an agreed statement, ''The Filioque: a Church-dividing issue?'', which provides an extensive review of Scripture, history, and theology.{{sfn|NAOCTC|2003}} The recommendations include:

# That all involved in such dialogue expressly recognize the limitations of our ability to make definitive assertions about the inner life of God.
# That, in the future, because of the progress in mutual understanding that has come about in recent decades, Orthodox and Catholics refrain from labeling as heretical the traditions of the other side on the subject of the procession of the Holy Spirit.
# That Orthodox and Catholic theologians distinguish more clearly between the divinity and hypostatic identity of the Holy Spirit (which is a received dogma of our Churches) and the manner of the Spirit's origin, which still awaits full and final ecumenical resolution.
# That those engaged in dialogue on this issue distinguish, as far as possible, the theological issues of the origin of the Holy Spirit from the ecclesiological issues of primacy and doctrinal authority in the Church, even as we pursue both questions seriously, together.
# That the theological dialogue between our Churches also give careful consideration to the status of later councils held in both our Churches after those seven generally received as ecumenical.
# That the Catholic Church, as a consequence of the normative and irrevocable dogmatic value of the [[Nicene Creed#Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed|Creed of 381]], use the original Greek text alone in making translations of that Creed for catechetical and liturgical use.
# That the Catholic Church, following a growing theological consensus, and in particular the statements made by [[Pope Paul VI]], declare that the condemnation made at the [[Second Council of Lyons]] (1274) of those "who presume to deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son" is no longer applicable.

In the judgment of the consultation, the question of the ''Filioque'' is no longer a "Church-dividing" issue, which would impede full reconciliation and full communion. It is for the bishops of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to review this work and to make whatever decisions would be appropriate.{{sfn|NAOCTC|2003}}