The Georgian Orthodox Church will not take part in the
Pan-Orthodox Council to be held in Crete on June 17-27.
The relevant decision was taken at a meeting of the Church’s Holy Synod held in Tbilisi on Friday presided by Ilya II, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.
The relevant decision was taken at a meeting of the Church’s Holy Synod held in Tbilisi on Friday presided by Ilya II, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.
The Georgian Orthodox Church has confirmed local media
reports on the issue in an interview with a TASS
correspondent.
Over the past days several Orthodox Churches have refused
to attend the Pan-Orthodox Council. The Bulgarian Church
was the first to declare it will be absent. The
Patriarchate of Antioch (Syria) followed. And the Serbian
Orthodox Church declared its refusal to attend on
Thursday.
Should at least one of the local Churches be absent, the
Council will not be considered Pan-Orthodox and its
decisions will not be mandatory for those not in
attendance. The Russian Orthodox Church on June 10 put
forward an idea of convening a consultative meeting first.
In the meantime, the Synod of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople made a decision to go ahead with
preparations for the Council as planned.