The Pan Orthodox Council of 2016 A New Era For The Orthodox Church Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1st Edition Vasilios N. Makrides (Editor)

The Pan Orthodox Council of 2016 A
New Era for the Orthodox Church

Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1st
Edition Vasilios N. Makrides (Editor)
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19 ERFURTER STUDIEN
ZUR KULTURGESCHICHTE
The present volume, based on a related conference in Erfurt, offers interdis-
ciplinary insights on the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church or
the Pan-Orthodox Council, convened on the island of Crete in June 2016.
19 DES ORTHODOXEN CHRISTENTUMS
Although some Orthodox Churches finally declined to participate – the most
prominent being the Russian one –, the Council was a most significant devel-
opment. It brought a considerable number of Orthodox Churches together
and discussed crucial issues pertaining to today’s Orthodox world. However,
it also vividly revealed existing serious problems of inter-Orthodox communi-
cation and collaboration. The contributions in this volume shed light on main
Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad (eds) · The Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016

issues related to this Council and their multiple repercussions for Pan-Ortho-
dox unity and the future of the Orthodox world.
Vasilios N. Makrides &

Sebastian Rimestad (eds)
The Pan-Orthodox Council
of 2016 – A New Era
for the Orthodox Church?
Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Vasilios N. Makrides is a Professor of Religious Studies (specialising in
Orthodox Christianity) at the Department of Religious Studies, University of
Erfurt, Germany.
Sebastian Rimestad is a Senior Researcher with a focus on Christianity at
the Department of Religious Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany.
ISBN 978-3-631-71526-0
www.peterlang.com
ESKO 19_271526_Makrides_Rimestad_SE_HCA5 152x214 globaL.indd Alle Seiten 28.10.21 13:33

The Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 – A New Era for the Orthodox Church?
ERFURTER STUDIEN ZUR KULTURGESCHICHTE
DES ORTHODOXEN CHRISTENTUMS
Herausgegeben von / Edited by Vasilios N. Makrides
BAND 19
Zu Qualitätssicherung und Peer Review Note on the quality assurance and peer
der vorliegenden Publikation review of this publication
Die Qualität der in dieser Reihe Prior to publication, the quality of

erscheinenden Arbeiten wird vor der the works published in this series
Publikation durch den Herausgeber is reviewed by the editor in
der Reihe in Zusammenarbeit mit collaboration with external referees.
externen Gutachtern geprüft.
Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad (eds)
The Pan-Orthodox Council

of 2016 – A New Era for
the Orthodox Church?
Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online
at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for
at the Library of Congress.
Cover image: The Primates of the ten autocephalous Orthodox Churches

participating in the Pan-Orthodox Council of Crete. From the induction
ceremony in the Orthodox Academy of Crete, 24 June 2016.
Photo: © John Mindala

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/holycouncil/27861399436/)
ISSN 1612-152X
ISBN 978-3-631-71526-0 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-83014-7 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-83015-4 (EPUB)
DOI 10.3726/b17326
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Berlin 2021
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Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles ·
New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilization
outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the
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This publication has been peer reviewed.
www.peterlang.com
Table of Contents
Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad

Reflecting on the Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 – An Introduction................... 7
THE COUNCIL AND ITS PARTICIPANTS
Paul Valliere
The Idea of a CounFLO ȈȪȞȠįȠȢɋɨɛɨɪ LQ2UWKRGR[7UDGLWLRQ
and Ecclesiology.................................................................................................. 39
Eva M. Synek
Local Orthodoxies and Universal Orthodoxy:
Perspectives from Canon Law............................................................................. 57
Daniela Kalkandjieva
Ecclesiastical Geopolitics of Modern Orthodoxy:
An Overview with a Special Focus on the Activities of the Patriarchates
of Constantinople and Moscow throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries ............. 79
Alexander Kyrlezhev / Andrey Shishkov

The Eastern Orthodox Church before and after the Council
RI&UHWH$FWRUV3URFHGXUHVDQG3URVSHFWVRI&RQVROLGDWLRQ ................ 107
Sebastian Rimestad
The Council and “Alternative Orthodoxy”:
Who Was not Invited to the Pan-Orthodox Council? ....................................... 125
THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE MODERN WORLD
Alexander Agadjanian
The Orthodox Vision of the Modern World: &RQWH[W+LVWRU\
and Meaning of the Synodal Document on Church Mission ............................ 145
Aristotle Papanikolaou
An Orthodox Christian Secularism ................................................................... 163
6 Table of Contents
Lucian N. Leustean
Eastern Orthodoxy and Diasporic Communities:
The Challenges of Nationalism ......................................................................... 175
Vassilis Pnevmatikakis
2UWKRGR['LDVSRUD V EHWZHHQ7KHRORJ\DQG*HRSROLWLFV:
Is Jurisdictional Pluralism Really a Problem? .................................................. 185
THE COUNCIL AND WORLD CHRISTIANITY
Peter De Mey
Parallel Agendas of Vatican II and Crete I?
A Close Look at “Relations of the Orthodox Church
with the Rest of the Christian World” ............................................................... 201
Ivana Noble
Ecumenical Reflections on the Pan-Orthodox Council .................................... 219
Pantelis Kalaitzidis
2UWKRGR[\(FXPHQLVPDQG,QWHU-Christian Dialogue .................................... 239
Notes on Contributors ....................................................................................... 269

Reflecting on the Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 –
An Introduction
Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad
Contextualising and Assessing the Pan-Orthodox Council

OQ -XQH WKH 6XQGD\ RI 3HQWHFRVW DFFRUGLQJ WR WKH Eastern Orthodox
Church3DWULDUFK%DUWKRORPHZRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHSUHVLGHGDVROHPQ/LWXrgy in
+HUDNOLRQon the island of Crete in GreeceLQZKLFK he was joined by nine further
PULPDWHV RI RWKHU DXWRFHSKDORXV 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFKHV +LJK-ranking delegations
from ten out of the fourteen universally recognised autocephalous churches had
gathered at the Orthodox Academy of Crete for the long-DZDLWHG+RO\DQG*UHDW
&RXQFLO RI WKH 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFK FRPPRQO\ UHIHUUHG WR DV WKH 3DQ-Orthodox
Council. 1 This Council had been awaited since more than a century and the
concrete preparations had lasted more than five decades. Ever since the first Pan-
2UWKRGR[&RQIHUHQFHRQWKHLVODQGRI5KRGRVLQWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFKKDG
longed for VXFKDJDWKHULQJZKLFKZRXOGLGHDOO\UHVROYHPDQ\ORQJ-standing
problematic issues within the Eastern Orthodox Church family.
The Council lasted for a little more than a week (17-26 -XQH and had
EHHQFDUHIXOO\VWDJHGZLWKGDLO\SUHVVEULHILQJVRIILFLDOVRFLDO PHGLDFKDQQHOV
and concomitant UKHWRULF,QWKHHQGit adopted six conciliar dRFXPHQWVplus a
“Message” and an “Encyclical”. The documents were mostly based on previous
drafts and versions that had already been discussed for several decadesZKLOH the
consultations at the Council itself could only make very minor adjustments to
them. ,Q JHQHUDO WHUPV WKHVH consultations took place in a very collegial and
uncompetitive DWPRVSKHUHZKHUHWKHZRUGof every delegation seemed to count
equally. The ten delegations left Crete at the end of June with the feeling of having
accomplished a great feat for the future of the Orthodox Church.
$WWKHVDPHWLPHWKHUHKDGEHHQIULFWLRQV and problems)RURQHWKHfour
FKXUFKHVWKDWGLGQRWVHQGGHOHJDWLRQVWR&UHWH WKH3DWULDUFKDWHRI$QWLRFK as
well as WKH&KXUFKHVRI5XVVLD%XOJDULDDQG*HRUJLD KDGDQQRXQFHGWKLVdeci-
sion a few weeks before the CRXQFLOFLWLQJGLIIHUHQWRpen and contentious issues
that rendered WKHLUSDUWLFLSDWLRQLPSRVVLEOH,QWHUHVWLQJO\HQRXJKWKLVKDSSHQHG
although they had all agreed to participate in the planned Council during the last
official pre-conciliar Synaxis of the Primates of the autocephalous Orthodox
&KXUFKHVLQ&KDPEpV\6ZLW]HUODQG -28 January 2016 . The churches present
in Crete tried to downplay the importance of perfect attendance and unanimity
1 $OOLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWWKH&RXQFLOLVDYDLODEOHLQIRXUODQJXDJHV (QJOLVK*UHHN5XVVLDQ
DQG)UHQFK RQLWVRIILFLDOZHEVLWH85/KWWSVZZZKRO\FRXQFLORUJ>@
8 Vasilios N. Makrides Sebastian Rimestad
and to promote the many positive sides of the gatheringZKLOHWKRVHVWD\LQJDW

