For many years, ecumenical studies were the main field of academic interest for Canadian Orthodox theologian Paul Ladouceur (1944–2025). This year, Dr. Ladouceur passed away, having left a valuable scholarly legacy that is now the task of the younger generation of Orthodox theologians to interpret.
Ladouceur’s article “On Ecumenoclasm: Anti-Ecumenical Theology in Orthodoxy,” published in St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 61:3 (2017), contains an analysis of the distinctive features characteristic of counterproductive neo-traditionalist thinking in categories of exceptionalism and exclusivism. The article’s author invites the reader to explore a series of interrelated sociological, historical, and theological arguments aimed at legitimising ecumenism both on a theoretical level and in the context of practical interfaith dialogue.
The Canadian scholar suggests not rushing into the widespread, unreflective use of the notions heresy and heretic to label individuals or communities that hold alternative theological views but have not been officially recognised as heretics by any Church Council. Ladouceur contrasts the traditional anti-ecumenical interpretation of the 10th and 45th apostolic canons with a relativised reading of them against the backdrop of the practice of offering joint prayers with non-Orthodox Christians, which has been established during the previous century.
In his review #10, in which he commented on Paul Ladouceur’s article, Archpriest Andrii Shymanovych shared his own ideas on the phenomenon of ecumenism and the challenging situation that has evolved in the religious life of war-torn Ukraine. Fr. Andrii’s review is available at this link:
