Webinar: The Impact of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the Ecological Movement
Speaker: Fr. Chrysostom Frank
Description: As we face of a looming ecological crisis, all Christians who affirm the first article of the ecumenical Creed are called to act to preserve the earth as God’s gift of creation. To do this well, ecumenical thinking is needed. Christians from various communities are called to find commonality in their diverse theological traditions which can bring them together in a new “EcoReformation” for our own day. The “Green” Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, New Rome, has taken a primatial role in trying to bring about and to foster such a reformation among Christians and all people of good will. In doing this, the Patriarchate has dug deeply into the Eastern Christian tradition in order to articulate the relevance of Greek-Byzantine Christianity to a new and crucial problem within our present-day context. This work has the potential to enable Christians both to draw closer to one another, as well as to non-religious people and those in other religious traditions, and to empower us in the battle to preserve creation. As such, the Church of Constantinople, New Rome, the Second See in the Christian world, is fulfilling its ancient catholic ministry of pastoral care within the contemporary global oecumene.
Fr Chrysostom Frank is a Russian Catholic priest. He currently serves SS. Cyril and Methodius Russian Greek Catholic Church in Denver and teaches at Regis University. Fr. Chrysostom is married to Marica Frank (nee Catacousinos), and they have three sons. Fr. Frank has a BA from Concordia College, and MDiv from Nashotah House theological Seminary; he has also spent time at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Both Fr. Chrysostom and Marica have doctorates (in Church History and Classics respectively) from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where they met and were married. After working in South Africa from 1983-1999, the family moved to Denver. Included among the institutions where Fr. Chrysostom has taught are the University of Cape town, the University of South Africa, theological Academy (now the Ukrainian Catholic University) and Seminary in Lviv, St John Vianney Seminary in Denver, and Regis University. He has given papers at conferences in South Africa, England, Sweden and the United States, and has published articles in various journals, including Greek Orthodox Theological Review, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, Ekklesiastikos Pharos, Theological Studies, Acta Patristica et Byzantina, Eastern Churches Journal, and Currents in Theology and Mission.
Hosting Organizations:
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Denver (OLLI at DU)