home portrayed the Council as incompleteODFNLQJ a Pan-Orthodox character. The
direct or indirect role of the Moscow Patriarchate as forming the leading pole of
opposition to the Council and trying to stop or delay the entire conciliar process
should be emphasised here. The future of a united global Orthodox Church
seemed even bleaker than before.
Is it then legitimate to call this Council a Pan-Orthodox one? 1RGRXEWWKH
absence of four churches denied its status as Pan-Orthodox in the strict sense of
WKHZRUG+RZHYHUWKe Council was conceived and scheduled to be a Pan-Ortho-
dox one from the very beginning. It is thus no wonder that it was constantly termed
“Pan-Orthodox” on various occasions in numerous GRFXPHQWVRIILFLDODQnounce-
PHQWVDQG discussions preceding the Council of 2016. Also the fact that the above
four churches participated regularly in all SUHSDUDWRU\VWDJHVDWWHQGHGDOOWKHSUH-
conciliar meetings and worked together on the preliminary documents attests to
the basic Pan-Orthodox character of the Council. The same holds true for the
afterPDWK RI WKH &RXQFLO as these four Churches have received the documents
finally approved in Crete so that they may respond to them. It is thus possible that
the eventual broader reception of the Council may render it truly Pan-Orthodox at
DODWHUVWDJH)RUDOOWKHVHUHDVRQVHYHQLIde jure and de facto we cannot speak
of a Pan-Orthodox Council in the strict meaning of the termLWLVKDUGWRDYRLG
acknowledging its Pan-OUWKRGR[GLPHQVLRQDQGVLJQLILFDQFHHVSHFLDOO\FRQsid-
ering the decades-long pre-conciliar process.
(YHQVRWKHdevelopments in the aftermath of the Council have confirmed the
fragile condition of Pan-Orthodox unity. Emboldened by the success of the Pan-
2UWKRGR[&RXQFLOwhich strengthened its related OHJLWLPDF\the Patriarchate of
Constantinople two years later replied favourably to a request by the Ukrainian
Parliament and President Petro Poroshenko to investigate the possibility of re-
organising the Ukrainian Orthodox Church structure – much to the chagrin of the
5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[&KXUFKZKLFKFODLPHGWREHWKHRQO\FDQRQLFDOO\OHJLWLPDWH
actor in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Constantinople’s investigation led to a re-appraisal
of a histoULFDOGRFXPHQWIURPwith which Constantinople had transferred
the right to designate bishops in the Kievan Metropolis to the Moscow Patriar-
chate. In fact &RQVWDQWLQRSOH had de jure kept the canonical jurisdiction over
.LHYdesignating the decision of 1686 as a temporary one,QRWKHUZRUGV this
decision had been underlined by the historical conditions of that time and could
be revoked under new circumstances.2
2 On this document VHH &\ULO +RYRUXQ ³Ʉɨɦɦɟɧɬɚɪɢɢ ɤ Ʉɨɧɫɬɚɧɬɢɧɨɩɨɥɶɫɤɢɦ

ɫɢɧɨɞɚɥɶɧɵɦ ɝɪɚɦɨɬɚɦ 1686 ɝɨɞɚ´ >&RPPHQWV on the Constantinopolitan Synodal
7RPRV RI @ 85/ KWWSVZZZOLQNHGLQFRPSXOVHɤɨɦɦɟɧɬɚɪɢɢ-ɤ-
ɤɨɧɫɬɚɧɬɢɧɨɩɨɥɶɫɤɢɦ-ɫɢɧɨɞɚɥɶɧɵɦ-ɝɪɚɦɨɬɚɦ-cyril-KRYRUXQ >@ 9HUD *
TchentsRYD ³ɋɢɧɨɞɚɥɶɧɨɟ ɪɟɲɟɧɢɟ ɝ ɨ Ʉɢɟɜɫɤɨɣ ɦɢɬɪɨɩɨɥɢɢ´ >7KH 6\QRGDO
Decision of 168DERXWWKH.LHYDQ0HWURSROLV@ȾɪɟɜɧɹɹɊɭɫɶȼɨɩɪɨɫɵɦɟɞɢɟɜɢɫɬɢɤɢ
Reflecting on the Pan-Orthodox Council – An Introduction 9
$VDUHVXOWthe Patriarchal Synod of Constantinople lifted the sanctions on

the heads of the two uncanonical and unrecognised Ukrainian Orthodox
&KXUFKHV 0HOHWLL 0DOHWLFK from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox
Church and Filaret (DenyVHQNR RI WKH .LHY 3DWULDUFKDWH. 0RUHRYHU D “Unifi-
cation Council” under Constantinople patronage was summoned to Kiev in
December 2018 DW ZKLFK DOO 2UWKRGR[ ELVKRSV LQ 8NUDLQH UHJDUGOHVV RI WKHLU
FDQRQLFDOVWDQGLQJLQZRUOG2UWKRGR[\ZHUHLQYLWHG8QGHUVWDQGDEO\WKH vast
majority of the bishops belonging the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the
Moscow Patriarchate refused WKH LQYLWDWLRQ VLQFH WKH HQWLUH SURFHVV KDG EHHQ
followed through without concerting with the Moscow side. The resulting “unit-
ed” Orthodox Church of UkraLQH 2&8 ZDV de facto a reunion of two previously
unrecognised churches. Intending to overcome the long-standing ecclesiastical
problems in Ukraine3DWULDUFK%DUWKRORPHZRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHSURFHHded with
solemnly granting the OCU autocephaly on 5 January 2019. Its desigQDWHGKHDG
Metropolitan (SLIDQL\ 'XPHQNR ZDVHQWKURQHGRQ)HEUXDU\ and thus
Ukrainian Orthodoxy entered a new phase in its history.
+RZHYHULQVWHDGRIFDOPLQJWKHZDYHVWKHHSLVRGHEURXJKWZRUOG2UWKRGR[\
into serious turmoil. In response to these DFWLRQVWKH5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[&KXUFK
decided to break off communion with Constantinople and called on all other
Orthodox Churches to do the same. This new chasm between the two main
Patriarchates in the Orthodox world has at the time of writing not yet healed and
is not likely to heal soon. 8SWRQRZRQO\WKUHHRWKHU2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHVKDYH
SURFHHGHG DOWKRXJK ZLWK LQWHUQDO GLVVHQVLRQV WR WKH UHFognition of the new
Ukrainian Church autocephaly: the Patriarchate of Alexandria as well as the
Churches of Greece and Cyprus. The other Orthodox Churches have preferred to
NHHSDGLSORPDWLFVWDQFHRQWKHPDWWHUZLWKRXWofficially condemning Constan-
tinople’VDFWLRQV\HWEHLQJat the same time considerate of the sensitivities of the
Russian side. Attempts at a mediation HJE\WKH*UHHN-controlled Patriarchate
RI-HUXVDOHP have also failed. It is hard to predict what will be the outcome of
this conflict DQGVFKLVP,QDOOSUREDELOLW\ it is likely to persist at least until a
generational change has happened in both Patriarchates.
:LWKRXWGRXEWWhe crisis over Ukraine is a consequence of the Pan-Orthodox
Council of 2016. The Council validated Constantinople’s claim to leadership in
WKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOGDWWKHH[SHQVHRIWKH5XVVLDQ&KXUFKHPboldening it to act
in Ukraine. It claims to possess the exclusive right to grant autocephaly status to
DQ 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFK ZKLFK LV DIWHU DOO WKH FDVH ZLWK DOO PRGHUQ 2UWKRGR[
&KXUFKDXWRFHSKDOLHVVWDUWLQJZLWKWKDWRI0RVFRZLQ1593. This claim is
>@ –2OHV.XOFK\QVN\\DQGgPHU.XO³.\LY0HWURSROLDDQG0RVFRZ

