His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios of Boston opened the Conference with a prayer and read His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s welcoming speech to all attendees. 

 

The Conference discussed on the significance and future of synodality as the structure and service of the Christian Church. The conference convened Roman Catholic and Orthodox theologians from New England, the United States, and internationally to discuss the history and vision of the synodal system through the centuries as well as to assess how it should impact the wider ecumenical church. The Keynote speaker was His Eminence Metropolitan Job of Pisidia, who is the Orthodox co-chairman of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Job is Dean of the Patriarchal Institute of Graduate Studies in Orthodox Theology (Geneva, Switzerland).