Thursday, February 13, 2025 at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) was the setting for this year’s annual address. The Figel Address on Ecumenical Dialogue focuses on contemporary issues in ecumenism, and is sponsored by the devoted layman-ecumenist Jack Figel. It also includes the annual Ecumenism Award of the Consortium and an ecumenical prayer service.
This year we welcomed two scholars who will discuss the topic “The Council of Nicaea and Our Common Life of Prayer: Orthodox and Anglican Perspectives.”
View videos of the prayer service, keynote presentations and discussion here.
Rev. Dr. John Behr 
University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Fr. John Behr is the Regius Chair in Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He published the first two volumes of “The Formation of Christian Theology,” The Way to Nicaea (SVS Press 2001) and vol. 2 The Nicene Faith (SVS Press 2003). He also published a synthetic work, The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death (SVS 2006). More recently he published a poetic and meditative work entitled Becoming Human: Theological Anthropology in Word and Image (SVS Press, 2013) and a full study of St. Irenaeus of Lyons (OUP, 2013). He also completed a new critical edition and translation of Origen’s On First Principles (OUP, 2017), and John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (OUP 2019).
Rev. Dr. Katherine Sonderegger
Virginia Theological Seminary
Dr. Sonderegger is a long-time professor at the Virginia Theological Seminary. Her academic career focuses on the dogmatic theology of Karl Barth and constructive work in systematic theology. She has written about Barth’s interpretation of Israel, Jews, and Judaism; his Doctrine of God; his Christology and his exegesis of Scripture. More recently, she has turned to constructive, systematic theology: Volume 1: The Doctrine of God (Fortress Press, 2015) and Volume 2: The Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020). She is currently working on Volume 3: Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the American Theological Society, and the Karl Barth Society.
Rev. Dr. Behr and Rev. Dr. Sonderegger each received the Consortium Ecumenism Award.
Venue:
Virginia Theological Seminary: Addison Academic Center – Lettie Pate Room
3737 Seminary Rd.
Alexandria, VA 22304
Parking available!