The Council of the Orthodox Church which opened on 17 June 2016, at the Orthodox Academy of Chania, in Crete, was supposed to resolve the discords which have been paralyzing this Church for at least a century. But this attempt runs the risk of precipitating a schism which has been smoldering for a long time among Orthodox Churches which recognize a primacy of honor to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and those who favor the Patriarchate of Moscow.

In fact, on 17 June 2016, 4 autocephalous Churches (the Church of Bulgaria, the Church of Georgia, the Patriarchate of Antioch, the Church of Russia) out of 14 made known their refusal to participate in the Council.

Indeed, after certain declarations of the Patriarchate of Moscow which wrongly affirmed that an “agreement has been reached that Ukraine belongs to the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Moscow,” Father John Chryssavgis, a high official of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, clearly denounced these statements on March 2. He clarified that Patriarch Bartholomew had not renounced “his canonical and historical right to respond to the needs of the Christians of Ukraine as a daughter Church of Constantinople.” According to Deacon Andrey Kurayev, one of the most popular theologians of the Russian Church, there can be no doubt that this declaration led the Patriarch of Moscow to revise his decision to assist the Council which he had announced in January. In the middle of Russian-Ukrainian war, neither the Kremlin nor the Russian Church can afford to lose their faithful in Ukraine. But this is what would most certainly happen if Constantinople recognized the patriarchate of Kiev, an Orthodox Church which came into being in 1991 and which, in spite of having the greatest number of adherents, has not been recognized by any Orthodox Church.In the middle of Russian-Ukrainian war, neither the Kremlin nor the Russian Church can afford to lose their faithful in Ukraine.
In fact, a growing number of members of the other Ukrainian Orthodox Church, that which is under the protection of Moscow, are feeling more and more uncomfortable within the Moscow patriarchate and have a great desire to rejoin a Ukrainian Church which is independent and recognized throughout the world.
At his return from Mount Athos, Patriarch Kirill convoked a meeting of his synod on June 3 to demand that Constantinople accomplishes the impossible mission of holding another pre-council meeting before June 10.
All that was left for Patriarch Kirill to give the final blow and he proceeded to do on June 13 by affirming that the Russian Church could not assist at the Council “given the absence of 4 Orthodox Churches” and “the lack of a preliminary consensus at Chambesy.”
“Now that the ‘Council of Bartholomew’ is going to take place in the absence of 5 Churches which represent the absolute majority of the Orthodox world, there is justification for considering it illegitimate and to judge, cost what it may, the principle fanatics who organized it. If, through them, the document on the acceptance of ecumenism and the participation [of the Orthodox Church] in the World Council of Churches passes, it is entirely possible to consider it as an act of highway robbery. Everything that is happening is normal. The hour of truth has arrived. There is no divine blessing on the Council of 16-06-06.”The ecumenical friends of the Orthodox Church, caught up in this crisis in spite of themselves, are also going to have to make a choice. Either they will continue to give priority to what still remains of unity and openness towards the ecumenical movement within this Church and, in this case, they should then firmly support the conciliar process undertaken by Patriarch Bartholomew with a view to treating the numerous wounds of these Churches which have remained faithful (as the Holy See announced when it confirmed that a delegation presided by Cardinal Koch would be sent to Crete). Or they will decide to favor the powerful Russian Church in order to preserve a dialogue with it, particularly by helping it to emerge from its neo-fundamentalist rut. But the importance of this Church should not be over-exaggerated since, in spite of its weight, it only represents a third of the Orthodox faithful (58 million adherents in Russia, to which can be added 12 million faithful in Ukraine, 4 million in Belarus and another million abroad which makes a total of 75 million compared to 274 million of Orthodox adherents in the world – counting the Oriental Orthodox Churches.). Also, its reputation in Russia has gone downhill as can be seen from the number of those participating in its offices. In both cases, we must remember that, according to the Gospel, the reconciliation among Christians is only possible through love and truth.

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