Browsing: Governance & Unity Commentary

Source: AMERICA – The National Catholic Review Paul L. Gavrilyuk Russia’s influence seen behind the scenes During the week of June 19, the leaders of the self-governing Orthodox churches worldwide gathered in council on the island of Crete. As the first global Council of the Orthodox Church in more than 1,000 years, this historic event promised to usher in a new era of conciliarity. I had a rare privilege of serving as an external correspondent for the Press Office of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, under the leadership of the Rev. John Chryssavgis. Together with other members of our team, I…

Source: In Communion by NICHOLAS SOOY By now, everyone has left Crete. Everything has been wrapped up. My skin, for its part in this, is a shade darker and a shade redder. The Council has ended. But the conciliar process has not. One of the phrases that is used in the Council documents is “liturgy after the liturgy.” This phrase is meant to capture the manifold ways in which prayer, love, and sacramentality are to shape the whole of life and the cosmos, and not just the experiences we have during liturgical services. After the liturgy each day at the Council,…

Source: Pravoslavie.ru The Patriarchate of Constantinople has no plans to return the “New Territories” in its immediate jurisdiction, as Patriarch Bartholomew stated to Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens during a meeting of the Crete Council, writes Orthodoxia.info. Today the primates and bishops participating in the Council are discussing the draft document on the mechanism for granting a Church’s “autonomy.” The Greek Church had already proposed an amendment to the document. Immediately after the proposal of the amendment, the Patriarch told the Archbishop that, inasmuch as the question of the “New Territories” is the cause of misunderstanding on the part of people…

Source: Union of Orthodox Journalists June 21, the second day of the Orthodox Church Council’s work on Crete, saw discussion of the problem of the Orthodox Church diaspora, reports Romfea. The problem of the Church diaspora will be discussed with great difficulty at the Crete Synaxis due to the absence of the delegations of the Russian and Antiochian Orthodox Churches. Representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church noted during the discussion that in the absence of Local Churches “with great dispersions” it is impossible to make decisions which affect their interests. In his presentation Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, for his part,…

Source: Sputnik News The budget of the council of Eastern Orthodox Churches underway on the Greek island of Crete has amounted to 2.5 million euros (some $2.8 million), including $1.5 million from US donors, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said Tuesday. KOLYMBARI (CRETE) (Sputnik) — According to Father Alexandros, the US funds have come from non-state sources only, and the US government was involved neither in organizing nor in financing the Council. “It is 2.5 million euros. All these are funds from donors, mostly from Greeks living in the United States and Greeks in Greece itself. Donors from the US have provided 1.5 million euros, from Greece — one million,” Reverend…

Source: Pravoslavie.ru In addition to discussing the six documents prepared beforehand at previous conferences, participants at the ongoing council, begun yesterday on the Great Feast of Pentecost on the island of Crete, are also to deliberate over and publish the official “Message” of the council. A draft of the document covers an array of topics including the questions of remarriage and marriage to non-Orthodox, the oneness and unity of the Church in the holy Eucharist, the importance of the Patristic Tradition, and the Church’s vision of conciliarity which places no one bishop over all others, among other matters, according to…

Source: First Things by Andrew Stephen Damick and Samuel Noble In his toast this past Thursday night on the eve of the Holy and Great Council, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the first among equals of the bishops of the Orthodox Church, expressed his sympathy for the Church of Antioch, which is suffering in the face of militant Islam. He decried the intense and intricate problems, which the brother Primates and local Orthodox Churches face on the account of intolerance and religious fanaticism, especially the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch and our beloved Primate, Patriarch John of Antioch. But as His…

Source: Ancient Faith Radio Archpriest Patrick B. O’Grady offers an Antiochian perspective on the “Holy and Great Council” currently taking place in Crete. Fr. Patrick is the pastor of St Peter the Apostle Antiochian Orthodox Church in Pomona, California, and Associate Fellow of The Antiochian Orthodox Institute, La Verne, California. Listen Here (Audio courtesy of Ancient Faith Radio) Transcript Harbinger of Storm or Passage to Calm? by Patrick B. O’Grady, Archpriest The Antiochian Orthodox Institute, La Verne, California “When we had sailed slowly many days, and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, the wind not permitting us to proceed,…

Source: New York Times By ANDREW HIGGINS MOSCOW — After 55 years of preparation, a landmark effort to promote unity among the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians turned into a showcase of disarray on Tuesday after the Russian church, the biggest of 14 Orthodox jurisdictions, announced that it would not take part in a historic conclave of church leaders scheduled to start this weekend. The gathering, known both as the Holy and Great Council and as the Pan-Orthodox Council, is scheduled to begin Sunday on the Greek island of Crete and to run through June 26. It had been under…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity Heavenly king, Comforter, Spirit of truth, Who are present everywhere and fulfilling all things; Treasury of blessings and Source of Life: Come abide in us, Cleanse us of all stain And save our souls, O Good One. The members, friend and boards of Orthodox Christian Laity pray this prayer to the Holy Spirit along with our other prayers for positive results as the Holy and Great Council begins its deliberations with whoever is in attendance.  Be open to the Holy Spirit and work in synergy with the Holy Spirit.  The time to deliberate in a conciliar…

Source: Pravoslavie.ru by Athanasios Zoitakis Athonite monasticism has always stood on guard for the purity of Orthodoxy. Athonites have actively participated in the work of Church councils and came out against the unions of Lyons and Florence. Ecumenical contacts have repeatedly come under criticism from Athonites (letters to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, proclamations, reports of the Holy Kinot), however most Athonite monks throughout the whole history of the Holy Mountain have avoided zealous demonstrations and indiscriminate criticisms of the hierarchy. With filial respect and love and veneration Athonites have expressed their opinions, suggestions, and warnings, even ready, when danger hung over Orthodoxy,…

Source: National Catholic Register NEWS ANALYSIS: Denying Catholics status as “Church” is only one point of controversy for the foundering pan-Orthodox Council. BY VICTOR GAETAN The Holy and Great Council of Orthodox patriarchs, meeting for the first time in 1,139 years, appears to be unraveling. June 19 — Pentecost Sunday for Eastern-Orthodox Christians — is when the Pan-Orthodox Council is scheduled to open at a theological academy on the island of Crete. But on June 1, leadership of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church announced the council should be postponed until numerous unspecified issues are addressed, from guest seating and procedures for…