Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Bulgarian Orthodox Church withdraws from Pan-Orthodox Council in Crete

The governing body of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod, signalled on June 1 its withdrawal from the Pan-Orthodox Council to be held in Crete from June 16 to 26.

Strictly speaking, the Holy Synod demanded the postponement of the council unless its various demands were met, but given that this is unlikely to happen, the Synod’s decision effectively amounts to withdrawal.

The Pan-Orthodox Council has been planned as the first such gathering in about 1000 years, but has been beset by controversies – one of the most significant ones being the fact that it is being held in Crete, not in Istanbul, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch. The move was made under Russian pressure because of the tensions between Moscow and Ankara.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, where senior figures are strongly influenced by their Russian Orthodox co-religionist church figures, said that it would not participate if Bulgarian proposals for “thematic and organisational changes” to the planned council were not taken account of and respected.

The Holy Synod said that at its June 1 meeting, it had held “extensive discussions” on issues related to the convening of the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete in June.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s leaders found a number of pretexts to call for the postponement of the Pan-Orthodox Council meeting and to say that unless the council was postponed, the church would not participate.

The Holy Synod listed six objections...

Read the rest here.
HT: Byzantine Texas

Three cheers for the Bulgarians!

6 comments:

Chris said...

I'm really surprised more churches aren't or haven't pulled out already.

Patrick Sheridan said...

I'm amazed they have the nerve to call it a "pan-Orthodox" synod. It's no such thing!

V. said...

As long as they've all learned a lesson from Rome's mid-twentieth century debacle ("look what Rome did, it didn't work..."), otherwise, God help us.

bob said...

Remind me again, what do these guys do for a living? Can they be put to some use mowing lawns, weeding?

rick allen said...

I am a little puzzled by your approval of this decision. If their brethren in the faith are in danger of going astray, surely it's their Christian duty to attend and fight error?

James the Thickheaded said...

Love the irony: Wait around 1,200 years, announce a get together for "some coffee, maybe some donuts" 100 years ago, put docs out 10 years ago, and "suddenly" we're unprepared... so cancel 'cause let's see... "Dog ate my homework?" Ridiculous. For a church that purports to prize conciliarity, it has to actually meet and give conciliarity a "try"... otherwise "reality bites". Demonstrate a little faith, a modicum of trust, and a little love... even "Just have a donut, some coffee and chill". How hard is that? Why should the Bulgarians be applauded for thinking we can't handle it... much less give it a try? Yoda... is a cartoon, not a philosophy of life.