'LSORPDF\$Q2WWRPDQ9LHZSRLQW´Scrinium –276.
TXHVWLRQHG KRZHYHU E\ WKH 5XVVLDQ &KXUFK ZKLFK KDV JUDQWHG LWV RZQ DXWR-
cephalies in the course of the 20th FHQWXU\,QLWVYLHZConstantinople’s rushing
ahead in Ukraine was a direct threat to the traditional Orthodox approach to
problem-VROYLQJQDPHO\ conciliarity. The question on autocephaly thus remains
DFRQWHQWLRXVRQHDQGLWLVKDUGO\DFFLGHQWDOWKDWLWZDVOHIWRXWRIWKHDJHQGDLQ
the Council of Crete. 7KHUHVXOWLQJVSOLWZKLOHQRWIXOO\XQH[SHFWHGVKRZs that
Orthodox unity is still a dream and far from reality. Instead of overcoming the
centuries-long “Cold :DU´ EHWZHHQ 0RVFRZ DQG &RQVWDQWLQRSOH 3 the current
Orthodox world seems to be drifting even further apart. One thing remains certain
KRZHYHU+DGWKH5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[&KXUFKSDUWLFLSDWHGLQWKH&RXQFLO RI&UHWH
Constantinople would have been much more sensitive and cautious with regard to
actions of Pan-Orthodox significance. This also means that the Ukrainian Church
autocephaly would not have been granted and under such circumstances so
quickly following the Council.
+RZshould this Council be evaluatedWKHQ? The following section mentions
a few important points and considers them through an interdisciplinary lens. In
KLQGVLJKWit is clear that the Council was a successIXOHYHQWGHVSLWHvarious con-
straints and limitations. Most Orthodox Churches came together und managed to
VSHDNZLWKRQHYRLFHRQDYDULHW\RIFUXFLDOWRSLFV+RZHYHUWKH&RXQFLO also
revealed a number of weaknesses within global Orthodoxy as well as future chal-
lenges that the Orthodox world unavoidably has to deal withhoping to find viable
solutions or at least temporary compromises.
)LUVW WKLV concerns the different approaches to the question of primacy in the
Orthodox worldZKLFKKDVDQLPPHGLDWHLPSDFWRQGHFLVLRQ-making within this
pretty much differentiated and decentralised structure of independent churches.
Inter-Orthodox relations are characterised by numerous ambiguities and fluctu-
ations. :LWKRXW GRXEW WKLV LV KDUGO\ D UHFHQW SKHQRPHQRQ DV LW KDV H[LVWHG
through most of the history of Eastern Christianity due to the polycentric system
of church administration. This plurality was KRZHYHU enhanced from the 19th
century onwards due to the development of eccOHVLDVWLFDOQDWLRQDOLVP V leading
to the rapid multiplication of Orthodox Churches and consequently to serious
problems of cooperation and mutual understanding. The situation was further
exacerbated by various socio-political developmentssuch as the long communist
rule in Eastern and South-(DVWHUQ(XURSHZKLch was applied to several countries
with a predominant Orthodox Church and created barriers to inter-Orthodox com-
muniFDWLRQ,QDGGLWLRQWKHH[LVWHQFHRIYDULRXVDXWRQRPRXV2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHV
3 6HH 6HUJH .HOHKHU ³2UWKRGR[ 5LYDOU\ LQ the Twentieth Century: Moscow versus
&RQVWDQWLQRSOH´ Religion, State & Society – àXNDV] )DMIHU DQG
6HEDVWLDQ5LPHVWDG³7KH3DWULDUFKDWHVRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHDQG0RVFRZLQD*OREDO$JH
$&RPSDULVRQÍnternational Journal for the Study of the Christian Church
211–227.
as well as of those with a non-FDQRQLFDOVWDWXVZKLFKKRZHYHr de facto operate

as independent structureshas rendered the entire situation even more complex.
$OWKRXJKWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOGGRHVQRWODFNPRPHQWVRIXQLW\DWWKHRIILFLDODQG
non-official leYHODOLNHWKHUXOHVIRUDsmoother inter-Orthodox cooperation have
not been set yet. The aforementioned problems regarding the participation in the
Pan-Orthodox Council attest to this.
It is quite easy to comprehend the existing problems in inter-Orthodox
relations with reference to the fact that strongly contested issues were not
discussed at all at the Council. This relates especially to the issue of autocephaly
DQGWKHFRQGLWLRQVRILWVSURFODPDWLRQ7KLVLVDQLVVXHRIKHLJKWHQHGGHEDWHJLYHQ
the fact that opinions diverge especially between the Patriarchates of Constan-
tinople and Moscow. The problem is not a QHZRQHDQGWKHUHLVDORQJcontro-
versy about it in the past as well. 4 %XWWKHSUROLIHUDWLRQRI2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHVLQ
recent times and the need to create new autocephalous ones have aggravated the
whole situation FRQVLGHU IRU H[DPSOH WKe self-proclaimed autocephaly of the
Macedonian Orthodox Church in 1967 and the autocephaly of the “Orthodox
Church in America”GHFODUHG unilaterally by the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1970.
These complications are in most cases locally based and involve geographically
FORVHFKXUFKHV\HWWKH\DUHstill of great importance for the unity of the broad
2UWKRGR[ &KXUFK ERG\ HVSHFLDOO\ LQ D SHULRG RI HQhanced tensions between
globalising trends and national aspirations. $WWLPHVWKHUHLVPXFKPRUHDWVWDNH
as the aforedmentioned Ukranian Church autocephaly of 2019 and the resulting
schism between Constantinople and Moscow clearly demonstrate.
What the Council achieved to formulate was a document on the conditions
and the ways to proclaim the autonomy of an Orthodox Church entitled
“Autonomy and the Means by Which it is Proclaimed”. This is again a contentious
LVVXHEXWRIOHVVHULQWHQVLW\WKDQWKHRQH of autocephaly. It goes without saying
that in both the above cases the main difficulty lies on how to balance the synodal
tradition of Orthodoxy with a specifically Orthodox (and not Roman Catholic
idea of primacy. There is a danger lurking behind the tradition of granting auto-
FHSKDO\ ZKLFK PD\ WUDQVIRUP WKH 2UWKRGR[ ZRUOG LQWR D ³ &RQ )HGHUDWLRQ RI
&KXUFKHV´DV3DWULDUFK%DUWKRORPHZ PDGHFOHDUDWKLVRSHQLQJDGGUHVVWRWKH
&RXQFLO -XQH +HUHDJDLQWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOGIDFHVDVLJQLILFDQWSURE-
OHPDVWKHH[DFWUROHDQGWKHUHVSRQVLbilities of the primusZKLFKZHUHKLVWRUL-
cally undertaken by the Patriarch of &RQVWDQWLQRSOHUHPDLQXSWRa certain degree
FRQWHVWHGHVSHFLDOO\IURPWKH0RVFRZVLGH 5 It is about a recurrent issue that is
4 See Marie-+pOqQH%ODQFKHW)UpGpULF*DEULHOand /DXUHQW7DWDUHQNR HGV Autocéphalies.

