Τμήμα Εξωτερικών και Εκκλησιαστικών Υποθέσεων Πατριαρχείου Ρωσίας
Informing the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on the
progress of preparations for the Pan-Orthodox Council, His Holiness
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia mentioned in particular the
Council’s draft documents on the Sacrament of Marriage and Its
Impediments.
This draft document, among others, was essentially revised
by the Synaxis of the Primates of Local Orthodox Churches which took
place in January 2016.
Previously it was entitled as ‘On Impediments to Marriage’, which
fully reflected its content. Drafted as far back as the 80s, it really
was no more than a bare list of the degrees of consanguinity and
circumstances in which marriage was not permitted by canons. ‘Our Church
has repeatedly called to actualize this text by setting forth the
church teaching on marriage as the union of man and woman and responding
to the challenges which threaten the institution of the family in the
modern world’, His Holiness stressed.
He indicated that the meeting of the Special Inter-Orthodox Commission and the 5th
Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference took these proposals into account
only partially. However, for the most participants in the recent Synaxis
of the Primates, it became clear that this document needed further
revision. ‘As a result, the text was considerably supplemented and
improved, which made it possible for us to sign it’, the Patriarch
stated.
Nevertheless, the draft document did not suit all the Local Orthodox
Churches, and Patriarchates of Antioch and Georgia refused to sign it.
The further fate of this document will be determined in the course of
inter-Orthodox consultations before the Council.
Information Service of the Bishops’ Council
DECR Communication Service