Pan-Orthodox Council

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The Pan-Orthodox Council, officially referred to as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church,[1] 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.[2] All approved documents of the Council are to be published.

In March 2014, the Primates of local Orthodox Churches convened in Fener, the residence of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and reached a decision: ″The Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church will be convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople in 2016, unless something unexpected occurs.″[1][3]

In January 2016, at the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Synaxis of Primates of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches was held at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland.[4] The Primates of the local Orthodox Churches and three official delegations representing the Church of Antioch, the Church of Greece, and the Church of Poland, convened to finalise the texts for the Holy and Great Council.[4] Due to the heightened tensions between Russia and Turkey, a decision was reached to hold the Council in Greece.[5][6]

The items officially approved at the 2016 Synaxis for referral to and adoption by the Holy and Great Council are:[7][8]

  • The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World;
  • The Orthodox Diaspora;
  • Autonomy and the Means by Which it is Proclaimed;
  • The Sacrament of Marriage and its Impediments;
  • The Importance of Fasting and Its Observance Today;
  • Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.

Council Participants and Delegations

Church of Constantinople

Church of Alexandria

Church of Antioch

Church of Jerusalem

Church of Russia
At the meeting of the Holy Synod on April 16, 2016 a preliminary discussion was held on the composition of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Pan-Orthodox Council.[9] On May 4 the list of participants was published after additional approval by all the members of the Holy Synod.[10]

  • His Beatitude Onufriy (Berezovsky), Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine.
  • Metropolitan Juvenal (Poyarkov) of Krutitsy and Kolomna.
  • Metropolitan Vladimir (Cantarean) of Kishinev and All Moldavia.
  • Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, head of the Metropolitan Region in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
  • Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asia Metropolitan Region.
  • Metropolitan Varsonofy of St Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate.
  • Metropolitan Paul (Ponomaryov) of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus.
  • Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations.
  • Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail.
  • Metropolitan Alexander of Riga and All Latvia.
  • Metropolitan Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk.
  • Metropolitan Sergiy of Ternopol and Kremenets.
  • Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye.
  • Metropolitan Merkury of Rostov and Novocherkassk.
  • Metropolitan Mitrofan of Lugansk and Alchevsk, chairman of the Ukrainian Orthodox CHURCH department for external church relations.
  • Metropolitan Georgiy of Niznniy Novrogod and Arzamas.
  • Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
  • Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin-Germany and Great Britain.
  • Archbishop Innokenty of Vilna and Lithuania.
  • Archbishop Guriy of Novogrudok and Slonim.
  • Archbishop Seraphim of Sendai.
  • Archbishop Ioann of Magadan and Sinegorye.
  • Archbishop Lazar of Narva and Prichudje.
  • Bishop Anthony of Bogorodsk.

Church of Serbia

Church of Romania

Church of Bulgaria

Church of Georgia

Church of Cyprus

Church of Greece
A Greek media report of May 24, 2016 stated that at least a dozen bishops who had been appointed[11] to participate in the Holy and Great Council said that they refused to attend. The specific prelates were replaced by other metropolitans at an urgently convened summit of the hierarchy of the Church of Greece.[12]

Church of Poland

Church of Albania

Church of Czech Lands and Slovakia

References

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External links

In Greek

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