The 30th meeting of the general secretaries of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) will be held in Istanbul in Turkey from 13 to 17 June. “In Turkey says a communiqué put out by the CCEE , a country with an Islamic majority that is knocking at the doors of Europe, the main issues on the agenda will be: the relation between Christianity and Islam in Europe, tackled both by a Moslem, Bekir Karliga, and by a Christian, Xavier Jacob; the contribution of the Churches to the work of the EU Convention, presented by Noel Treanor, general secretary of COMECE (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Union), and the question of the enlargement of the EU, introduced by the delegate of Poland. Other themes on the agenda are ecumenism and the Charta Oecumenica; some ethical problems especially topical in our time and the forms of collaboration between the episcopal conferences”. On Friday 14 June the general secretaries will be received by ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, while on Sunday 16 June they will be guests of the Armenian patriarch Mesrop II Mutafyan and later of the Syrian Orthodox patriarchal vicar Yusuf Cetin. The meeting of the spokespersons of the CCEE will be held simultaneously at Ljubjana (Slovenia).
