*** Ambitions of the Constantinople Patriarch to be an "Eastern Pope" are far from reality
Moscow, June 17, Interfax - A forum to be held on Crete in several days cannot have a status of the Pan-Orthodox Council, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Alexey Svetozarsky said.
"The Pan-Orthodox Council has failed. It is a conference of bishops, perhaps of the highest rank. However, we know that according to the Orthodox tradition, primates are the first among the equal," Svetozarsky told Interfax-Religion.
According to him, it barges into the Constantinople idea that appeared quite late, in the 19th century, about the Ecumenical (Constantinople) Patriarch, who has right for a certain part of Orthodox world as he is empowered by his see and his title.
"Here, we have another position. And it is one of the reasons for which this conference can not take place. We see the life of the Orthodox Church as a fraternal unity of separate local Orthodox Churches, which should settle problematic questions jointly, not dictated by a certain "Eastern pope," very small pope, caricatured in a certain sense, even though in a high rank. Ambitions do not correspond to the real state of things," the professor stressed.
He believes the Crete forum should not have been called a council from the very start.
"The agenda is miserable as it does not include truly actual problems accumulated in the Orthodox world: it includes some general words and in prospect a desire to spread some ambitions favoring from the political situation in the world," Svetozarsky said.
He also said about Constantinople focus on Anglo-Saxons, "on evident, inexplicable for an Orthodox person, attraction by Rome."
"Anyone can search in Internet browser "Patriarch Bartholomew," he jumps out of the frock as he wants to serve with the Pope of Rome. They read Gospels together, the Creed. They only don't commune together with the pope. It is absolutely inexplicable moment. The Constantinople patriarch was the first person who congratulated the pope during enthronement at St. Peter's Square," he said.
Answering the question, whether signed on Crete documents are obligatory to observe for those who did not attend it, Svetozarsky reminded the incident happened in 1948 when a consultation of heads and primates of Orthodox Churches was held in Moscow.
Stalin thought it would be a Pan-Orthodox Council, but Greek patriarchs, including the Constantinople Patriarch, did not take part in jt. Important documents were adopted at the session, but as Greek Churches in fact boycotted it, they do not consider these decisions obligatory for them.
"Here is the same thing," the interviewee of the agency said.
According to the recent information of the Constantinople Patriarchate, that coordinates the preparations for the Council, it will open on June 20 and resume its work on June 25. On June 17, a Synaxis, an assembly of primates, will be held to discuss an agenda and a draft of the final document.
The Pan-Orthodox Council that has not been convened for a thousand years and was prepared for over half a century is under question after the Bulgarian, the Serbian, the Antioch, the Georgian and the Russian Churches refused to participate in it, urging to settle the disagreements and work out the documents.
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