Paul Ladouceur, in St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 61:3 (2017) 323–355
“No one can say that Jesus is Lord
except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3)
Ecumenoclasm in Orthodoxyexcept by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3)
The Holy and Great Council (HGC) of the Orthodox Church held in Crete from June 16 to 26, 2016, brought to the forefront the long-smoldering controversy in Orthodox circles between ecumenists and anti-ecumenists. Confl ict between pro- and antiecumenists revolved mainly around the Council document on “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.”2 Th e initial draft of this document was approved by senior
representatives of the local (national) Orthodox Churches at the Fift h Pan-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Conference held in Chambésy, Switzerland, from October 10 to 17, 2015. But already prior to the Council, there was serious opposition within several Orthodox Churches to some formulations in the document. Th is opposition has to be seen in the light of long-standing criticism, especially since about 1970, of the involvement of the Orthodox Church in the ecumenical movement, which goes back to the 1920s—the fi rst important Orthodox participation in a major ecumenical gathering
was at the Faith and Order Conference held in Lausanne in 1927.3
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