L’exercice de l’indépendance dans les Églises slaves orientales (IXe-XXIe siècle)5RPH
2021.
5 6HH$QDUJ\URV$QDSOLRWLV“Primus und Synode in den Statuten der Orthodoxen Kirche am
%HLVSLHOGHVgNXPHQLVFKHQXQGGHV0RVNDXHU3DWULDUFKDWV´LQ&KULVWRSK%|WWLJKHLPHU
and Johannes +RIPDQQ HGV Autorität und Synodalität)UDQNIXUWDP0DLQ–
closely related to the administrative pluralism of the Orthodox Church structures.

These used to function better and more effectively until the appearance of Ortho-
dox nationalism(s \HWWKHSUHVHQWVLWXDWLRQUHQGHUVWKHse difficulties clearer than
ever. The rich and intense Orthodox discourse and rhetoric on conciOLDULW\
FROOHJLDOLW\FDWKROLFLW\ DQGFRPPXQLW\ZKLFh were highlighted quite strongly
GXULQJWKH&RXQFLOVHHP to have little impact upoQUHDOFKXUFKSROLWLFVZKLFKDUH
often divided between competing ethno-religious camps and aspirations. As a
UHVXOWWKHUHLVDKLVWRULFDOly documented cleavage between on the one hand the
%\]DQWLQH*UHHN-oriented tradition and on the other hand thH6ODYLFHVSHFLDOO\
Russian-oriented tradition of Orthodox Christianity in different constellations.
The recent Ukrainian Church crisis once more revealed the existence of these two
fronts and the vicissitudes associated with them. The Serbian case illustrates this
GLOHPPDTXLWHZHOO:LWKUHJDUGWRWKH&RXQFLORI&UHWHWKH6HUELDQ2UWKRGR[
Church did not succumb to internal and external pressure to decline participation.
Yet in the Ukrainian Church FULVLVLW seems to be more supportive of the Russian
side. At the same timeRWKHUWUDGLWLRQV RI2UWKRGR[\ HJWKH$UDE-VSHDNLQJ
also try to promote their interests and profit from the above tensions and conflicts
whenever possible. All this takes place against the background of the decline of
Orthodox universality due to the rise and pervasive influence of Orthodox
nationalism V ZKLFKVHHPVWRVHWWKHUXOes in the present situation.
Another related challenge for the Orthodox world is to find the necessary and
fruitful balance between the global and the local in the respective Orthodox cul-
tures of today. It is not about the establishment of the former over the latter or
vice-YHUVDEXt about finding and applying a strategy to accommodate both trends
at a trans-2UWKRGR[ OHYHO ,Q IDFW ZKDW ZH REVHUYH LQ WKH KLVWRU\ RI 2UWKRGR[
Christianity DQGEH\RQGWKDWRIFRXUVH DUHcontinuous and repeated “glocalisa-
WLRQ SURFHVVHV´ QDPHO\ WKH PL[LQJ DQd fusion of local elements with global
trends.6 +LVWRULFDOO\VSHDNLQJWKLs was not problematic as suchDQGWKH2UWKRGR[
VKRZHGDQDPD]LQJIOH[ibility and capacity to find this balance IRUH[DPSOHLQ
their historical missions. 7 7KHDGYHQWRIWKHPRGHUQDJHKRZHYHUKDVFKDQJHG
+LODULRQ$OIH\HY“Primat XQG.DWKROL]LWlWLQGHURUWKRGR[HQ7UDGLWLRQÚna Sancta

–$WKDQDVLRV9OHWVLV³:HULVWGHU(UVWHLQGHU2UWKRGR[LH"'DV5LQJHQ
GHU 2UWKRGR[HQ .LUFKHQ XP GLH *HVWDOWXQJ HLQHU SDQRUWKRGR[HQ 5DQJRUGQXQJ´ Una
Sancta –4.
6 See 9LFWRU5RXGRPHWRI³7KH*ORFDOLVDWLRQVRI(DVWHUQ2UWKRGR[&KULVWLDQLW\Éuropean
Journal of Social Theory 226–LGHPGlobalization and Orthodox Chris-
tianity: The Transformations of a Religious Tradition1HZ<RUN1< 2014.
7 See Vasilios N 0DNULGHV ³7KH‘Individuality of Local Cultures’ 3HUFHSWLRQV 3ROLFLHV
DQG$WWLWXGHVLQWKH&RQWH[WRI2UWKRGR[&KULVWLDQ0LVVLRQV´LQ0DUWLQ)XFKV$QWMH/LQ-
NHQEDFK DQG :ROIJDQJ 5HLQKDUG HGV Individualisierung durch christliche Mission?
WiesbadeQ–169.
many of these traditional Orthodox orientations and practices and left the Ortho-
dox world unprepared to develop further and address new problems. This explains
why the Orthodox out of defensiveness during this period turned to tradition-
DOLVP FRQVHUYDWLVP and glorification of their past achievements. The conse-
quences of this introvHUVLRQDUHIHOWXQWLOWRGD\DVEHFRPHVHYLGHQWIrom the many
challenges that the Pan-Orthodox Council intended to deal with.
Considering the local variety and multiformity of present-time Orthodoxy
WKRXJK RQH UHDOLVes that rediscovering this balance is a quite complicated and
demanding task. Some of the documents approved by the Council touched upon
such LVVXHV\HWLWLVFOHDUWKDWWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOGLVVWLOODWWKHEHJLQQLQJRIDnew
search for the accommodation of the global and the local in its tradition. To
mention just one example: In 2000 the Russian Orthodox Church published an
official document expounding LWV RZQ ³%DVHV RI WKH 6RFLDO &RQFHSW´ 7KLV
lengthy document was characterised as a Russian Orthodox one from the very
EHJLQQLQJDQGZDVWUHDWHGOLNHWKLVE\WKHRWKHU2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHVQDPHO\DV
not reflecting a Pan-Orthodox consensus on this highly sensitive topic. Interest-
LQJO\HQRXJKPRVW2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHVUHDFWHGZLWKDFRPSOHWHVLOHQFHWRZDUGV
this document as if it were not particularly important. What thus remained
unresolved was the passage from the local Russian to a Pan-OUWKRGR[ OHYHO
something that has not been HIIHFWHG VR IDU QRW RQO\ ZLWK UHJDUG WR VRFLDO
TXHVWLRQVEXWalso concerning a variety of other issues. There is only a recent new
VRFLDOGRFXPHQWLQE\WKH3DWULDUFKDWHRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHWRZKLFKZe shall
refer later.
6HFRQGanother important point concerns the relations of the Orthodox Church to

