Source: DECR Communicatioin Service
February 2, 2016
The participants in the Synaxis of Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches which completed its work in Chambésy a few days ago managed to finalize and unanimously adopt the text of a draft decision of the Pan-Orthodox Council on the Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, who had taken part in the meeting in Chambésy, spoke about this document to the participants in the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church which is being held in the Hall of Church Councils in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Long discussion and even difficult debates at pre-conciliar meetings preceded the adoption of the document. It was repeatedly examined both by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church and the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission.
“It is no surprise that the work on this document was so intensive and time-consuming; it is in this very document that the Orthodox Church expresses her concerted attitude to those difficult and rather alarming processes that are going on in the social, political and moral sphere of society today,” His Holiness said, reminding those present that the document neither gives preference to certain existing political concepts nor establishes superiority of one model of economy over another. According to this document, “in carrying out her salutary mission, the Church again reminds the world that almost all challenges and problems of modern society are caused by the fact that people are forgetting God’s law, loosening moral guidelines, and having distorted views on human freedom, dignity and justice.”
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill believes that it is the key document on the agenda of the Holy and Great Council. As he noted, the Russian Orthodox Church made a considerable contribution to drafting the document, as many of the social issues raised in it were already addressed in the “Basis of the Social Concept” and her other important documents.
