Divisions and conflicts between Churches jeopardise Pan-Orthodox Synod in Crete
Antioch wants to postpone the meeting due to disagreements with Jerusalem. The Bulgarian and Georgian Churches might boycott it. Contentious issues include marriage, relations between the Orthodox Church and the contemporary world, and relations with other Christian confessions. Bartolomeo 1st is making an effort towards unity.
Beirut (AsiaNews/OLJ) – The Pan-Orthodox council in Crete is compromised. It was set to take place from 18 to 27 June with all 14 patriarchates and Orthodox Churches present. Now, less than two weeks before the start, the Patriarchate of Antioch called for its postponement, arguing that it is contrary to the Orthodox conciliar tradition because of the failure to find “an acceptable solution to the jurisdictional conflict that opposes it to Jerusalem over Qatar Orthodox".
The Church of Antioch has broken with Jerusalem Patriarchate, after the latter appointed a bishop in Qatar, which is not within its jurisdiction.
"If the Council convenes whilst two apostolic churches are not in communion with each other, this means that the participation in the synodical sessions is possible without taking part in the Holy Eucharist, which deprives the Council of its ecclesiological character and grants it an administrative quality, contradictory to the steadfast Orthodox synodical tradition,” said a statement issued by Secretariat of the Antiochian Holy Synod. “This requires an atmosphere of love and brotherhood in Christ” and a show of “unity of the Orthodox Church” that is missing. We know that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1st had proposed that such a secondary issue be taken up at the end of the great council.
The statement goes on to note that "the Antiochian flock, after knowing the agenda of the Council and its documents, expressed its great deception that the Council does not deal with the challenges facing the believers, especially the challenges of the youth,” nor with “the challenges of the Orthodox Church in this time and presenting a common witness in the world of today".
Finally, the Patriarchate of Antioch regrets the fact that “the issue of ‘Church Calendar and unifying the date of celebrating Easter’ has been removed from the agenda despite its importance to the Orthodox flock of the Antiochian See, [which is] awaiting from the universal Orthodox Church a pastoral position in this respect.”
Bulgaria too
The Patriarchate of Antioch is not alone in demanding the postponement of the great council. The Bulgarian Church has also asked that the council be postponed for organisational reasons as well as persistent disagreements on the texts to be voted upon. In light of this, the Church will consider a boycott.
This historic event – the first since the schism of 1054 and in the making for more than fifty years – cannot go ahead in the absence of one of the autocephalous churches.
Since last Friday (3 June), the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church - which alone represents half of Orthodoxy with 150 million members – has been pushing for an emergency meeting of all the Churches on 10 June at the latest to defuse the crisis, but time is in short supply to deal with this challenge.
In fact, confirmed at the Synaxis of Chambéry in January, the "holy and great" council owes much to the tenacity of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew 1st.
Orthodox renewal
According to the La Croix newspaper, "if the issues on the agenda are far from settling the divisions accumulated over the centuries, Bartholomew is not making this event into an end in itself, but the start of a long process for Orthodox renewal. This is why he has deliberately limited the discussion to the texts on the agenda, even if this means initially accepting a minimalist consensus."
"What counts finally is meeting to send the world a signal of unity," said a source close to the patriarchate. In addition to the conflict between Antioch to Jerusalem, the most intransigent Churches (Bulgaria, Georgia) refuse to follow Bartholomew along this path. At present, the main points of disagreement relate to marriage, relations between the Orthodox Church and the contemporary world and relations with other Christian denominations. For the most conservatives, the term ecumenism is tantamount to heresy.
It is important to note that after doubts were cast about its presence at the council, Moscow softened its position after the meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis in Cuba last February.
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06/04/2016 09:26