RWKHU&KULVWLDQ&KXUFKHVDQGFRQIHVVLRQVLQWKHFRQWH[WRI(FXPHQLVPDVZHOO as
the various reactions to such inter-&KULVWLDQ RSHQQHVV QRW RQO\ E\ 2UWKodox
rigoristIXQGDPHQWDOLVWFLUFOHVEXWDWWLPHValso by mainstream Orthodox.8 The
issue became a prominent one both before and during the Council on various
RFFDVLRQV HVSHFLDOO\ FRQFHUQLQJ WKH UHFRJQLWLRQ RI WKH ³HFFOHVLDOLW\´ RI QRQ-
Orthodox Churches and confessions. 9 7UXWKEHWROGWhe Orthodox Church con-
siders itself as the sole bearer of the authentic and unadulterated Christian truth.
0RUHRYHU the Eastern Orthodox Churches do not view themselves as mere
confessionseven if they are still perceived by others (especially by 3URWHVWDQWV
8 6HH3DXO/DGRXFHXU³1HR-WUDGLWLRQDOLVW(FFOHVLRORJ\LQ2UWKRGR[\´Scottish Journal of
Theology –%UDQGRQ*DOODKHU³(FXPHQLVPDV&LYLOLVDWLRQDO'LDORJXH
Eastern Orthodox Anti-ecumenism and Eastern Orthodox Ecumenism. A Creative or
6WHULOH$QWLQRP\"Ínternational Journal for the Study of the Christian Church
265–285.
9 6HH 3DXO /DGRXFHXU ³2Q (FXPHQRFODVP :KDW ,V &KXUFK"´Public Orthodoxy
85/ KWWSVSXEOLFRUWKRGR[\RUJRQ-ecumenoclasm-what-is-FKXUFK
>@
as such within the broader Christian confessional body. The related conciliar
document “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian
World” begins with a VWDWHPHQWZhich reveals from the outset this Orthodox self-
understanding and the concomitant sense of self-assurance2QWKHRWKHUKDQGLW
is well known that the PatriarchDWHRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHDORQJZLWKRWKHr Orthodox
&KXUFKHV was a pioneer in promoting inter-Christian contacts and dialogue in the
20th century and participated in the Ecumenical Movement from its very incep-
tionDIDFWWKDWEDVLFDOO\FRQWLQXHVXQWLOWRGD\ 10 $WWKHVDPHWLPHWKLVSDUWLFXODU
area of Orthodox activity has been a source of heightened debates and conflicts.
Possessing religious truth was thought to be coterminous with demarcating the
2UWKRGR[IDLWKIURPDOORWKHUVVDIHJXDUGLQJLWWKURXJKSHUVLVWHQWLQWURversion and
defensive attitudes DQGFDVWLJDWLQJSRWHQWLDOGHYLDWLRQV,QIDFWWKLVZDVWKHSDWK
followed by many Orthodox as a reaction to the attempts at initiating inter-Chris-
tian dialogue und understanding in various ecumenical fora. Such tendencies ap-
peared quite early in the 20th century considering the Old Calendarist schism in
*UHHFHWKHUROHof the Russian Orthodox Church OXWVLGH5XVVLDDVZHOODVWKH
Zealots among the monks on the +RO\ 0RXQWDLQ $WKRV 7KH LQLWLDWLRQ RI WKH
“Dialogue of Love” between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch of Constantinople
Athenagoras in the 1960s and the lifting of the mutual excommunications of 1054
also sparked quite intense reactions from various Orthodox circles. This was
because such contacts with the “heretics of the West” were evaluated as threaten-
ing compromises and deviations from the right Orthodox path. It is not amiss to
argue that such reactions originated mostly from the multifaceted groups of Ortho-
dox rigoristsfundamentalists.
In post-FRPPXQLVW WLPHV VXFK tendencies received a strong impetus DV D
ODUJHQXPEHURI2UWKRGR[SHRSOHVIURPWKHIRUPHU(DVWHUQ%ORc were suddenly
and for the first time exposed to the challenges of Western values including liberal
GHPRFUDF\LQGLYLGXDOLW\secularityPXOWLFXOWXUDOLVPand globalisation. As a re-
VXOWLWLVQRWVXUSULVLQJWKDWWKLVUDGLFDOSROLWLFDOFKDQJHOed to a massive re-tradi-
tionalisation of numerous Orthodox DFWRUVHLWKHUDWWKHRIILFLDOFhurch level or
QRWwho feared OLEHUDOWUHQGVHFXPHQLFDORSHQQHVVDQGLQWHU-Christian dialogue.
This does not relate solely to various Orthodox movements and individual clerics
or thinkers. Even the church leadership was VRPHWLPHVDIIHFWHGJLYHQWhat some
of its members openly expressed or sympathised with such views. In fact
Orthodox rigoristsIXQGDPHQWDOLVWV often put direct pressure upon the church
hierarchy und consequently force it to follow a more conservative course and take
UHVSHFWLYH GHFLVLRQV 7KLV FRQFHUQV IRU LQVWDQFH WKH &KXUFKHV RI *HRUJLD DQG
%XOJDULDZKich withdrew their membership from the World Council of Churches
in 1997 and 1998 respectively for sucK UHDVRQV 1RW DFFLGHQWDOO\ WKHVH WZR
10 6HH3DQWHOLV.DODLW]LGLVet al. HGV Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for

Theological Education9RORV
Churches belonged to the four ones that also decided not to participate in the
Council of Crete.
Given this particular VLWXDWLRQWKH&RXQFLOIDFHGFRQVLGHUDEOHGLIILFXOWLHVLQ
GUDIWLQJWKHUHODWHGGRFXPHQWZKLFKKDG to keep the necessary balance and to
VDWLVI\DOOWUHQGVIURPWKHOLEHUDOWRWKHPRUHWUDGLWLRQDO7RWKLVSXUSRVHLWWRRN
into consideration different possibilities and explored potential solutions. Even
VRWKHUHZHUe many disagreements about the wording used there and its wider
implicatioQV )RU H[DPSOH WKLV FRQFHUQHG the ecclesiastical status of Western
Churches and whether they deserved the designation “church” altogether.
,URQLFDOO\this pertained to the Roman Catholic Church DVZHOOGHVSLWH its long
historical background and connection with the Christian origins and despite the
recent official discourse in Orthodox-Catholic relations about the “sister
FKXUFKHV´,QIDFWWhere ZHUHVRPHPHPEHUVRI2UWKRGR[&KXUFKGHOHJDWLRQV
who refused to accept the above wording and made their individual disagreement
and position publicly FOHDU 11 although their church delegation officially signed
the related document. All this clearly indicates WKHWHQVLRQVEHWZHHQPD[LPDOLVW
LQFOXVLYLVWDQGPLQLPDOLVWexclusivist tendencies within the Orthodox world vis-
à-vis other Christians.
In spite of the attempts to find an acceptable balanceit became once more
clear during the Council that the issue of rigorismIXQGDPHQWDOLVP will be a major
FKDOOHQJHWRWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOGLQWKHIXWXUHDVLWZLOOSUREDEO\EHVWUHQJWKHQHG
in many respects. 12 Such attitudes can be observed among those Orthodox bish-
RSVFOHULFV DQGWKLQNHUVwho from the very beginning expressed doubts about
the canonicity and the viability of the Pan-Orthodox Council and were openly
against its convocation. The same attitude can be discerned among those Ortho-
dox who in the aftermath negatively evaluated the results of the Council as poten-
tially dangerous for safeguarding the Orthodox tradition. 1RGRXEWVXFK reactions
are normal among numerous Orthodox who have always viewed the Ecumenical
Movement and inter-Christian dialogue with suspicion2QWKHRWKHUKDQGWKLV
kind of challenge was known to the participants RIWKH&RXQFLOexplaining why
11 6HH 9DVLOLRV 1 0DNULGHV ³2UWKRGR[ &KULVWLDQ Rigorism: Attempting to Delineate a

