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The Academy for Theological Studies recently completed a successful series of events in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in collaboration with local organizations (the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca), the Romanian Institute for Inter-Orthodox, Inter-Christian, and Interreligious Studies (INTER), and the publishing house EIKON).

    On the first day, Monday, November 1, 2010, in the main auditorium of the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai, in the city of Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, the coordinator of the Academy for Theological Studies, Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, gave a lecture on the occasion of the release of the Romanian translation of his book Orthodoxy and Modernity: An Introduction (Ortodoxie şi Modernitate. O introducere, Collection: Universitas, Series: Theologia Socialis, Publisher: Eikon, Cluj-Napoca, 2010).

    The event began with a few words from the dean of the school, Fr. Ioan Chirilă, who welcomed Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis and spoke warmly about the work of the Academy for Theological Studies. He also expressed hope that further academic exchanges would continue to develop between the Academy for Theological Studies of the Holy Metropolis of Demetrias and the Orthodox Theological School of the city of Cluj-Napoca. The director of publications for EIKON, Mr. Vasilie George Dancu, spoke next about the book's importance and about its inclusion in the publishing house's series Theologia Socialis. He was followed by Dr. Radu Preda, an Associate Professor at the School and Director of the Romanian Institute for Inter-Orthodox, Inter-Christian, and Interreligious Studies (INTER), at whose initiative the book was translated into Romanian. In his talk, he underlined the book's timeliness and the challenges that it poses for the Romanian Orthodox theological and ecclesiastical arena. He also praised the work of the Academy for Theological Studies, which he believes is crucially important for the entire Orthodox world. Finally, the book's translator, Florin-Cătălin Ghiţ, gave a brief biographical overview of the author and noted the timely and, at the same, eschatological character of Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis's theology.

    In the lecture that followed, the Coordinator of the Academy for Theological Studies, Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, asked whether Orthodoxy stopped before modernity, and whether Christian theology only works in traditional environments, borrowing the forms of rural society, which are connected with the liturgical and theological symbolism, the rhetorical model of preaching, the structures of church administration, and particularly the entrenched beliefs about the relationship between the sacred and the secular, religion and politics, and the church and society. Has Orthodoxy accepted the effects of modernity in the religious, social, and political spheres, or do the Orthodox feel a nostalgia for pre-modern forms of organization and the structures of a glorified past, following in this way the imported fundamentalist argument that post-modernity is the "revanche" of church and religion? Finally, he emphasized that modernity and post-modernity constitute the broader historical, social, and cultural context in which Church is called to accomplish its mission and to incarnate the Christian truth about God, the world, and the human person again and again.

      The talks were followed by a very interesting discussion with the teachers and students of the Orthodox Theological School of Cluj-Napoca. The event concluded with Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis signing copies of the Romanian translation of his book Orthodoxy and Modernity: An Introduction.

   On the second day, Tuesday, November 2, 2010, at 10:00 am, the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca), in collaboration with the same university's Center for Bioethics and the Academy for Theological Studies, held the event "Stem Cell Research: Ethical and Theological Reflections." The Coordinator of the Academy for Theological Studies, Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, gave the welcoming address, which was attended by the graduate students of the Bioethics Program of the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca). The keynote speaker was Dr. Nikos Dimitriadis, an associate of the Academy for Theological Studies, who presented the work of the international conference on "Research on Stem Cells in the Service of Human Life? Ethical and Theological Reflections," which took place in Volos last year (2009), November 9-11. The conference was organized by the "Faith, Science, Technology and Ethics" Program of the World Council of Churches (Geneva) and the Academy for Theological Studies of Volos.

    In his talk, Dr. Dimitriadis presented the objectives of the conference in Volos, which dealt with past, present, and future engagements with bioethics, namely research on stem cells. The main purpose of such conferences is to exchange views and deepen the level of ethical reflection, which often varies in different religious traditions. The conference emphasized the fundamental theological-ethical principles vis-a-vis genetic technologies, which aim to encourage churches to participate actively in similar questions facing humanity. In the roundtable discussion that followed, Fr. Stefan Iloaie, Associate Professor at the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca) and manager of the Center for Bioethics, took the floor and gave a summary of the talk in Romanian. Then Fr. Ioan Chirila, Professor of Old Testament, Dean of the Orthodox Theological School of the same university, and director of the Center for Bioethics, stressed the importance of such meetings, particularly the theological aspect of the issue, as presented in the section of the speech entitled "A Theology of Life." Next, Dr. Radu Preda, Associate Professor at the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca) and director of INTER, posed a series of theological questions on the issue of stem cell research and developed a fruitful dialogue among the participants, from whom sprang new questions and ethical considerations relevant to the topic.

      One of the fruits of this workshop was the expression of interest in future cooperation with the Center for Bioethics of the Orthodox Theological School of the University of Βαβεş-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca), which is well organized, has taken important steps to promote the field of bioethics, and most importantly, continues to develop.