Source: Press Office of the Holy and Great Council CRETE—The official texts of the opening speeches and adresses for the Holy and Great Council are available at https://www.holycouncil.org/documents in their original languages. Translations will be posted as they become available. More than 320 journalists, representing 138 media outlets and 25 countries, have received credentials for the Council. Daily media briefings are broadcast live at approximately 15.30 GMT +3 (8:30 am EDT) at https://www.holycouncil.org/live, and available as video on demand. The Council continues meeting through June 25, concluding with the Divine Liturgy on June 26. On June 25, the Closing Session of…
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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: Press Office of the Holy and Great Council CRETE—On the second day of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, the Divine Liturgy was held at the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of Gonia, with His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem presiding from the throne. Afterward, the Hierarchs continued their work in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sessions of the Council. The Third Session of the Council continued the discussion on The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World, while the Fourth and Fifth Sessions focused on The Orthodox Diaspora. Following extensive discussion, various suggestions and…
Source: Press Office of the Holy and Great Council His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew offered a toast on behalf of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Autocephalous Churches, at a luncheon hosted in their honor by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos. His All-Holiness thanked the beloved Greek people for their prayerful presence and support of the work of the Holy and Great Council, promising that Orthodoxy shall fulfill her historic duty and responsibility. His All-Holiness added that “Orthodoxy constitutes a real and permanent place of peaceful coexistence and stability in the modern – torn – world, a true source of peace for all the peoples. The word of the…
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: Press Office of the Holy and Great Council CRETE—After more than 60 years of planning, the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church convened its opening session on the island of Crete on Monday, June 20, on the Feast of the Holy Spirit. After the celebration of the Divine Liturgy at the nearby Monastery of Gonia, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew formally opened the proceedings of the Council. With one voice and one heart, the Hierarchs of the Council chanted the hymn of Pentecost, invoking the descent of the Holy Spirit to transform their work for the benefit…
Source: Press Office of the Holy and Great Council We would like to inform you that all texts and homilies, related to the Holy and Great Council, will be from now on available at the following link: https://media.holycouncil.org/texts.
Source: Press Office of the Holy and Great Council His Beatitude Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodoros, celebrated the Divine Liturgy on 18 June at the Holy Cathedral of the Annunciation in Kissamos. His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and other Primates of the Orthodox Church attended the service in prayer. Today, Saturday of the Souls, the Orthodox Church commemorates the souls of the departed, offering special prayers for all those, now departed, who worked for the realization of the Holy and Great Council. The Greek government was represented by Panagiotis Kouroumblis, minister of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction, and Ioannis…
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: The National Herald By Associated Press Orthodox Christian leaders meeting for a historic council aimed at promoting unity have made a last-minute appeal to the Russian Orthodox Church and three others to attend the first such gathering in more than a millennium. A spokesman for Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I says the leaders of 10 out of the 14 Orthodox churches that were supposed to convene on the Greek island of Crete will seek to resolve the issues that made the four churches decide not to attend. Rev. John Chryssavgis says the church leaders met on Friday and would…
Source: Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has sent a message to the Primates and representative of Local Orthodox Churches who have assembled in the Island of Crete. Below is the full text of the message. To His Holiness Bartholomew Archbishop of Constantinople – the New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To their Holinesses and Beatitudes the Primates of Holy Churches of God To archpastors, pastors, monastics and laity who have assembled on the Island of Crete Your Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, Your Holinesses and Beatitudes, The Most Reverend Fellow-Archpastors, The…