25 years after the "Declaration of Balamand" (1993) a conference on "The Reception of the Balamand Declaration (1993-2018) and Currant Relations between the Orthodox and Oriental Churches and their Catholic Sister Churches" took place at the Catholic University of Leuven. At the conference Prof. Barbara Hallensleben gave a lecture on "The Theology of Sister Churches and its Impact on Roman Catholic Ecclesiology in the Decades after Balamand till today".

In Balamand, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church agreed on a document entitled "Uniatism, method of union of the past, and the present search for full communion". The topic interrupted the course of the dialogue at that time in order to alleviate the tensions that had arisen between Orthodox/Oriental Churches and Catholic Churches in various Eastern European countries after the fall of the communist regimes. The hoped-for consensual reception of the document failed to take place. The conference is looking for a way into the future that is capable of consensus, in the midst of new tensions.

Link to the programme of the Conference ...