Patriarch Bartholomew urgently convenes the meeting of Heads of Churches to prepare for Pan-Orthodox Council

Yesterday, the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued a formal statement that according to the invitation of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent to all the Primates of the Local Churches, the meeting (“Synaxis”) is scheduled for January 21-28, 2016 in the Orthodox center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Geneva. The meeting will be chaired by Patriarch Bartholomew, Religion in Ukraine reports citing Amen.gr.

All Heads of Churches, in turn, said they would personally participate in the Conference, except for Antioch Patriarch John X and Metropolitan of All Poland Sawa, who cannot come for health reasons, and Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos for personal reasons, but all three would send officials to the meeting.

The meeting will address issues related to the preparation of “the Holy and Great Council,” which is scheduled for 2016, according to a communiqué of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. During the meeting, the Ecumenical Patriarch and heads of the churches will jointly serve the Divine Liturgy in the Stauropegial Church of St. Paul.

The delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarch to participate in the preconciliar meeting will include American Archbishop Dimitrios (Head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America of the Patriarchate of Constantinople) and Archbishop Job (Hecha) of Telmessos. At the meeting, Patriarch Bartholomew will be accompanied by Metropolitan John of Pergamon (Ziziulas) and Metropolitan Emmanuel of France with their advisers.

As previously reported, holding Orthodox council in 2016 was jeopardized. As Metropolitan Onufriy, Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) admits, the Moscow Patriarchate is likely to decide not to participate in the work of the Council, together with the Greek and Antioch Churches.

The idea of ​​convening the Pan Orthodox council emerged half a century ago, the ten topics of the Council were determined, the preparation has been carried out on these topics since then. Such a long period is due to the need to reach agreement between the churches.