The Pan-Orthodox Council, officially referred to as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Ancient Greek: Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Σύνοδος τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Ἐκκλησίας; also sometimes called the Council of Crete), was a synod of set representative bishops of the universally recognised autocephalous local churches of the Eastern Orthodox Church held in Kolymvari, Crete. The Council sat from 19 to 26 June 2016.
Preparations
In March 2014, the Primates of local Orthodox Churches convened in Fener, the residence of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and reached a decision: "The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church will be convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople in 2016, unless something unexpected occurs."
In January 2016, at the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Synaxis of Primates of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches was held at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland. The Primates of the local Orthodox Churches and three official delegations representing the Church of Antioch, the Church of Greece, and the Church of Poland, convened to finalise the texts for the Holy and Great Council. Due to the heightened tensions between Russia and Turkey, a decision was reached to hold the Synod in Greece.
Agenda, decisions and reception
The items officially approved at the 2016 Synaxis for referral to and adoption by the Holy and Great Council were:
- The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World;
- The Orthodox Diaspora;
- Autonomy and the Means by Which it is Proclaimed;
- The Sacrament of Marriage and its Impediments;
- The Importance of Fasting and Its Observance Today;
- Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.
Elizabeth Prodromou, an American professor who was on the team advising Patriarch Bartholomew at the Council, stated that the Council would enable the Orthodox church to express a "robust theology of global engagement".
The Council in Crete approved, with minor amendments, the documents that had been elaborated by all the Churches in the course of their consultations prior to the Synod, and adopted the Message and the Encyclical.
In view of non-attendance by the four Churches, the Synod's official spokesman Archbishop Job Getcha stated that all the documents adopted by the Council in Crete would be binding to all the Orthodox Churches.
On 27 June 2016, the Synod of the Church of Antioch issued a statement concerning the Crete Council that stated that the documents adopted by in Crete were not binding for the Patriarchate of Antioch; the Church of Antioch recognized the Synod as "a preliminary gathering on the way to a Pan-Orthodox Council", while the documents it adopted as not final and open for discussion.
The Synod of the Russian Church (the Moscow Patriarchate) in July 2016 passed a resolution that designated the Crete Council as "an important event in the history of the synodal process in the Orthodox Church that was begun by the First Pan-Orthodox consultation in Rhodes in 1961", but the Russian Church Synod refused to recognise the Synod as pan-orthodox and the documents thereof as "reflecting pan-orthodox consensus". The Russian Church Synod decided to have the Crete Synod's documents examined for further conclusions. In early December 2017, the Bishops′ Council of the ROC approved the previous resolution of the ROC Synod that stated that the ROC did not recognise the Council in Crete as Pan-Orthodox, nor its decisions binding for all the Orthodox Churches.
On 18 November 2016, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople sent a letter to the Archbishop of Athens asking him to admonish some of the Greek Orthodox clergy who reject the Holy and Great Council. According to the document, Patriarch Bartholomew reserved to himself the right to sever ecclesiastical and sacramental communion with those clergymen if Greek ecclesiastical authorities decide not to act on the patriarch's request to discipline them. As Dr. Ines Murzaku, professor of Ecclesiastical History and Founding Chair of the Department of Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University, elaborated in her email interview to Crisis Magazine, such "interference and pressure to excommunicate might sound more as rules/jurisdiction that apply in the West“, and for this reason the Patriarch Bartholomew "might be viewed by many as ‘the Pope of the East’ or ‘Orthodox Pope’”.
However, Ludwig Hertling disagrees. He says in his book, Communio: Church and Papacy in Early Christianity, that anyone could and did break communion when the parties felt necessary. The most prominent example is the excommunications between Patriarch Michael Kerularios and Cardinal Humbert (a representative of Pope Leo, but not Leo himself) when the latter excommunicated the former. That is still practiced in the Church today.
The Patriarch's request for admonishment concerning the clerics in question is not based on their rejection of the Council per se, since others also disagree, but with the manner they conduct their activities as well as their allegations and charges, including that of heresy (both type of actions denounced by the Holy Synods of other autocephalous Churches).
