Religion

Dispute Orthodox Church meeting

The planned first Council of the zerplitterten Orthodox churches for over a thousand years in the character of the conflict. Not only Moscow, Sofia and Belgrade have already been cancelled.

Orthodox Easter mass in Moscow

The conflict in the run-up to the planned Orthodox Council in the picturesque Kolymbari, Crete, show how deep the divide between the Orthodox churches, says the Greek theologian Thanassis Papathanassiou. Worldwide, there are 14 Autonomous Orthodox churches.

The Patriarchates of Russia, the largest Orthodox Church in the world, as well as the Orthodox churches of Georgia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, and the Assad loyalty to the Patriarchate of Antioch (Damascus) said their participation in the Church meeting. The Patriarchate in Moscow, said that the summit threatened to split the Orthodox Church instead. Patriarch Bartholomew, the honorary head of 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world, yet still on the scheduled time of the Council, the 19. June should begin.

Already in may there were disputes in the run-up to the Council because of the planned Seating arrangement: The Slavic churches were unhappy that the Greek-influenced Patriarchates wanted to give the Patriarch of Constantinople, a prominent Seating position.

“As a unit of thinking and acting”

It was regrettable that the representatives of the Orthodox churches, which are difficult to do, to sit at a table to discuss open issues, says theologian Thanassis Papathanassiou in an interview with DW. The various Orthodox churches are often in a kind of competition with each other: “It’s sometimes about Power, dominance, and sometimes also to national interests.” Although Papathanassiou criticized, among other things, that the Orthodox believers had only been fairly informed late about the planned Church meeting, he is convinced that it is a fatal Signal for the unity of the Orthodox Church would be for the Council to cancel or to postpone indefinitely: “It has been given in the past synods, to which not all of the Orthodox churches took part,” replied the theologian all those who hold a panorthodoxes Council to implement, if not all, of the independent Orthodox churches.

Patriarch Bartholomew I. according to information from the Patriarchate of Constantinople for the Council to Crete travel

“It is primarily important that the Church representatives will meet to discuss the important issues of our time, employing both the people and the Orthodox Church itself”, says the theologian. Firstly, the Orthodox Church must learn again, “to think as a unit and to act”. Willingness to engage in dialogue have the highest priority. Secondly, the Council of a species must be “intra-Orthodox fundamentalism”, which rejects any dialogue with the other Christian churches vehemently calls Papathanassiou.

The theologian is expected that the Panorthodoxe Council to deepen the good relations with the Catholic and Evangelical Church to continue and expand. At the same time it would offer, in his opinion, the Chance of a permanent Synod of all the Orthodox churches to set up, which meets annually. The first Attempts to conduct an Orthodox Ecumenical Council in the way, go back to the 1960s. At that time, a number of areas were determined to be at the Church meeting on the island of Crete in the center. Today, however, new topics such as bioethical issues, or the Internet are important, says Papathanassiou. However, contemporary questions of this kind could not be discussed on Crete, because the Council had to be examined in-depth issues, “which should actually be self-evident”: how about a dialogue based on trust.

“In the first place and for theologians needed”

The Greek theologian says that the Second Vatican Council could be a model for the panorthodoxe Assembly. Papathanassiou, however, sees big differences to the Vatican Council, which took place some 50 years ago: “The preparation in the run-up to the Vatican Council was exemplary. The Council documents were published in the run-up to and after the respective decisions. Unfortunately, some of the Panorthodoxe Council scheduled documents find difficult.” In addition, were presented in the Second Vatican Council, alternative or new theological trends, while the pan-Orthodox Council “unfortunately, believers, and women, in particular, almost not at all to be represented.” Too little, too Orthodox theologians, the beat from the point of view of Papathanassiou bridges to other Christian churches and “a fixed place in the structure of the Orthodox Church should be represented”.