“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am
weak, then I am strong” (2Co 12:10).
His
All-Holiness delivering the homily during the Synodal Divine Liturgy
(Holy and Great Council) for the Sunday of All Saints 2016 at the Church
of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chania, Crete.
The late February fraternal gathering of six local Orthodox churches
in Amman was instructive and at the same time disheartening. Instructive
because the gathering exposed truths in global Orthodoxy; disheartening
because it was a sad showcasing of Orthodoxy to the world (for the
presumably relatively few outsiders who are still paying attention to
us).
The Orthodox Church will celebrate Holy Pentecost tomorrow. Last year, by the Grace of God I had the remarkable and humbling opportunity to be in Crete for this Great Feast and for the Holy and Great Council.
I
recently read a lecture on the Holy and Great Council delivered at the
March 2017 Clergy Retreat of the Eastern American Diocese of the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, during his opening address at the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, quoted the preacher with the golden mouth, St. John Chrysostom: “For the term ‘church’ is defined as a system and synod.”
With the journey to Pascha having reached its ultimate destination at
the glorious Resurrection of the Lord, the Orthodox Church has now
embarked on the Pentecostarion period.
The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church to be held in Crete
during Pentecost has prompted a great deal of discussion. The
affirmation at the January Synaxis of Primates
in Chambésy to proceed with the Council was historic and almost one
hundred years in the making. With the stage set, this essay will examine
three points