Thursday, June 23, 2016

What's Happening Inside the Holy and Great Council:Day 3

On Wednesday,22 June 2016,the third day of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church began with a Divine Liturgy presided by His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia at the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of Gonia in Kolymvari,Crete.Then the heirarchs held the sixth through eighth sessions of the Council,according to the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Press Release.
Session VI:The heirarchs continued their discussion of the Orthodox Diaspora.
Session VII:They focused on Autonomy and the Means by which it is Declared.
Session VIII:They reviewed The Importance of Fasting and its Observance Today.*
After extensive discussion,various suggestions and clarifications were proposed by the Primates and by individual heirarchs of the local Autocephalous Orthodox Churches.It is expected that revised texts that have been accepted by the Council will be signed shortly.*
The Council meetings will continue through 25 June and it will conclude with a Divine Liturgy on 26 June.
A constructive and irenic tone is reportedly prevailing in the sessions.The Patriarchate of Serbia has dismissed the notion that it would walk out of the Council.It can safely be said that the worst fears of those who failed to attend this historic week in the life of the Church are not being realised.

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