HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL DOCUMENT

Draft Synodical Document

Σάββατο 23 Απριλίου 2016

История подготовки Всеправославного собора - HISTORY OF THE PREPARATION OF THE PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL



By Andrey Gusev, 
История подготовки Всеправославного собора - HISTORY OF THE PREPARATION OF THE PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL
History of the Preparations of the Pan-Orthodox Council
Andrey Gusev
— St Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute for
Postgraduate Studies of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow).
andrej.v.gusev@gmail.com


The present article addresses the history of the preparations of the
Pan‑Orthodox Council since 1923, when the Pan‑Orthodox Conference  was held in Istanbul, until January 2016, when the Synaxis of the  Primates was held in Chambésy, Switzerland. This article describes distinctive features and main events of the pre‑conciliar process at its dierent stages as well as retraces the formation of the Council’s agenda and the evolution of its preparatory procedure. The article  demonstrates that relations between the local churches, especially those of the Ecumenical and Moscow Patriarchates, have aected  the character and intensity of the pre‑conciliar process. The author concludes that the preparatory methodology developed in the second  half of the 20th  century became inecient in the early 21st century. The reconsideration of the accepted procedure made it possible for the churches to agree upon convening the Council in 2016. Yet we  can presume that another Council will be necessary to consider a few items removed from the agenda of the upcoming Council.
Keywords:
Pan-Orthodox Council, Holy and Great Council of the
Orthodox Church, history of the pre-conciliar process, inter-Orthodox relations, Patriarchate of Constantinople, Moscow Patriarchate.