Lettres pastorales et communication dans l’Église orthodoxe de France

Abstract

This paper proposes a discursive analysis of some examples of communication within the Orthodox Church of France, between the episcopal hierarchy and the faithful. Referred to in this work as topdown hierarchical ecclesiastical communication, it is expressed in particular in the form of pastoral letters sent by the hierarchical authorities to the Christian Orthodox communities for which they have pastoral responsibility, on the occasion of major feasts. Our analysis will focus on the specific case of French Orthodoxy and these forms of ecclesiastical communication. By ecclesiastical communication we mean communication of a particular type, manifested within the Church, between members of the Church. Several pastoral letters from Metropolitan Joseph of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Western and Southern Europe and Metropolitan Jean of the Archdiocese of the Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, and from Bishops Germain de Saint-Denis and Benoît de Pau of the Orthodox Catholic Church in France, will be analysed from a theological discursive point of view

Keywords

• ecclesiastical communication
• orthodoxy
• discursive analysis
• pastoral letters
• doctrinal unity