The governing body of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod,
signalled on June 1 its withdrawal from the Pan-Orthodox Council to be
held in Crete from June 16 to 26.
Strictly speaking, the Holy Synod demanded the postponement of the
council unless its various demands were met, but given that this is
unlikely to happen, the Synod’s decision effectively amounts to
withdrawal.
The Pan-Orthodox Council has been planned as the first such gathering
in about 1000 years, but has been beset by controversies – one of the
most significant ones being the fact that it is being held in Crete, not
in Istanbul, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch. The move was made under
Russian pressure because of the tensions between Moscow and Ankara.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, where senior figures are strongly
influenced by their Russian Orthodox co-religionist church figures, said
that it would not participate if Bulgarian proposals for “thematic and
organisational changes” to the planned council were not taken account of
and respected.
The Holy Synod said that at its June 1 meeting, it had held
“extensive discussions” on issues related to the convening of the Great
and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete in June.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s leaders found a number of pretexts to
call for the postponement of the Pan-Orthodox Council meeting and to
say that unless the council was postponed, the church would not
participate.
The Holy Synod listed six objections.
These included, the church said, the absence from the agenda of the
council of topics of particular importance for Orthodox Christianity
“that have contemporary relevance and require timely Pan-Orthodox
Council resolution”.
The Synod did not say what these topics were.
The Holy Synod said that Autocephalous Orthodox Churches had already
officially declared disagreements on some of the texts already approved
for the council meeting.
It also objected to the rule that at the Pan-Orthodox Council, texts
being discussed would not be subject to editing in the course of
discussions.
Further, the Bulgarian church objected that the proposed seating
places of the primates of the Orthodox churches in the room to be used
for meetings of the council “violates the principle of equality of the
primates of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches”.
It also objected to the “inappropriate location of observers and guests of the Pan-Orthodox Council”.
Finally, the Holy Synod objected to the need to undertake “large and
unjustified” expenses for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to take part in
the Pan-Orthodox Council.
The Holy Synod said that it had decided unanimously for the
Pan-Orthodox Council to be postponed while preparations to hold it
continue, and unless this postponement happened, the Bulgarian Orthodox
Church would not take part.