Two documents of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church deal with LGBTQI issues: 1) explicitly in inner ecclesiastical context concerning exclusively same-sex unions (The Sacrament of Marriage and its Impediments, hereinafter referred to as “SMI”); 2) implicitly in the context of wider society concerning discrimination on the basis of SOGI and position of the Orthodox Church (The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World, hereinafter referred to as “MOCTW”). If we regard both documents together, the following positions can be derived: Same-sex unions in the society at large are not condemned as such. In SMI (I.10), […]

Live-broadcasting from Crete by me and Rev. Heikki Huttunen. 00:00 – 4:00 English 4:00 – 9:24 русский 9:25 – 11:40 English            

Natallia Vasilevich (Belarus) and Smilen Markov (Bulgaria) Па-беларуску: 00:00 – 09:00 In English: 09:00 – 21:40 По-русски: 21:40 – 30:56

According to the “Organization and Working Procedure of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church“, adopted by the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches at their Synaxis, which was held 21-28 January 2016 in Chambésy, the Council “is convened by His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch, with the consent of Their Beatitudes, the Primates of all the universally recognized autocephalous Local Orthodox Churches“. By the same governing body, consisting of ALL Primates of the Orthodox Church (and those who were not able to attend were represented by officially authorized delegates) came to the consensus agreement that the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church to be held […]

Once Pan-Orthodox Synod, convened for 19th of June, at Pentecost failed. Will it happen again? In 1930 Meeting of the Preparatory Commission of the Holy Orthodox Churches was convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch Photios at the Sacred Great Monastery of Vatopedi at the Holy Mountain, 8-23 June. Delegations of the following local churches took part in the meeting: Ecumenical Patriarchate Alexandria Antioch Jeruslaem Serbian Church Romanian Church Church of Greece Church of Poland Church of Cyprus delegated to be represented by the Ecumenical Patriarchate (letter of Archbishop Cyril of Cyprus to the Ecumenical Patriarch Photios from 20 May 1930).   […]

Several oldest bishops were included to represent the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Council, to mention the – Archbishop Demetrios (Trakatellis) of America of 88 years old; two Metropolitans are 85 – John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon and Isaiah (Chronopoulos) of Denver. The youngest participant of the delegation is – Archbiship Job (Getcha) of Telmessos being 42. The average age of the delegation is 68, while the same indicator of the Moscow Patriarchate delegation is 61.

List of bishops to represent the Russian Orthodox Church was adopted by its Holy Synod on 16 April, 2016. The oldest participants of delegation is Metropolitan Yuvenaly (Poyarkov) of Krutitsy and Kolomenskoe, born in 1935; the youngest is Bishop Antony (Sevryuk) of Bogorodskoe, vicar bishop of the Patriarch of Moscow, who will become this year 32. The averege age of the delegation is 61 years old.

Bishop Gregory of Nyssa (Tatsis) was included in delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church. His Eminence Gregory if responsible for Carpatho-Russian parishes under Ecumenial Patriarchate in US. His name and title coincide with name and title of the greatest Cappadocian fathers of the Church St. Gregory of Nyssa, younger brother of St. Basil the Great. St. Bishop Gregory lived in the fourth century and participated in the Second Ecumenical Council (381). The seat of his modern namesake is located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, US. And delegation of the Patriarchate of Alexandria there is Metropolitan of Johannesburg […]

On June 1st, 2016 the governing body of the Bulgarian Patriarchate (the Synod of the metropolitans) announced a decision, demanding the postponement of the Great and Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church, due to take place in June this year on the Island of Crete. The metropolitans have unanimously agreed that if the Synod anyway meets on Crete as planned, the Church of Bulgaria will not attend. The Bulgarian Synod enumerates 6 reasons, seen as insurmountable obstacles for participation and as sufficient arguments for postponement of the Synod. Fist, the metropolitans are convinced that it is not worth travelling to […]