Today 23rd of June, representative of the Orthodox Working Group of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups had published the Open letter to the Council, drawing attention to the vulnerable position of the LGBT Orthodox Christians in the society and churches. Misha Cherniak, Orthodox believer and former Board member of the World Fellowship of Orthodox youth Syndesmos, who signed this letter on behalf of the Orthodox Working Group of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups, writes to the delegates of the Holy and Great Council, in the same time his appeal is equally addressed to the whole Orthodox Church. In the […]

On June 13, 2016, at its extraordinary session, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church considered the situation, which has arisen because of the refusal of a number of Local Orthodox Churches to participate in the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church. The Council was planned to be held from June 18 to 26, 2016, on the Island of Crete. As a result of the discussion, the Holy Synod adopted a statement on this problem to be sent to the Primates of Local Orthodox Churches (Minutes No. 40). Considering the position taken by the Patriarchates of Antioch, […]

Delegation of the Church of Cyprus is among the youngest. Its oldest member Metropolitan Chrysostomos (Machairiotis) of Kition who is 78; and the two youngest of 45 years old are Metropolitan Isaiah (Kykkotis) of Tamassos and Bishop Epiphanios (Machairiotis) of Ledra. The average age of the whole delegation is 57.To compare with: Church of Greece (73), the Ecumenical Patriarchate (68), Moscow Patriarchate (61), Alexandrian Patriarchate (59), Georgian Patriarchate (57) and Romanian Patriarchate (56).

Delegation of the Romanian Orthodox Church is quite young. The oldest member of it is 80 years old Archbishop TIMOTEI (Seviciu) of Arad; the youngest one is Bishop Macarie (Drăgoi) of the North Europe, who resides in Stockholm. He is 39 years old. Scoring 56 as an average age, it’s the youngest delegation so far, to compare with: Church of Greece (73), the Ecumenical Patriarchate (68), Moscow Patriarchate (61), Alexandrian Patriarchate (59) and Georgian Patriarchate (57).

Delegation appointed by the Church of Greece is one of the oldest to participate in the Council. Two of her oldest members are 84. Those are Metropolitans Germanos (Paraskevopoulos) of Eleias and Theoktistos (Passalis) of Florina и Флоринский. The younest participant if Metropolitan Gabriel (Papanikolaou) of Neo-Ionia and Philadelphia, who is 40. The average age of the delegation is 73. It’s higher than the Ecumenical Patriarchate (68), Moscow Patriarchate (61), Alexandrian Patriarchate (59) and Georgian Patriarchate (57).    

The oldest participant of the delegation of the Georgian Patriarchate is its Chief – Catholikos-Patriarch of all Georgia ELIA II, who is 83; and the youngest member is Bishop of the North-America SAVVA (Intskirveli). The average age of the delegation is 57. For comparison: Moscow Patriarchate is 61, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is 68.

In previous calculations of the “average age” we already considered delegations of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (68), the Moscow Patriarchate (61), and the Georgian Patriarchate (57). In the Alexandrian delegation the oldest is Metropolitan Petros (Yakoumelos) of Aksum from Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia, who is 84, and the youngest participant is bishop Panteleimon (Arafimos) of Brazzaville and Gabon, who is 42. The average age of all delegation is 59.

Today, 6 June 2016 at its extraordinary meeting The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has decided, that the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church to take place 19-26 June at Crete according to the previous plan. The message was published at the official web-site of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In particularly, the Holy Synod notes that recent statements from some of the Local Churches are surprising, while art. 11 of the Organization and Working Procedure of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church provides procedure of ammendements to the document of the Council. The Ecumenical Patriarchate recognizes itself as a primary responsible […]

We inform, that Permanent meber of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Eminence Agathangel, Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmaylovsk, refused to participate in the upcoming Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church. We remind, that according decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church 19 April 2016 (Journal #22) Metropolitan Agathangel was included in delegation of the UOC. Unoficial translation from the Official web-site of the Odessa diocese (2.06.2016 г.)