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For this journal issue in honour of one of my best friends in the academia, herself a major specialist on Orthodox theology in the West, I decided to focus on the most important event in the Orthodox Church since many decades, the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church convened in Crete from 18-27 June, 2016 after a difficult preparatory process of more than half a century and in the absence of four autocephalous churches.
I prefer to compare both the process and some partial results of the Council with the Second Vatican Council which the Catholic Church organized in 1962-1965. I will first compare a few more general aspects of the Second Vatican Council with the pan-orthodox Council. I will limit myself to the role of theologians, of canon law, and of the observers. Thereafter I will focus on the document on the Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World, which allows for a fruitful comparison with Unitatis Redintegratio and Lumen Gentium, but also contains comments on the post-conciliar time of ecumenism. A comparison of The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World with both Dignitatis Humanae and Gaudium et Spes would be equally fruitful but extends the limits of this contribution.
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