"Anglican Identity in an Ecumenical Age" was explored by leading ecumenists at an academic convocation Oct. 24 at Nashotah House. Nicholas V. Lossky, professor of British civilization at the University of Paris, and professor of church history at St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, Paris, spoke on the Anglican contribution to the ecumenical age, and the Rev. J. Robert Wright, professor of ecclesiastical history at the General Theological Seminary, presented a program on Anglican identity within the ecumenical age.

Dr. Lossky, a lay member of the Russian Orthodox Church, said he was "deeply attached to Anglicanism" since spending some time in Oxford as a teenager.

"It is my profound conviction that the Anglican Communion has much to contribute to the ecumenical movement," he said. "The most essential element in this contribution is the richness of its theological tradition."

He spoke with an emphasis on a patristic approach to theology and cautioned, "Never separate the holy scripture from the theology of the church fathers."

Dr. Lossky also addressed Anglicanism's "very famous notion of comprehensiveness. It is clear to all that this notion can be understood in different ways," he said. He noted that some persons understand it as "practically limitless opinions." For others, he added, comprehensiveness is to be understood as "comprehend."

Fr. Wright, long involved in ecumenical matters, called church unity "a matter of urgency," and "part of the deepest tradition of Anglicanism." He stressed that unity is not the same as uniformity, and that diversity is not the same as division.

"Comprehensiveness as Anglicans understand it is not just a matter of anything goes," Fr. Wright said. "Comprehensiveness gives Anglicans an imperative necessity to seek unity on all sides."

Following the two lectures, the two speakers responded to each other's presentations and answered questions from the audience. Responding to Fr. Wright, Dr. Lossky said, "Diversity is illegitimate when it is divisive."