Russian Orthodox Church Synod rejects pan-Orthodox status of Crete Council

Source: Interfax-Religion

Moscow, July 15, 2016

    

The Council which took place in Crete on June 20-25 cannot be regarded as pan-Orthodox, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in Moscow on Friday.

"The Holy Synod determined that the Council, which took place in Crete, cannot be regarded as pan-Orthodox, and the documents it approved as expressing a pan-Orthodox consensus," said the head of the Synodal Department for Church, Society and Media Relations Vladimir Legoyda, commenting on the results of a Synod meeting.

The meeting attendees acknowledged that the Council, which was attended by abbots and hierarchs from ten out of the 15 Orthodox Churches "was an important event in the history of the Orthodox Church council process," Legoyda said.

At the same time, consensus has always been the underlying principle of the pan-Orthodox cooperation throughout this process, whereas conducting a Council in the absence of assent from a number of Orthodox Churches violates that principle, the Synod said.

It was decided that the documents, which were discussed by the Council in Crete, should be handed over to the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission, which will study them and present its conclusions with the Synod.

Bulgarian, Antiochian, Georgian, Serbian and Russian Churches called for postponing the Council in order to settle the disagreements and finalize its draft documents. However, the Constantinople Patriarchate has rejected the initiative and insisted on it be held within the set timeframe. As a result, the Churches, who represent the minority of the episcopate, clergy and believers of the Orthodox world, participated in the forum.

If the Council in the current situation still goes ahead, "it will not be pan-Orthodox in nature and will have no authority," head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, told Interfax-Religion at the time.

The attendees discussed six topics: the Orthodox Church's relations with the rest of the Christian world, fasting, marriage, the church's mission in modern world, ministering to the needs of Orthodox diaspora communities, and ways of proclaiming the autonomy of Orthodox Churches. They also approved a message.

7/15/2016

See also
Russian Church insists on postponing the Pan-Orthodox Council Russian Church insists on postponing the Pan-Orthodox Council Russian Church insists on postponing the Pan-Orthodox Council Russian Church insists on postponing the Pan-Orthodox Council
The Moscow Patriarchate has refused to participate in the Pan-Orthodox Council, which is scheduled to take place June 16-27 on Crete.
Russian Orthodox Church won't take part in work on Pan-Orthodox Council message — source Russian Orthodox Church won't take part in work on Pan-Orthodox Council message — source Russian Orthodox Church won't take part in work on Pan-Orthodox Council message — source Russian Orthodox Church won't take part in work on Pan-Orthodox Council message — source
The Russian Orthodox Church's representative will not take part in the drafting of the message of the Pan-Orthodox Council, which should be ready one week before the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church is convened, a source from the Russian Orthodox Church told TASS on Friday.
ROCOR HOLY SYNOD on Pan-Orthodox Council Texts ROCOR HOLY SYNOD on Pan-Orthodox Council Texts
Communication of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to the Clerics and Faithful—13 April 2016.
ROCOR HOLY SYNOD on Pan-Orthodox Council Texts ROCOR HOLY SYNOD on Pan-Orthodox Council Texts
Communication of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to the Clerics and Faithful—13 April 2016.
The process of addressing the pastoral needs of any given age is one which requires both tremendous prayer and ascetical devotion from all Christians, but also the dedicated, deliberate work to ensure, in any document the Church may put forward, the faithfulness to the Gospel we have inherited. All such texts, now as throughout history, go through many stages of preparation and revision; and the fact that we, together with others, have identified serious problems with some of the documents pending consideration by the forthcoming Council should be a cause for neither fear nor anxiety. The Holy Spirit Who always guides the Church in love, is not far from us today; and the Church is not in our times, nor has she ever been, without the active headship of her True Head, Christ our God, Whom we trust with full faith will guide His Body in all truth.
Comments
Ronald4/4/2019 2:43 pm
Obviously the PanOrthodox Council contained within it a Trojan. Horse designated by liberals and modernists within the Church and most specially in the EP to introduce heresy into the Church Its time the Church recognize that the EP has a Papist agenda, its indeed high time that the EP and the liberal modernists be made to yield
Daniel8/6/2016 2:35 am
Glory to God ! Be pravolsavnics until the end ! May God bless Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Georgia and Antiochia !
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