Participants and delegations
Churches that attended
Church of Constantinople
- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Archontonis), President of the Holy and Great Council.
- Archbishop Leo (Makkonen) of Karelia and all Finland.
- Metropolitan Stephanos (Charalambides) of Tallinn and all Estonia.
- Metropolitan Elder John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon.
- Archbishop Elder Demetrios (Trakatellis) of America.
- Metropolitan Augustine (Labardakis) of Germany.
- Archbishop Irenaeus (Athanasiadis) of Crete.
- Metropolitan Isaiah (Chronopoulos) of Denver.
- Metropolitan Alexios (Panagiotopoulos) of Atlanta.
- Metropolitan Iakovos (Sophroniadis) of the Princes’ Islands.
- Metropolitan Joseph (Charkiolakis) of Prikonnisos.
- Metropolitan Meliton (Karras) of Philadelphia.
- Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France.
- Metropolitan Nikitas (Lulias) of the Dardanelles.
- Metropolitan Nicholas (Pissaris) of Detroit.
- Metropolitan Gerasimos (Michaleas) of San Francisco.
- Metropolitan Amphilochios (Andronikakis) of Kissamos and Selini.
- Metropolitan Ambrosios (Zografos) of Korea.
- Metropolitan Maximos (Vgenopoulos) of Selyvria.
- Metropolitan Amphilochios (Stergios) of Adrianopolis.
- Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia.
- Metropolitan Antony (Scharba) of Ierapolis, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox in the USA.
- Archbishop Job (Getcha) of Telmessos, Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches.
- Archbishop Jean (Renneteau) of Charioupolis, head of the Patriarchal Exarchate of Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe.
- Bishop Gregory (Tatsis) of Nyssa, head of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox in the USA.
- Special Consultants:
- Bishop Makarios of Christopolis (Estonia).
- Archimandrite Tikhon, Abbot of Stavronikita Monastery of Mount Athos.
- Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne Konstantinos Myron (Germany).
- Sister Theoxeni, Abbess of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of the Life-Giving Spring (Chrysopigi (gr)), Chania.
- Mr. Panteleimon Vingas, Archon Grand Chartophylax of the Holy and Great Church of Christ (Constantinople).
- Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, Professor (USA).
- Archimandrite Bartholomew Samaras, Chief-Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Council of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Secretary to the Holy and Great Council’s President.
Church of Alexandria
- Patriarch Theodore II (Choreftakis), Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.
- Metropolitan Elder Petros (Giakoumelos) of Aksum.
- Metropolitan Elder Gabriel (Raftopulos) of Leontopolis.
- Metropolitan Makarios (Tillyrides) of Nairobi and All Kenya.
- Metropolitan Jonah (Lwanga) of Kampala and All Uganda.
- Metropolitan Seraphim (Iakóvou) of Zimbabwe and Angola
- Metropolitan Alexandros (Gianniris) of Nigeria.
- Metropolitan Theophylaktos (Tzoumerkas) of Tripoli.
- Metropolitan Sergios (Kykkotis) of Good Hope.
- Metropolitan Athanasios (Kykkotis) of Cyrene.
- Metropolitan Alexios (Leontaritis) of Carthage.
- Metropolitan Ieronymos (Muzeeyi) of Mwanza.
- Metropolitan George (Vladimirou) of Guinea.
- Metropolitan Nicholas (Antoniou) of Hermopolis.
- Metropolitan Dimitrios (Zaharengas) of Irinopolis.
- Metropolitan Damaskinos (Papandreou) of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
- Metropolitan Narkissos (Gammoh) of Accra.
- Metropolitan Emmanuel (Kagias) of Ptolemaidos.
- Metropolitan Gregorios (Stergiou) of Cameroon and Exarch of Central Africa.
- Metropolitan Nicodemos (Priangellos) of Memphis.
- Metropolitan Meletios (Kamiloudes) of Katanga.
