Holding Pan-Orthodox Council Without All Churches Threatens Unity

All Orthodox churches must be presented in the Pan-Orthodox Council, the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations deputy chairman said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Holding the Pan-Orthodox Council without the participation of all Orthodox churches is a threat to their unity, the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations deputy chairman said Friday.

"Of course, holding the Council which does not involve all of the [Orthodox] churches is, from our point of view, a threat to church unity, and is a certain danger," Archpriest Nikolai Balashov said at a press conference in the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, also known as the Pan-Orthodox Council, is set to be held on the Greek island of Crete on June 19-26, after more than 50 years of preparations. A number of churches, including the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church have refused to participate in the council as the procedure and documents of the council have not been worked out properly yet.

On Monday, the Russian Orthodox Church proposed to postpone the council to a later date because several Orthodox churches had refused to participate.

According to Balashov, the decision of the Russian Orthodox Church to urge the Patriarchate of Constantinople to postpone the Pan-Orthodox Council was "absolutely inevitable" and the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church "could not have decided otherwise."

He added that the Russian Orthodox Church did not lose hope that the Pan-Orthodox Council would take place despite the current hard situation.

On Thursday, the head of Department for External Church Relations of Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said that there was no reason to review the decision of the Russian Orthodox Church to miss the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete because the problems voiced by the several local churches could not be solved before the council. He also said that the situation surrounding the preparation of the Pan-Orthodox Council could not be described as a schism in the Orthodox world.