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Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office
- Ἡ ἀποστολή τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Ἐκκλησίας ἐν τῷ συγχρόνῳ κόσμω
- Η Ορθοδοξος Διασπορα
- Το Αυτονομον Και Ο Τροπος Ανακηρυξεως Αυτου
- Το Μυστηριον Του Γαμου Και Τα Κωλυματα Αυτου
- Η Σπουδαιοτης Της Νηστειας Και Η Τηρησις Αυτης Σημερον
- Σχεσεις Της Ορθοδοξου Εκκλησιας Προς Τον Λοιπον Χριστιανικον Κοσμον
GENERAL SUMMARY
The Convening of the Holy and Great
Council of worldwide Orthodox Christianity – the first in over one
thousand years, is a sign of hope and reassurance for not only Orthodox
Christians, but for all people of faith around the globe. The remarkable
and relentless pursuit of this Spirit-filled event is a signature
characteristic of the life, mission and leadership of His All-Holiness
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. In convening the Great and Holy
Council this June, during the holy celebrations of Pentecost, His
All-Holiness is bringing to fulfillment the vision of his two
predecessors, Athenagoras and Demetrios, both of blessed memory.
But more than the completion of a more
than fifty-year dream, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has transformed
the process beyond the mere structural process of the last fifty years,
by adapting to the radically changed reality of Orthodoxy in the 21st Century.
When the road to the Holy and Great
Council was embarked upon, World War II was only fifteen years in the
past, the atheist Soviet Union controlled the lives of most Orthodox
Christians and the church institutions that struggled to minister to
them, and the world was deep into the winter of the Cold War. Orthodox
Christianity in the Diaspora was profoundly segmented, if not outrightly
fragmented. The Ecumenical Patriarchate had – only five years before –
suffered a massive and systematic persecution in Constantinople,
displacing hundreds of thousands of its communicants. Mount Athos was
turning one thousand years old, and though life on the Holy Mountain had
scarcely changed over the centuries, the world at-large was bracing to
change at a pace unknown in history.
The need for dialogue, thinking
together, interconnection, and new perspectives was everywhere. At the
same time the Orthodox were commencing a process that is now taking
place on the Island of Crete (a sacred topos of Apostolic
visitation!), Pope John XXIII was convening the Second Vatican Council, a
council that would radically push the Roman Catholic Church – in many
ways quite unprepared – into the latter half of the 20th
Century. Although the process has been much slower for the Orthodox
Church to convene such a similar process, in retrospect we can see that
the deliberate and slower pace has been more of an advantage, rather
than the reverse.
Nearly half of the time that it has
taken to finally arrive at the Holy and Great Council has occurred under
the patriarchy of His All-Holiness Bartholomew, which coincided with
the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the resurgence of the
Moscow Patriarchate under the autocracy that currently governs the
Russian Federation. As the national aspirations of the Ukrainian,
Estonian, Czech, and Slovak peoples have created conditions for national
and autocephalous or autonomous Churches, it has been Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew who from a position of only spiritual
strength, has steered the Ark of Salvation through the dangerous shoals
of self-interest and power-seeking. From the Phanar, despite and perhaps
because of the difficulties as a religious and ethnic minority that
continue unabated, His All-Holiness seeks only the benefit of all
the local (autocephalous) Churches, putting the good of all above the
ephemeral desires of any one. This has manifested as the kind of
leadership that leaves a legacy of unity and conciliarity in its wake,
even as the naysayers and gainsayers give rise to fear and even
paranoia.
The significance of this Holy and Great
Council cannot be overstated. The fact that all the Autocephalous
Churches have agreed to meet, to dialogue, to exchange view and position
– this in itself is an accomplishment of historic proportions. There
are those who would contradict the former statement, but let us
remember, that this has not happened in centuries, and for Orthodoxy,
there have been no serious doctrinal disputes in over six hundred years,
since the Hesychast controversies of the 14th Century.
Inasmuch as Orthodoxy is based in model
of conciliarity under the aegis of the Holy Spirit, Hierarchy must be as
much horizontal in its orientation as it is vertical, with consensus
and unanimity forming the core of the process of adaptation. This is
precisely why the Holy and Great Council is so necessary and so timely.
As long as the local, autocephalous Churches are only speaking among
themselves, each Church’s local culture, economy, language, and local
traditions will limit its scope and perspective on is own mission. The
Bishops must be in dialogue with one another in order to see the world
from a differing perspective and consider the needs of their flocks from
the holistic sense of the whole Body of the Church, whose Head is
Christ.
