The 5th Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference Begins Its Sessions / Православие.Ru

October 12, 2015

On October 12, 2015, the 5th Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference began its sessions at the Orthodox Center of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Chambesy near Geneva. It is chaired by Metropolitan John of Pergamon, Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s delegation, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations (DECR), greeted the participants on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and conveyed to them wishes of success in their work.

On the instruction of Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Hilarion expressed the Russian Orthodox Church’s special concern for the situation in the Middle East, where the raging terrorism threatens the very existence of the Christian community, and called for joint efforts to ensure that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East could feel safe.

The DECR chairman informed the conference about the results reached by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church which had considered draft conciliar documents and sent its response to the secretariat for preparing the Holy and Great Council.

At the instruction of Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Hilarion expressed the Russian Orthodox Church’s deep concern over the anti-canonical actions of hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Ukrainian church structures in the USA and Canada when they arrived in Ukraine allegedly on behalf of the Patriarch of Constantinople without informing the canonical Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, came into contact with schismatics, declared the alleged readiness of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the schismatics, challenged the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s universally recognized canonical acts of the past centuries, accepted with honour persons defrocked and excommunicated from the Church, letting them ‘celebrate’ in their churches and praying together with them. "We ask the Patriarchate of Constantinople to give an assessment of these anti-canonical actions and oblige these hierarchs to stop such actions destroying our pan-Orthodox unity," Metropolitan Hilarion stated.

In conclusion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s delegation expressed hope that, despite the existing difficulties, the participants in the Conference will be able, in the spirit of fraternal unanimity and cooperation, to prepare the Pan-Orthodox Council at a time when Orthodoxy needs it so much.

The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church also included Archbishop Mark of Berlin-German and Great Britain (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia), Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman, Archimandrite Prof. Irinei (Steenberg) of the ROCOR diocese of Western America, and the Rev. Anatoly Churyakov, acting as an interpreter.

The Conference is attended by hierarchs of the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Orthodox Churches of Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Poland, and the Czech Lands and Slovakia.