The Christian Churches of Italy (Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox) will be meeting in Siracusa on May 7th and 8th for their IV national Ecumenical Meeting about: "Woe to me if I do not announce the Gospel. Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelicals in front of Paul”. The event is promoted by the Bishops Commission for ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue of CEI, the Italian Bishops Conference, by the Sacred Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and by the Federation of Evangelical Churches of Italy, in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Siracusa. In presenting the initiative in a letter of invitation, the directors of the bodies that promote the event, mgr. Vincenzo Paglia, the metropolitan bishop Gennadios Zervos and pastor Domenico Maselli, write: “The Ecumenical Assembly of Sibiu, which was attended by a large Italian delegation, showed the largely-shared need to continue such a significant dialogue, even nationwide. The Pauline Year has come as a suitable opportunity to resume our biblical reflections”. The meeting in Siracusa – this place has been chosen because this Sicilian city was the first place the apostle Paul set foot on, in Italy – follows the first two Ecumenical Meetings, one on the Our Father in 1999 and one on the Beatitudes in 2003. The third meeting was held in 2006 about the Charta Oecumenica.

© SIR