Pan-Orthodox Council Begins Tomorrow as Scheduled

On the eve of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in Chania,Crete,the Ecumenical Patriarchate continues to insist it will begin with the Orthros and Divine Liturgy of Pentecost on Sunday morning 19 June 2016;and that its decisions will be binding on all Orthodox Christians,regardless of whether their Primates and delegations are present or not.Four Churches,those of Antioch,Russia,Georgia and Bulgaria,have suddenly reversed their course of more than two years and now decline to attend.They express an odd assortment of concerns,from seating arrangements to the way the Council was prepared.*
Because all 14 Primates and their Churches approved by consensus of the convening of the Council and promised to attend it as early as March 2014,their withdrawal,though painful to those who are attending,does not change the Pan-Orthodox validity of the Council or the Pan-Orthodox authority of its decisions,said Very Rev.Dr.John Chryssavgis,Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Throne.*
Although some Church leaders from certain regions are absent,Eastern Europe is still represented by His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia;His Holiness Patriarch Daniel of Romania;His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland;and His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia and their delegations;while the Middle East and Africa are still represented by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and All Palestine and His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa and their delegations.Hundreds of bishops and academics from all over the world will still be fully and vigorously participating in the prayerful deliberations of the historic event.More than 1,000 Orthodox Scholars from across the Orthodox Churches,including all the Churches that withdrew from the Council,have signed a petition urging full attendance of the event.