It was founded in June 2005 by the Andrei Saguna Faculty of Orthodox Theology together with the Department for Protestant Theology. THE INSTITUTE FOR ECUMENICAL RESEARCH OF SIBIU (IERS)
Institut für Ökumenische Forschung Hermannstadt (IÖFH)
History and Structure
The Institute for Ecumenical Research of Sibiu is an establishment of Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. The aim of the institute is to promote the ecumenical dialogue and to support relevant ecumenical studies. Through publications and translations the institute contributes to the reception of the international ecumenical dialogues in Romania. The institute is headed by one member of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology and one member of the Department for Protestant Theology. The daily activities are coordinated and performed by the Scientific Secretariat where permanent employees, doctoral students and volunteers work together. IERS has four research areas: Ecumenical Dialogue, Church History, Religion and Society, Interreligious Dialogue. IERS co-operates with various foreign partners, especially with the Faculty of Evangelical Theology in Tübingen. Publications
IERS has started publishing a series of translations called Documenta Oecumenica. The first part of this series includes the collection of the documents of the ecumenical dialogue between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany. is published on the ocassion of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu. The Library
The Library of the IERS has aproximately 3000 books in German, English, Romanian, French and Italian language and the available titles are included in the electronic catalogue of the University Library. Research
IERS supervises and supports financially doctoral students in the field of ecumenism. Between 2006-2007 two 3-year PhD scholarships in ecumenical research were awarded. In June 2007 the project “The Human Dignity and the Poverty in Romania” was initiated. InfoEcum
InfoEcum is the name of an online documentation project on ecumenism in Romania. The idea and the implementation belong to IERS, but the project was designed as a service for all the ecumenical initiatives in Romania. Our website www.ecum.ro informs on ecumenical organizations and research centres, actual events, theological conferences, research programmes, etc. The website provides the interested peope with a collection of important ecumenical documents that can be downloaded and with a list of the most recent publications in the field. Courses for students
This dialogue has also been applied through semestrial courses for students on the following topics: The dialogue between Constantinopole and Tübingen (1573-1581), The Catholicity of Church, An Introduction to the Orthodox Spirituality, the International Lutheran-Orthodox Dialogue. Support
In each area of our activity we depend on the project-related funding. If you are interested in financially supporting our institute, please contact us.
