Posted on 12/28/2015 5:59:06 AM PST by marshmallow
Moscow, December 28, Interfax - The chairman of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk has been cautious about prospects for convening a Pan-Orthodox Council.
"There are doubts about the very possibility of a Pan-Orthodox Council being held at a time when some of the Orthodox Churches are in a state of unsettled conflict, and the leader of the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia has still not had his status recognized by a number of Orthodox Churches, to say nothing of the extremely unstable general political situation worldwide," the metropolitan said in a statement, the Russian Orthodox Church said in a press release.
At the same time the hierarch stressed that the Russian Church has always participated and continues being most actively involved in the pre-Council process, "despite the obvious difficulties in the preparations for the Pan-Orthodox Council."
"As for specific dates of the event, I think it is too soon to talk about them," the hierarch said.
No Pan-Orthodox Council has been convened in more than a thousand years, and preparations to conduct one have been held for half a century now.
In 2014, the leaders of the Orthodox Churches agreed to convene a Pan-Orthodox Council in Istanbul in 2016, "unless prevented by unexpected circumstances."
"It was expected that in the remaining two years it will be possible to redact, and in certain cases, entirely re-write a significant portion of the Council's draft documents, many of which have become obsolete despite being drafted about 30 years ago," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
Progress in reviewing the documents was extremely slow, "as a result, of the eight topics that were expected to be put to the Council, only three have been agreed upon to date, work on the rest has never been completed," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
"So far there is no unanimous understanding among the Orthodox Churches as to the rules under which the Pan-Orthodox Council should operate and what its regulations should be. An ad hoc inter-Orthodox commission which met recently to discuss these issues had to interrupt its work after failing to reach consensus. Many of the issues, concerning preparations for the Council, which were raised repeatedly by Most Holy Patriarch Kirill in his letters to Most Holy Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople last year, have remained without answer to this day," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
The Russian Orthodox are jockeying for control of the synod/council. This was always the danger.
I’ve never really seen the point of it. Unlike the Latins we don’t call councils without a compelling reason. What great theological issue is threatening the unity of the Church?
No Vatican II for us thank you very much.
Agreed, though the chances if an Orthodox “Vatican II” are less than zero! For many reasons, this just isn’t a good idea.
BTW, I hear from Constantinople that at least part of the problem is the downing of the Russian fighter by the Mohammedan Turks. There is a feigned concern for the safety of the Russian hierarchs in Constantinople. Personally, I think the Russians are playing to have it held in Moscow and there try to assume the pretended mantle of the Third Rome and thus the primus inter pares among the Orthodox. That said, I understand that Black Bart of Istanbul has the votes to make sure that doesn’t happen.
I concur. There is a lot of politics going on here. The Russians desperately want a canonical rank that takes into consideration their size (not likely to happen especially given the Russian church’s cozy relationship with Uncle Vlad). And Bart wants recognition of Constantinople’s incredibly expansive interpretation of Canon 28 of Chalcedon, which by their reading, gives jurisdiction over pretty much the entire world, sans the autocephalous churches, to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Then we have the serious violation by the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the canonical territory of Antioch which has sparked a very nasty row. If the EP wants everyone to see him as a leader, he should act like one and condemn the JP’s flagrant infringement of a sister church’s territory. Instead all we are getting from the First Throne is a deafening silence.
” If the EP wants everyone to see him as a leader, he should act like one and condemn the JP’s flagrant infringement of a sister church’s territory. Instead all we are getting from the First Throne is a deafening silence.”
None of the patriarchs are “nice guys” or even remotely naive. As for the JP, remember the EP took out his predecessor just a few years back. He’s not called “Black Bart of Istanbul” for nothing.
Very true. “The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.