“An appeal to the solidarity of the West with the East and with the world as a whole”: that, in the intentions of its organizers, is the aim of the 19th Congress of IOSOT, the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, which is due to be held in Slovenia in 2007. The occasion for this “important meeting”, explains the spokesman of the Slovene bishops (SBC), Monsignor Andrei Saje, “is the proclamation of 2007 as the Year of Holy Scripture for the whole country, by the SBC and the Council of Christian Churches in Slovenia”. It will be the Slovenian capital Ljubljana that will host the congress on Old Testament studies from 12 to 20 July 2007 (http://www.iosot2007.si/temp/). Slovenia will be the first country of the new EU member states to host this congress, in which many of the most eminent biblical scholars of the Orthodox world will be participating for the first time. “It is just the participation of the Orthodox in the congress explains the spokesman that will have a great significance from an ecumenical viewpoint in bringing the two Churches closer together”. IOSOT is an international interconfessional organization within which Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and now (with the congress in 2007) also Orthodox biblical scholars work amicably together.
