Vera La Mela 

Vera La Mela is a PhD student in Global Christianity and Interreligious Relations at Lund University (Sweden). Her main subjects are systematic and ecumenical theology with a focus on ecumenical ecclesiology and the theology of the laity. In her dissertation, she studies the notion of unity in the early work of Chiara Lubich, the founder of the ecumenically oriented Focolare Movement. Vera holds an M.A. from the University of Helsinki (Finland) and has studied linguistics and literature also at the Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France) and Università degli Studi di Pisa (Italy). She began her doctoral studies in ecumenics at the Faculty of Theology in Helsinki and from 2019 she is based in Lund.

Nikolaos Amanatidis 

Nikolaos Amanatidis (born 1994 in Thessaloniki/ Greece) is a PhD Student at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He studied orthodox Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and at the University of Munich. After his B.A. (2016) he studied two Semesters at the Faculty of Theology and the Ecumenical Institute at the University of Heidelberg Biblical Hermeneutics and Ecumenical Theology. In May 2017 he was a participant of the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) in Berlin. His dissertation focuses on “The motive of knowledge in the early Paul’s school” where next to the historical-critical and rhetorical issues of the Texts he examines the reception of the motive in the exegetical Work of the eastern Church Fathers (2nd-4th century). A further interest in his Research is the Role of the orthodox hermeneutics in the Ecumenical Theology and the interpretation of the Biblical Text through the liturgy of the eastern orthodox Church.

Anna Viktoria Knorreck

Anna Viktoria Knorreck is a PhD student in Catholic Theology at the University of Tübingen (Germany). She works on systematic-theological, ecumenical and interreligious topics. In her dissertation project, she is particularly interested in parish ecumenism in practice, which she is looking at with ethnographic research in order to obtain new impulses and approaches for ecumenical discourse. Anna spent her Magister studies of Catholic theology at the University of Tübingen and at the Institut Catholique de Paris and now works as a research and teaching assistant at the Institute for Ecumenical and Interreligious Research in Tübingen. Her doctorate is supported by a scholarship from the Cusanuswerk (Episcopal Study Support in Germany). 

Sijo George

Sijo George is a PhD student in Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Vienna, Austria. His main research area is Syriac liturgy with special reference to the St. James Liturgy. His scholarly interests include Indian church history and ecumenism. He attained an MA in Syriac Theology from the University of Salzburg and also MA in Ecumenical Studies from the University of Geneva (Bossey Ecumenical Institute). He was a student participant of the Asian Ecumenical Institute organized by the Christian Conference of Asia in 2020. His current doctoral project is a study of the liturgical renewal that developed from the 19th century Reformation movement in the Malankara Church. In August 2022, he participated in GETI along with the World Council of Churches General Assembly held in Karlsruhe, Germany, where he served as a Co-Facilitator for the Home Group of the Assembly. Additionally, he served as an intern at the Faith and Order Commission at the Ecumenical Centre of the WCC.  In 2019, he was a delegate to the Pro Oriente Colloquium Syriacum in Vienna. He is interested in the study of Syriac manuscripts, especially from India, and he received additional Syriac language and manuscript training at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota in July 2022.