As the number of Orthodox Churches attending the Pan Orthodox Council drops, I ponder what is the actual mission of the said council or why is it being a concern to all Orthodox Christians?
The Pan-Orthodox Council, officially referred to as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, is a planned synod of the bishops of all the universally recognised autocephalous local (national) churches of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, to be held in Crete, Greece, in June 2016. The Council, after decades of preparations that had begun in 1961, is being convened to address the problems within the Orthodox Christianity, which have appeared since the beginning of the 20th century, ranging from the relations between the different autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches and the organisation of church life outside of the traditional territories of these Churches to moral and ethical issues. Some of the most contentious issues that have failed to be resolved in advance during the consultations, such as the issue of common calendar and diptychs, have been struck off the original agenda elaborated in 1976. All approved documents of the Council are to be published.
But wait, what are the churches currently not participating and why?
Bulgaria-The Pan-Orthodox Council has been planned as the first such gathering in about 1000 years, but has been beset by controversies – one of the most significant ones being the fact that it is being held in Crete, not in Istanbul, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch. The move was made under Russian pressure because of the tensions between Moscow and Ankara. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, where senior figures are strongly influenced by their Russian Orthodox co-religionist church figures, said that it would not participate if Bulgarian proposals for “thematic and organisational changes” to the planned council were not taken account of and respected.
Antioch-The reasons for their withdrawal is very long but I took one paragraph and this is their main point.
If the Council convenes whilst two Apostolic Churches are not in communion with each other, this means that participation in the synodical sessions is possible without taking part in the Holy Eucharist, which deprives the Council of its ecclesiological character and grants it an administrative quality, contradictory to the steadfast Orthodox synodical tradition.
Serbia-
1. the dissatisfaction and critical remarks of certain local Churches in regard to particular texts, prepared in the pre-Synodal period;
2. the irrevocable decision of the Patriarchates of Antiochia and Bulgaria to refrain from participating in the Synod;
3. The territorial disputes between Jerusalem and Antioch, Serbia and Romania
4. the unwillingness from our Mother Church of Constantinople to have at least one of the proposals of our Church (such as the discussion on autocephaly, right of bishops to vote at the Synod, on regarding the synods from the ninth and fourteenth centuries as ecumenical already, in the consciousness and practice of the Orthodox Church, and some others, perhaps less significant) included into the thematic agenda of the Synod, and, as long as we remain obligated by the standpoints of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of our Church, officially formulated two years ago.
Russia-"He was to be in Crete these days, but under the circumstances when Churches are one after another refusing to attend the Pan-Orthodox Council, there isn’t much point to us taking part in work to draft the message from just several Churches," the source said.
Regardless of it will happen or not, I hope no further schism will occur but the solutions to the problems that Orthodox Christianity is facing now. We are Orthodox Christians, we are not to be divided by just small disputes. We drink on the same cup and we stood firm to the Seven Ecumenical Councils.
Gospode Pomiluj +++
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