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Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office,
Fr. John Chryssavgis
Ecumenical Patriarchate
Ecumenical Patriarchate
Social media and news organizations have
reported confusion in advance of the convening of the Holy and Great
Council. The following Q&A is offered to help clarify the process
and governance of the Holy and Great Council.
Can changes be made to texts and if so, what is the process?
Yes, changes can be made. The decisions
and rules of the council, approved by the primates in January, encourage
and welcome criticism so that there will be further discussion and
revision during the sessions of the council. The bishops attending the
council are expected to contribute actively to the process of revising
and adopting the decisions and documents of the council. No one has
precluded revisions, no one has excluded deliberations, and no one has
predetermined decisions.
The documents and decisions, as well as
the final message of the Holy and Great Council, represent the entire
Orthodox Church through its 14 autocephalous Orthodox Churches, all of
whom committed to the convocation and agenda of the council by their
approval, endorsement and repeated participation in a series of
pan-Orthodox preparatory conferences and planning commissions.
Is this a council of the church or a gathering of local churches?
A “great” council has greater
jurisdiction than any administrative synod of an autocephalous Orthodox
Church. It is called “great” not because of any presumptuousness on the
part of the participating bishops, but because it involves a wider
representation than any individual or regional synod.
Without the attendance of one or more
Churches, the Council may not be pan-Orthodox, but it is definitely
“great.” In this particular case, however, it is also pan-Orthodox
because, while not all Churches may be present, all of the Orthodox
Churches decided to convene the Holy and Great Council (on more than one
occasion, over a period of at least two years); approved the decisions
and documents and rules (with only one or two particular instances as
exceptions); and agreed to hold a Synaxis of Primates immediately prior
to the convocation of the Holy and Great Council on the Feast of
Pentecost.
All Churches also voted on the binding
nature of the Council. Therefore, the decisions of the Holy and Great
Council are valid and authoritative for all Churches – including those
that change their minds about attending. The decisions are binding and
authoritative because they emerge from a Holy and Great Council approved
and convened by pan-Orthodox consensus.
Finally, any and all decisions and
documents will undergo a natural process of reception and adoption by
the conscience and consensus of the people of God – that is to say, by
the official Churches, clergy and laity of Orthodox faithful throughout
the world. That was also the case with paramount decisions and doctrinal
definitions even of Ecumenical Councils in the past.
