Moscow is unable to hold an alternative Orthodox council, - representative of Constantinople Patriarchate

The Moscow Patriarchate will not be able to convene a “true” Orthodox council, as some of its representatives claimed. The ROC has not canonical grounds to convene such a forum.

This opinion was expressed in an interview to RISU by Archbishop Job (Hetcha) of Telmessos, representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

“It is not for the first time that the Moscow Patriarchate wants to do this. Similar attempts were made in 1948, when it tried to convene such  a Pan-Orthodox meeting in Moscow, in Soviet times. And we know that they did not succeed, and not just because some Churches refused to participate. It must be borne in mind that the Russian Orthodox Church has no canonical grounds for convening such a council,” he said.

According to the hierarch, the Council of Crete was successful, despite the fact that four of the Churches, the Russian Orthodox Church, in particular, refused to participate. Now the ones who refused are responsible for their decision.

“In the history of the Church many Councils failed to gather representatives of all Churches. And here, the process of reception of the Council shall be taken into account. While many Ecumenical Councils did not gather representative of all the Churches, all the Churches accepted their decisions, thus giving them the status of the Ecumenical Councils,” Archbishop Job said.