- Bishop Panteleimon (Arathymos) of Brazzaville and Gabon.
- Bishop Innokentios (Biakatonta) of Burudi and Rwanda.
- Bishop Crysostomos (Karagounis) of Mozambique.
- Bishop Neofytos (Kongai) of Nyeri and Mount Kenya.
- Special Consultants:
- Dr. Panagiotis Tzoumerkas, Professor, University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki.
- Archimandrite Paisios (Larentzakis).
- Archimandrite Peter (Parginos).
- Protopresbyter Athenodoros Papaevropiadis.
- Protopresbyter Joseph Kwame Labi Ayete.
- Deacon Emmanuel Kamanua.
Church of Jerusalem
- Patriarch Theophilos (Giannopoulos) III, of Jerusalem.
- Metropolitan Benedict (Tsekouras) of Philadelphia.
- Archbishop Aristarchos (Peristeris) of Constantina.
- Archbishop Theophylaktos (Georgiadis) of Jordan.
- Archbishop Nektarios (Selalmadzidis) of Anthedon.
- Archbishop Philoumenos (Machamre) of Pella.
- Special Consultants:
- Archimandrite Christophoros (Mousa).
- Archimandrite Damianos (Panou).
- Archimandrite Nikodemos (Skrettas).
- Archimandrite Chrysostomos (Nasis).
- Archimandrite Ieronymos (Delioglou).
- Protopresbyter Georgios Dragas.
- Professor Theodoros Yiangou.
Serbian Orthodox Church
- On June 9, 2016, the Serbian Orthodox Church joined a number of local Churches which did not consider participation in the Pan-Orthodox Council slated for late June on Crete to be possible. However on June 15, 2016, the Serbian Church changed its position on the issue of its participation in the Pan-Orthodox Council and decided to attend, with the caveat that it reserved the right to leave forum on Crete if the position of those churches who refused to participate was ignored.
- Serbian Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilović), the Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci.
- Archbishop Jovan VI (Vraniškovski) of Ohrid and Skopje,
- Metropolitan Amfilohije (Radović) of Montenegro and the Littoral,
- Metropolitan Porfirije (Perić) of Zagreb and Ljubljana,
- Bishop Vasilije (Vadić) of Syrmia,
- Bishop Lukijan (Pantelić) of Buda,
- Bishop Longin (Krčo) of New Gračanica – Midwestern America,
- Bishop Irinej (Bulović) of Bačka,
- Bishop Hrizostom (Jević) of Zvornik and Tuzla,
- Bishop Justin (Stefanović) of Žiča,
- Bishop Pahomije (Gačić) of Vranje,
- Bishop Jovan (Mladenović) of Šumadija,
- Bishop Ignatije (Midić) of Braničevo,
- Bishop Fotije (Sladojević) of Dalmatia,
- Bishop Atanasije (Rakita) of Bihać and Petrovac,
- Bishop Joanikije (Mićović) of Budimlja and Nikšić,
- Bishop Grigorije (Durić) of Zahumlje and Hercegovina,
- Bishop Milutin (Knežević) of Valjevo,
- Bishop Maxim (Vasiljević) of Western America,
- Bishop Irinej (Dobrijević) of Australia and New Zealand,
- Bishop David (Perović) of Kruševac,
- Bishop Jovan (Ćulibrk) of Slavonia,
- Bishop Andrej (Ćilerdžić) of Austria and Switzerland,
- Bishop Sergije (Karanović) of Frankfurt and all Germany,
- Bishop Ilarion (Golubović) of Timok.
- Special Consultants:
- Bishop Jeronim (Močević) of Jegra,
- Archimandrite Sava (Janjić) of the Visoki Dečani monastery,
- Archimandrite Nikodim (Kosović) of the Krka monastery,
- Protopresbyter-stavrophore Dr. Zoran Krstić,
- Protopresbyter Gaja Gajić,
- Mr. Vladan Tatalović, Assistant Professor at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Orthodox Theology.
Church of Romania