0XOWLIDFHWHG3KHQRPHQRQÍnterdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in
Contemporary Society 2:2 – $ULVWRWOH 3DSDQLNRODRX and George E.
'HPDFRSRXORV HGV Fundamentalism or Tradition: Christianity after Secularism1HZ
York1< 'DYRU'åDOWRDQG*HRUJH('HPDFRSRXORV HGV Orthodoxy and Funda-
mentalism/DQKDP0' IRUWKFRPLQJ
12 6HH*HRUJH'HPDFRSRXORV³,QQRYDWLRQLQWKH*XLVHRI7UDGLWLRQ$QWL-Ecumenist Efforts
to Derail the GreaW DQG +RO\ &RXQFLO´ Public Orthodoxy 85/ KWWSV
SXEOLFRUWKRGR[\RUJLQQRYDWLRQ-in-the-guise-of-tradition-anti-ecumenist-effo
rts-to-derail-the-great-and-holy-FRXQFLO >@ /DGRXFHXU ³2Q (FXmenoclasm”
(as n. 9 .
there were explicit and critical references to the anti-ecumenical attitudes and
actions of some Orthodox Churches.
<HWZHDUHWDONLQJDERXWDTXLWHLQIOXHQWLDOSKHQRPHQRQWKDWKDVGHHSURRWV
in Orthodox history and is intrinsically connected with the very notion of religious
truth exclusively claimed by the Orthodox. 13 ,QPRGHUQWLPHVHVSHFLDOO\LQWKH
wake of related socio-political FKDQJHV VXFK ULJRULVWIXQGDPHQWDOLVW UHDFWLRQV
became stronger and louder. It is thus a quite serious challenge to the Orthodox
ZRUOGDWSUHVHQWcreating problems not only iQWKHKLVWRULFDO2UWKRGR[KHDUWODQGV
but in the Orthodox diaspora as well. This becomes clearer by the fact that more
and more Orthodox thinkers show a vivid interest in this SKHQRPHQRQFULWLFLVe it
and try to neutralisH LW ZKHQHYHU SRVVLEOH $W WKH VDPH WLPH RQH VKRXOG PDNH
necessary differentiations and avoid putting all Orthodox reactions against Ecu-
menism LQWKHVDPHFDWHJRU\)RUH[DPSOHWKHRIILFLDO5XVVLan Orthodox Church
in post-communist times has often exhibited a critical attitude towards various
facets of Ecumenism and the values RI:HVWHUQPRGHUQLW\ HJindividual human
ULJKWV <HW WKLV GRHV QRW UHQGHU WKH 5XVVLDQ &KXUFK DXWRPDWLFDOO\ D ULJRULVt
fundamentalist one because the very same church does not insulate and isolate
LWVHOI LQ LWV RZQ WUXWK GLVFRXUVH EXW VHHNV WKH GLDORJXH WR RWKHU FRQWHPSRUDU\
DFWRUVUHOLJLRXVSROLWLFDOVHFXODU or otKHUZLVH,QWKLVUHVSHFWWKLVFhurch repre-
sents a median position between rigoristfundamentalist and liberal trendsZKLFK
may be termed “traditionalist”. NonethelessWKHSRVVLELOLW\RIVXFKa tradition-
alism lapsing into rigorismIXQGDPHQWDOLVP always remains imminent and cannot
be excluded. This is also due to the overlapping relations between rigoristsIXQGD-
mentalists DQGFKXUFKOHDGHUVKLSZKLFKDUHQRWFOHDUO\GLIIHUHQWLDWHGDQGVWULFWO\
demarcated.
7KLUGDpoint worth mentioning relates to the Orthodox attitude towards mission

in the modern world DV DUWLFXODWHG DQG IRUPXODWHG LQ WKH UHVSHFWLYH FRQFLOLDU
document “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World”. The church
is certainly portrayed there as a divine-KXPDQRUJDQLVP\HWWKHTXHVWLRQLVZKDW
predominates in this connection and where the emphasis lies. This may become
cleDUHU LI ZH FRPSDUH 2UWKRGR[ Roman Catholic DQG 3URWHVWDQW attitudes to-
ZDUGVWKHZRUOGDVVXFK,QWKLVUHVSHFWWKH2UWKRGRx remain much more other-
worldly oriented than the other two major Christian traditions. This situation is
mainly due to socio-KLVWRULFDO UHDVRQV IRU H[DPSOH WR the fact that Orthodox
13 6HH9DVLOLRV10DNULGHV³ª2UWKRGR[LH©DOVGHUHLQ]LJZDKUH*ODXEH5HFKWJOlXELJNHLW
DOVVSH]LILVFKH8UVDFKHGHVRUWKRGR[HQ5LJRULVPXV)XQGDPHQWDOLVPXV´LQ-HQQLIHU:DV-
PXWK HG Fundamentalismus als ökumenische HerausforderungPaderborn –
179.
Christianity did not face modernity the way this was done by the Western
Churches and did not develop a systematic exposition of its social teaching. 14
TalNLQJDERXWWKH2UWKRGR[DWWLWXGHWRZDUGVWKHPRGHUQZRUOGLQJHQHUDOLW
is helpful to distinguish between two vital dimensions of the present topic. On the
RQH KDQG the stance towards the world as such is an issue that concerned
Christianity as a new religion from the very beginning and thus has a very long
KLVWRU\ 2Q WKH RWKHU KDQG the position vis-à-vis modernity is a more recent
phenomenon and has presented various FKDOOHQJHVWRWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOG espe-
cially in the last thUHHFHQWXULHV1RGRXEW ERWKLVVXHVDUHFRQQHFWHG\HWWhey are
far from identical and have significant repercussions for a comparative analysis
of related Christian approaches to the world in East and West)LUVWWKH2UWKRGR[
have historically shown less world-affirming attitudes than Western Christians.
6HFRQGWKH\ZHUHOHVVLQIOXHQFHGE\WKH :HVWHUQ SURMHct of moderniW\ZKLFK
has basically changed the overall profile of Western Christianity over the long
run. These differences do not reflect value-MXGJHPHQWV EXW VLPSO\ diverging
developmental trajectories across history. All the above aspects are also closely
UHODWHGJLYHQWKDWPRGHUQLW\ZHQWKDQGLQKDQGZLWKDmore positive valuation
and ontological affirmation of the mundane world. NevertheOHVV Whis complex
VLWXDWLRQUHPDLQVDFKDOOHQJHIRUWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOGZKLFKstill struggles to find