The six preparatory documents: Autonomy,
Diaspora, Ecumenical Relations, Fasting, Marriage, and Mission, address
contemporary concerns of all the faithful. In doing so, the Bishops of
the Church, under the guiding hand of His All-Holiness Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew, are demonstrating the living, breathing vibrancy
of the Spirit of God, that infuses the Church to be the living Body of
Christ.
SUMMARY OF INDIVIDUAL DECISIONS
Autonomy
The Council will address the institution
of Autonomy, which is a canonical status of relative or partial
independence of an ecclesiastical segment from the canonical
jurisdiction of the Autocephalous Church to which it belongs. The
initiation and completion of the process for granting Autonomy is the
canonical prerogative of the Autocephalous Church, which governs the
area considering autonomy that must be within the boundaries of its own
canonical geographical region. Note that Autonomous Churches cannot be
established in the area of the Orthodox Diaspora, except by a
pan-Orthodox consensus, secured by the Ecumenical Patriarch in
accordance with prevailing pan-Orthodox practice. Currently, there are
six Autonomous Churches: The Church of Crete, the Church of Finland, and
the Church of Estonia under the Ecumenical Patriarchate; The Church of
Sinai under the Jerusalem Patriarchate; and the Church of Japan and the
Church of Ukraine under Moscow Patriarchate.
Diaspora
All of the most holy Orthodox Churches
desire to resolve the problem of overlapping jurisdictions within the
Orthodox Diaspora as swiftly as possible. Furthermore, the common will
is to organize the Diaspora in accordance with Orthodox ecclesiology, as
well as the canonical tradition and practice of the Orthodox Church. In
the present circumstances, an immediate transition to the strictly
canonical order of the Church – namely, the existence of only one bishop
in the same place – is unachievable for well known historical and
pastoral reasons. In order to address this, the Churches decided to
create a transitional situation, namely Assemblies of Bishops in various
regions, that will prepare the ground for a strictly canonical
resolution of the problem. Each Assembly is charged to prepare a plan to
present to the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, in order
that the latter might proceed to a canonical solution of the problem.
Ecumenical Relations
The Orthodox Church, as the One, Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic Church, firmly believes that it has a central
place in the matter of promoting unity among Christians in the modern
world. The Orthodox Church has always cultivated dialogue with those
estranged from it, both far and near. It has even pioneered to restore
unity among those who believe in Christ, and participated in the
Ecumenical Movement since its inception, contributing to its formation
and further development. While participating in ecumenical relations,
the Church never sacrifices Her principles, and the positions She does
take all have as their end the ultimate restoration of unity in true
faith and love, the final goal of the process of all theological
dialogues.
Fasting
Like a nurturing mother, the Orthodox
Church has defined what is beneficial for salvation and established the
holy periods of fasting as divinely-given “protection” for believers’
new life in Christ. In Her pastoral discernment, the Church has also
established boundaries of philanthropic dispensation for the institution
of fasting. This is why, in cases of physical infirmity or extreme
necessity as well as of difficult circumstances, it has preordained an
appropriate application of the principle of ecclesiastical dispensation,
in accordance with the responsible judgment and pastoral care of the
body of bishops in the local Churches. It is left to the discretion of
the local Orthodox Churches to determine how to exercise philanthropic
dispensation and clemency, relieving in these special cases any “burden”
of the holy fasts. All this should occur within the aforementioned
context and with the objective of not at all diminishing the sacred
institution of fasting.
Marriage
The Orthodox Church proclaims the
sacredness of marriage as a fundamental and indisputable teaching of the
Church. Defending the sacredness of the mystery of marriage has always
been especially important for the preservation of the Family, which
radiates the communion of the persons yoked together both in the Church
and in Society at large. Those members of the Church who contract a civil marriage must
be approached with pastoral responsibility, which is mandatory in order
for them to understand the value of the sacrament of marriage and the
many blessings that result. The Church does not recognize same-sex
unions or any other form of cohabitation for its members other than
marriage. The impediments for marriage follow the canonical norms of the
Church throughout history, with some allowance made for pastoral
reasons.
Mission
The Church, drawing from the foretaste
of the Heavenly Kingdom and the principles embodied in the entire
experience of the patristic, liturgical, and ascetical tradition shares
the concern and the anxiety of contemporary humanity with regard to
fundamental existential questions that affect the world today, in its
desire to contribute to these issues so that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding (Phil
4:7), reconciliation, and love may prevail in the world. As such, the
Church is concerned with the dignity of the human person, the limits and
implications of human freedom and responsibility, the nature of true
peace, the cessation of war and violence, and social, political and
economic justice. In service to the human family, the mission of the
Church encompasses the full breadth of the human experience, ministering
where necessary to the needs of each.
