Staff Reporter
The Patriarchate of Constantinople say the
meeting should go ahead, while the Moscow Patriarchate say a
pre-Council meeting is needed
The Pan-Orthodox Council is hanging in the balance, after the two
most important churches disagreed over whether it should be postponed.
The Council, scheduled for June 16-26, was supposed to bring together
all 14 Orthodox churches, but last week the Bulgarian church said they
would not attend. The reasons were unclear.
While the Patriarchate of Constantinople have said the meeting should
go ahead as planned, the Moscow Patriarchate have said it may be better
to postpone it until all concerns have been addressed.
Fr John Chryssavgis, spokesman for the Patriarchate of
Constantinople, told the Catholic Herald on Monday that in the view of
the patriarchate “no procedural or organisational issues had changed”
and that the council would go ahead.
But yesterday Metropolitan Hilarion, the “foreign minister” of the
Moscow Patriarchate, told Russian TV that the Patriarchate of
Constantinople should hold a pre-Council meeting was held to resolve
debated issues. “If they are not, then it’s probably best to postpone
it,” said Metropoitan Hilarion.
He added: “”Decisions at the Council should be made by a consensus
that is unanimous. What does that mean for us? It means not simply the
agreement of everyone present in the hall to some one statement or
another, some one document or another. For us it means that all Churches
should express agreement with it.”
The Moscow Patriarchate had earlier issued a statement saying that
the Bulgarians’ withdrawal would make the Council impossible, because a
full consensus is needed.
But the Patriarchate of Constantinople have said that an earlier
meeting – the Synaxis of Prelates in January – “clearly and
unequivocally” decided that the Council would proceed even if not every
Church was present. “The council decisions will be ratified by the
member churches in attendance for the Orthodox Churches in general,”
said Fr Chryssavgis.
The Council, which has been planned since 1961, aims to bring
together the 14 “autocephalous” (independent) churches within the
Eastern Orthodox communion. It would be the first time so many Orthodox
churches have come together.
The meeting is supposed to ratify six documents – on ecumenical
relations, marriage, fasting, the autonomy of the Churches, “the
Orthodox diaspora”, and mission – which were finalised at the January
meeting.
However, divisions have surfaced in recent weeks. Even before the
Bulgarian decision, the Antiochene church had objected to the document
on marriage, and the Georgian church to the proposed statement on
ecumenism.
Fr Chryssavgis said: “It is unquestionably unfortunate and deeply
painful that the Bulgarian Church decided not to attend. But only weeks
ago, it had officially decided and committed to attend; it had approved
all of the documents of the council without exception; and it had signed
every text and regulation without condition.”