an appropriate place within the overall setting RI PRGHUQLW\ )RU H[DPSOH WKH
official position of the Russian Orthodox Church on modern human rights from
2008 ZDVVXFKDQDWWHPSW\HWLWFOHDUO\VKRZed the existing differences to West-
ern Christian positions on the same issue.
More importantlyGHVSLWHVHYHUDOFRPPRQSUHVXSSRVLWLRQV HJeschatologi-
FDO WKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHVstill do not have a uniform position on their role and
PLVVLRQLQWKHPRGHUQZRUOGWKXVtheir respective suggestions vary significantly.
A cursory look at related statements from the Patriarchates of Constantinople and
Moscow suffices to make this FOHDU<HWQobody disagrees that this is a key issue
needing systematic attention and treatment from an Orthodox point of view. This
explains why the Council issued such a VSHFLILFGRFXPHQW 15 which touched upon
DYDULHW\RILVVXHVUDQJLQJIURPSHDFHMXVWLFH and responsibility to the freedom
RIWKHKXPDQSHUVRQKXPDQGLJQLW\ DQGGLVFULPLQDWLRQ6RFLDOSUREOHPVVXFK
DVSRYHUW\HFRQRPLFLPEDODQFHVHQYLURQPHQWDOGHVWUXFWLRQ and biotechnologi-
cal challenges were also briefly DGGUHVVHG%\WDNLQJDFORVHUDQGFRPSDrative
look at the document it becomes KRZHYHU FOHDU WKDW LW LV QRW D UDGLFDO RQH
namely one that breaks with the past. It represents an openness to the modern
14 6HH 9DVLOLRV 1 0DNULGHV ³:K\ GRHV WKH 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFK /DFN 6\VWHPDWLF 6RFLDO
7HDFKLQJ"´Skepsis. A Journal for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research
281–312.
15 6HH9DVLOLRV10DNULGHV³=ZLVFKHQ7UDGLWLRQXQG(UQHXHUXQJ'DV3DQRUWKRGR[H.RQ]LO
DQJHVLFKWV GHU PRGHUQHQ :HOW´ Catholica. Vierteljahresschrift für ökumenische
Forschung –32.
ZRUOG \HW LWV VRXUFHV WKHRORJLFDO DUJXPHQWDWLRQ and priorities remain quite
traditional and reflect long-established Orthodox notionsIRUH[DPSOHWKHQHHG
to transform the world according to Orthodox criteria and vision. What is categori-
FDOO\GHQLHGLVDQ\ZRUOGOLQHVVRIWKHFKXUFKLH to render the world a criterion
for the church by secularising it,QWKLVZD\WKHERXQGDULHVEHWZHHQWKHFKXUFK
and the world are strictly drawn whereas the church is presented as being
ontologically by far superior to the world. All this does not indicate any greater
world-affirming attitude among the Orthodox than before.
)XUWKHUPRUHE\FRPSDULQJWKLVFRQFLOLDUdocument with its earlier drafts one
realises that there has been a “conservative turn” in the argumentation manifested
on several occDVLRQVIRUH[DPSOHE\HPSKDVising the role of moral principles in
conceptualising human dignity and limiting human freedom ,Q DOO SUREDELOLW\
this was aimed at satisfying various positions critical towards modernity (espe-
cialO\UDLVHGE\WKH5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[VLGH DQGUHDFKLQJ a compromise. The tone
RI WKH GRFXPHQW LV EDODQFHG DQG LWV ODQJXDJH FRQYHQWLRQDO ZKLOH WKH WRSLFV
discussed are rather harmless to the church and not particularly challenging. It is
more DERXWDFRQWUROOHGFDUHIXO and timid openness to the world of todD\\HW
without breaking new ground or attempting to radically innovate. The church is
DQG VKRXOG EH SDUW RI WKLV ZRUOG \HW LW VKRXOG DOZD\V NHHS LWV PDLQ Fharacter
uncontaminated from it – so the main argumentation line. ,QJHQHUDOWKLVGRFX-
ment was quite short for the range of issues it attempted WRFRYHUHVSHFLDOO\LIZH
FRPSDUH LW ZLWK WKH ³%DVHV RI WKH 6RFLDO &RQFHSW” of the Russian Orthodox
Church from ZKLFKwas a much more systematically articulated text. As
stated in the Patriarchal and SynodDO(QF\FOLFDORQWKH&RQYRFDWLRQRIWKH+RO\
and Great Council of the Orthodox Church by the Patriarchate of Constantinople
(18 March DVZHOODVLQRWKHULQVWDQFHVDQGRIILFLDODGGUHVVHVWKH&RXQFLO’s
primary objective was to deal with the internal problems of the Orthodox world
first and only then to ORRNDWLWVPLVVLRQLQWKHPRGHUQZRUOGZKLFKalso belongs
to its responsibilities. <HW a more systematic treatment of the latter topic was
postponed to a future Council. This ranking of priorities PD\EHXQGHUVWDQGDEOH
but it is again indicative of the fact that engagement with the modern world is not
on the top of the Orthodox agenda.
It is chDUDFWHULVWLFhowever that the Council document proceeds to an explicit
FULWLTXH RI VRPH FRQVHTXHQFHV RI PRGHUQLW\ IRU H[DPSOH LQGLYLGXDO KXPDQ
rights and freeGRPYDULRXVIRUPVRIOLEHUDOLW\ and individualityDs well as the
RYHUDOOVHFXODUHQYLURQPHQWZKLFKLVSRUWUD\HGDVLQQHHGRIDUH-evangelisation.
It thus seems that the purpose of the document is not an Orthodox arrangement
ZLWKPRGHUQLW\EXWUDWKHULWVfundamental FULWLTXH+HUHWKHGLIIHUHQFHVWRWKH
respective attitudes of the Western Churches towards modernity are quite evident.
,QWHUHVWLQJO\HQRXJKPDQ\Fentral topics that have concerned Western Churches
in modern times are not UHIOHFWHGDWDOOE\WKH2UWKRGR[IRULQVWDQFHWKHQHHG
and the development of an Orthodox economic ethic or of an Orthodox political
theology. In addLWLRQ the readiness for a sustained dialogue with secular

