Bridging the Ecclesial, the Academic, and the Political
As the Orthodox Church prepares to convene its Holy and Great Council, the Protestant world is getting ready to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which will be celebrated next year. While at first glance these two events seem to have nothing in common, they are linked by a common desire to bear witness…
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Image: Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus The documents approved by the Primates of the Church for the Great and Holy Council are not particularly controversial. They are the product of consensus, negotiated over decades, that often repeat previous declarations rather than addressing the more challenging questions that face the modern Church. The one possible exception is…
Continue readingby Peter C. Bouteneff The document on “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World” was adopted as a draft text last October by the 5th Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference in Chambésy. Its status going forward is not entirely clear. Misgivings about the text have led to rumors of its outright rejection…
Continue readingby Paul L. Gavrilyuk The forthcoming Pan-Orthodox Council of Crete, planned for June 2016, will ratify several important documents, including “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.” The latest draft of the “Relations” document was adopted by the Fifth Pan-Orthodox Conference in October 2015 and is available online in different…
Continue readingby Nicholas Denysenko In my previous post, I introduced the Ukrainian problem and its significance for the forthcoming Great and Holy Council to be held in Crete in June 2016. Having argued that the movement for autocephaly in Ukraine originated nearly one-hundred years ago and is beginning to mature only in this post-soviet period, a…
Continue readingby Nicholas Denysenko As the Orthodox Churches continue preparations for the Great and Holy Council, which will take place June 16-27, 2016, in Crete, one of the primary unresolved problems is the schism of the Church in Ukraine. While the council itself did not formally address the Ukrainian matter, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow stated that…
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We live in historic times. About a week ago, the leaders of the Orthodox Churches announced their commitment to hold the Pan-Orthodox Council on the island of Crete in mid-June 2016. The failed attempts to organize such a council for more than fifty years have been attributed to a variety of factors, most notably the…
Continue readingby Gregory Tucker The long-awaited pan-Orthodox council will be upon us in a few short months. If all goes ahead as announced, representatives of each of the fourteen universally-recognized autocephalous Orthodox Churches will meet on the island of Crete for two weeks at the feast of Pentecost to discuss and either agree or refuse several…
Continue readingby Athanasios Giocas Orthodox Christians throughout the world exhibit a range of different attitudes towards other Christians and with respect to the cause of inter-Christian relations more generally. It is commonly assumed however that the Holy and Great Council planned for 2016 is meant to reaffirm the case for Christian reunification as well as the…
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The Patriarchate of Constantinople has been at the forefront of planning a Great and Holy Council, which will gather together the leaders of all fourteen self-governing Orthodox Churches. While the Council has its share of supporters, there are influential groups within the Orthodox Church that oppose the Council for political and theological reasons. What are…
Continue readingby Rev. Dr. Nicolas Kazarian The Orthodox Church is a complex geopolitical reality, and does not constitute a homogenous block. On the contrary, the rise of irredentism during the 19th century has created the basis for constant fragmentation throughout the 20th century. A series of historical events have reduced the territory of Orthodox communities, leading…
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(This essay was originally delivered as a public talk at the June 2015 Fordham/OTSA conference on the upcoming Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church. It was part of a panel on canonical impediments to marriage.) It will no doubt be useful for the Council to focus on harmonizing canonical impediments to marriage—especially marriages where one…
Continue reading“A household divided against itself falls.” This seems an apt proof-text for the 1920 encyclical of the Patriarch of Constantinople regarding ecumenical relations in his day, words ratified some forty years later by leaders preparing for the Great and Holy Council, and carried into our day by the selection of this topic as essential for…
Continue reading(This essay was originally delivered as a public talk at the June 2015 Fordham/OTSA conference on the upcoming Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church. It was part of a panel on ecumenical relations.) Ecumenism was prominent in the early preparatory stages of the Council. How much ecumenical fervor endures today?
Continue readingIn addressing how the Orthodox Churches in a pan-Orthodox voice and in pan-Orthodox action realize justice, freedom, brotherhood and love among peoples, what I would like to suggest is that the Orthodox churches will not contribute to such a realization until they abandon what I would call political Nestorianism. As we all know, the sin…
Continue readingThe science-religion interface is an area that dovetails with the need for love among peoples, leading to a consideration of pastoral issues. In addition, the issue of justice is very tightly tied to technology, both through those who have availability of technology and those who may choose to limit technology because of costs and resources….
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Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University
