February 26, 2011
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The Commission, whose task is to make a preliminary study on the agenda of any future all-Orthodox Council, followed up its discussions of 2009 on the subject of the granting of a Tomos of Autocephaly. Despite a lengthy discussion, the conferees couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on this topic. Thus, it acknowledged that the topic of autocephaly and the manner of its proclamation required further study. The Commission also discussed the topic of the Diptychs of the First Hierarchs of the Autocephalous Local Churches, examined the canonical and ecclesiological aspects involved, described the current practise of the Church in this matter, and studied the present criteria for the inclusion of a Local Church in the Sacred Diptychs and how the order of the First Hierarchs is fixed, as well as noting a need to have a common form of the Diptychs for all the Local Churches in future.
The commission examined the request of the Polish and Albanian Local Churches for standardisation involving the placement of their First Hierarchs in the Sacred Diptychs of the Autocephalous Local Churches. It proposed that these requests merited further study, and that it should study appropriate changes in the Diptychs. At the meeting, the commission also heard requests from the Local Church of Georgia concerning it being in the sixth place in the Sacred Diptychs of the Local Autocephalous Churches and from the Local Church of Cyprus concerning the promotion of its First Hierarch to a higher position in the Sacred Diptychs. At present, the members couldn’t reach a general agreement on these questions, as the differences in the Sacred Diptychs used by individual Local Churches have their origin in the lack of an all-Orthodox consensus regarding the number of Autocephalous Local Churches.
According to Article 16 of the Statute for Pre-Conciliar Inter-Orthodox Meetings, the conferees must approve papers on all topics of the agenda unanimously.
Members of the delegations of the various Autocephalous Local Churches at the commission meeting were as follows:
- Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople New Rome (EP): Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis of France, Archimandrite Bartholomaios Samaras, Protopresbyter Giorgios Tsetsis
- Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa: Archbishop Sergios Kykkotis of the Cape of Good Hope, Archimandrite Nikolaos Ioannidis
- Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East: Metropolitan John Yazigi of West and Central Europe, George Ghandour
- Patriarchate of Jerusalem and all Palestine: Metropolitan Isychios Kondogiannis of Capitolias, Protopresbyter George Dragas
- Patriarchate of Georgia: Metropolitan Gerasim Sharashenidze of Zugdidi and Tsaishi, Metropolitan Theodore Chuadze of Akhaltsikhe and Sapara, Archpriest George Zviadadze
- Patriarchate of Serbia: Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro and the Primorije, Bishop Irinej Bulović of Bačka
- Patriarchate of Romania: Secretary of the Office of the Holy Synod Gheorghe Grigoritsa
- Patriarchate of Bulgaria: Metropolitan Neofit Dimitrov of Ruse, Professor Pavel Pavlov
- Church of Cyprus: Metropolitan Georgios Papachrysostomou of Paphos and Exarch of Arsinoe and Romaeon, Bishop Christophoros Tsiakas of Karpasia
- Church of Greece: Metropolitan Ignatios Georgakopoulos of Demetrias and Almyros, Protopresbyter Stefan Avramidis
- Church of Albania: Metropolitan Demetrios Dikbasanis of Gjirokastër, Pirros Kondylis
- Church of Poland: Archbishop Jeremy Ancimiuk of Wrocław and Szczecin, Priest Andrzej Kuzma
- Church of Czechia and Slovakia: Archbishop Juraj Stransky of Michalovce and Košice
Secretaries of the Commission were Metropolitan Ieremias Kalligiorgis of Lausanne and all Switzerland and Professor Blasius Fidas (both EP).