institutions and actors about the modern world and the conditions of its existence
is lacking – things that are rather self-evident and quite normal in the Western
Christian context since a long time.
All this makes clear that a major challenge for the Orthodox world in the
future is to develop its own well-founded and SUDJPDWLF\HWFULWLFDOVWDQFHWR-
wards modernity at large. Such a change presupposes a real familiarisation with
the basic tenets of the modern project and the structure of the modern world. It
should lead to a basic acceptance of the legitimacy of the modern age and its later
phases (HJpostmodernitySRVW-secularity LQDFULWLFDOPDQQHU coupled with a
re-orientation towards the future. For various socio-KLVWRULFDODQGRWKHUUHDVRQV
the Orthodox world has not managed so far to do this and cannot be held respon-
sible for this deficit. If we lookIRULQVWDQFH at the Orthodox evaluation of the
Enlightenment heritageZH ILQGWKDWLWLVDQRYHUZKHOPLQJO\QHJDWLYHRQHDIDFW
that shows vividly the lack of a more constructive dealing with modernity as a
whole.
,QJHQHUDOthe need for the Orthodox world to proceed further and initiate a
systematic and fruitful encounter with modernity is nowadays expressed by many
Orthodox actors. 7RWKLVSXUSRVHWKH2UWKRGR[PD\EHKHOSHGE\WKH:estern
Christian experience in WKLVPDWWHUERWK3URWHVWDQWDQG5RPDQ&DWKROLF 16 This
does not mean that they should copy or just replicate what these churches have
already done. Every churchDIWHUDOO has KDGLWVRZQGLIIHUHQWH[SHULHQFe with
modernity and hasUHVSHFWLYHO\ attempted to come to a more productive encoun-
WHUZLWKLW)RUH[DPSOHLWWRRNWKH&DWKROLFVPDQ\FHQWXULHVWRDFKLHYHWKLVDIWHU
SURORQJHG LQWHQVH DQG FRPSOH[ FRQIOLFWV 7KH breakthrough took place solely
with the Second Vatican Council (1962– and the aggiornamento it set forth.
On the PrRWHVWDQWVLGHWKLQJVZHUHDOLWWOH “eDVLHU´JLYHQWKDW3URWHVWDQW&KXUFKHV
arose in parallel with modernity and from the outset exhibited stronger world-
affirming attitudes<HWHYHQKHUH problems and conflicts of all sorts were not
out of WKHRUGLQDU\especially if one considers the later rise of Protestant funda-
mentalism. +RZHYHUDll this remains to a large extent a terra incognita for the
2UWKRGR[ZRUOG ZKLFK LQ PDQ\ FDses still thinks and operates with categories
drawn from a pre-modern frame of reference. It is thus necessary that the
Orthodox become familiar with the logic of the modern world and try to formulate
their message accordingly. It is not accidental that the Orthodox have shown little
interest so far in the important document Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican
CounciOZKLFKZDVWKHRQHWKDWHQDEOHGWKHFULWLFDOHQJDJHPHQWwith the modern
16 6HH $WKDQDVLRV 9OHWVLV ³'DV ,, 9DWLFDQXP XQG GLH 2UWKRGR[LH (LQ %HLVSLHO ]XU
1DFKDKPXQJĆatholica –9DVLOLRV10DNULGHV³'HUNRQVWUXNWLYH
Umgang mit der Moderne – RGHUZDVGLH2UWKRGR[LHYRP.DWKROL]LVPXV]XOHUQHQYHU-
PDJ´LQ'LHWPDU6FKRQ HG Identität und Authentizität von Kirchen im „globalen Dorf“.
Annäherung von Ost und West durch gemeinsame Ziele?5HJHQVEXUJ–127.
world IRU WKH &DWKROLFV 2Q WKH FRQWUDU\ WKH 2UWKRGR[ mostly preferred to
comment on WKH HFFOHVLRORJLFDO OLWXUJLFDO DQG GRJPDWLF GRFXPHQWV of this
CRXQFLODIDFW that once more underlines their disregard for the pressing issues of
modernity and the contemporary ZRUOG$IWHUDOOLQWKHORQJSUH-conciliar period
as well as in the initial plans and preliminary documents WKH PLVVLRQ of the
Orthodox Church in the modern world was never a priority and was put on the
discussion agenda much later 1RGRXEWespecially over the last three decades
there have been numerous Orthodox thinkers of varied provenance and in diverse
insWLWXWLRQDOVHWWLQJVZKRHQGHDYRXUDGLDORJXHZLWKWKHPRGHrn world at an inter-
national level with considerable results and success. The Patriarchate of Constan-
tinople is aware of this vast Orthodox potential and the related resources and
appears ready to hear the respective suggestions. The new social document of the
Orthodox Church of 2020DOUHDG\EULHIO\PHQWLRQHGDERYH is a clear evidence of
VXFKDSURJUHVV<HWRWKHUZLGHO\circulating Orthodox discourses promote an
anti-modern agenda (HJ HVSHFLDOO\ WKH 5XVVLDQ RQH ZLWK its rhetoric for the
defense of ³WUDGLWLRQDOYDOXHV´ and enjoy significant influence and appeal. The
question is then which trend will set the pace in the future for articulating the role
and the mission of the Orthodox Church in the modern world.
)RXUWK Dnother important issue that the Council made plainly evident was the
JHRSROLWLFDOEDFNJURXQGRQZKLFKFKXUFKDXWKRULW\SOD\VRXW 17 and the broader
role of Orthodoxy in domestic and foreign politics as well as in international
relations. 18 ,Q JHQHUDO WHUPV Lt is more clear than ever that much of what is
17 6HH )UDQoRLV 7KXDO Géopolitique de l’orthodoxie 6HFRQG HGLWLRQ 3DULV 'DQ
'XQJDFLX“The Geopolitics of Orthodoxy and the Religious Resurrections in Southeastern
Europe – The Case of Serbia-0RQWHQHJUR8NUDLQHDQG5HSXEOLFRI0ROGDYLD´Romanian
Journal of Sociology –'PLWULL6LGRURY³3RVW-Imperial Third Romes:
ResurrecWLRQVRID5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[*HRSROLWLFDO0HWDSKRU´Geopolitics –
0LFKDá :DZU]RQHN Religion and Politics in Ukraine: The Orthodox and Greek
Catholic Churches as Elements of Ukraine’s Political System1HZFDVWOHXSRQ7\QH
0DUOqQH/DUXHOOHThe “Russian World”: Russia’s Soft Power and Geopolitical Imagina-
tion:DVKLQJWRQ'&/XFLDQ1/HXVWHDQ³(DVWHUQ2UWKRGR[\*HRSROLWLFVDQGWKH
C+RO\DQG*UHDW6\QRGRIWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK´Geopolitics –216.
18 See RoberW&%OLWW³5XVVLD¶Vµ2UWKRGR[¶)RUHLJQ3ROLF\7KH*URZLQJ,QIOXHQFHRIWKH
5XVVLDQ 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFK LQ 6KDSLQJ 5XVVLD¶V 3ROLFLHV $EURDG´ University of
Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 33: – 0DULD (QJVWU|P
“Contemporary Russian 0HVVLDQLVP DQG 1HZ 5XVVLDQ )RUHLJQ 3ROLF\´ Contemporary
Security Policy –/XFLDQN. /HXVWHDQ HG Eastern Christianity and
Politics in the Twenty-first Century/RQGRQ*UHJ6LPRQV³5HOLJLRXV'LSORPDF\LQ
International and Inter-2UWKRGR[5HODWLRQV´LQ*reg Simons and 'DYLG:HVWHUOXQG HGV
Religion, Politics and Nation-Building in Post-Communist Countries/RQGRQ and New
<RUN1<–'DYLG&DGLHUand 0DUJRW/LJKW HGV Russia’s Foreign Policy:
Ideas, Domestic Politics and External Relations +RXQGPLOOV Dnd 1HZ <RUN1<
1LFRODL13HWUR³+RZWKH:HVW/RVW5XVVLD([SODLQLQJWKH&RQVHUYDWLYH7XUQLQ5XVVLDQ
happening in the Orthodox world today is not justified primarily or solely through
WKHRORJ\DQGFKXUFKWUDGLWLRQEXWDOVR through geopolitical principles and power
struggles. The whole issue is of course not a completely new one as the church
has played a geopolitical role in the past tooIRULQVWDQFHLQWKHcontext of the
%\]DQWLQHor Tsarist Russian foreign policy. The main difference from the past
relates basically to the globalisDWLRQSURFHVVRIWRGD\ZKLFK has become more
intense and influential than before and has implicated in its course religion (and
LQRXUFDVH2UWKRGR[&KULVWLDQLW\ DVZHOO$VDUHVXOWUHOLJLRQ can no longer be
FRQFHLYHG ZLWKRXW LWV EURDGHU UDPLILFDWLRQV JHR SROLWLFDO VRFLDO FXOWXUDO or
otherwise. The strong connection between geopolitics and Orthodoxy is thus
made clear on several levels and deeply affects inter-2UWKRGR[ UHODWLRQV HVSH-
cially in debatable or conflict situations. It goes without saying that all this divides
WKH 2UWKRGR[ ZRUOG DV GLYHUJHQW JHRSROLWLFDO FRQFHSWV DQG RULHQWDWLRQV DULVH
which do not leave the Orthodox Churches unaffected. Given the long tradition
of strong and mutual relations between church and state in predominantly Ortho-
GR[ FRXQWULHV WKH 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFKHV DUH RIWHQ WUDQVIRUPHG LQWR JHRSROLtical
players in the global arena with far-reaching consequences.
,QWKHILUVWSODFHWKLVFRQFHUQVWKH3DWULDUFKDWHRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHZKLFK
has a particular status today. It is devoid of a direct state support and alliance as
it is placed in a rather inimical Muslim environment having to deal with the
aspirations of the modern Turkish history and foreign policy. NecHVVDULO\ WKLV
renders the condition of its existence precarious and hence its overall policy
GLSORPDWLF2QWKHRWKHUKDQGLWLVfound firmly in “Greek handV´while preserv-
ing its ecumenical role in the present global environment and avoiding identifi-
cation with the narrow national interests of Greek political or ecclesiastical actors.
Its occasional problems or even conflicts with the Greek Orthodox Church are a
FDVHLQSRLQW(VSHFLDOO\LQWKHSHULRGRIWKHFXUUHQW3DWULDUFK%DUWKRORPHZ VLQFH
WKH3DWULDUFKDWHKDVWULHGWREHFRPHDJOREDOSOD\HURQDQXPEHURIOHYHOV
ranging from inter-religious and cultural to ecological and political. To this pur-
SRVH&RQVWDQWLQRSOHhas been supported by both UHOLJLRXV HJWKH9DWLFDQWKH
World Council of Churches SROLWLFDO HJWKH86$WKH(XURSHDQ8QLRQ and
other actors around the world. The ties between Constantinople and the Western
world grew during the 20th century in the context of the political and ideological
opposition between the liberal West and the communist East. It was in fact in the
Cold War period that the USA discovered the great geopolitical significance of
)RUHLJQ 3ROLF\´ Russian Politics – LGHP ³7KH 5XVVLDQ 2UWKRGR[
&KXUFK´LQ$QGUHL37V\JDQNRY HG Routledge Handbook of Russian Foreign Policy
/RQGRQ–7RELDV.|OOQHUReligion and Politics in Contemporary Russia:
Beyond the Binary of Power and Authority/RQGRQ
the Ecumenical Patriarchate and started supporting it 19 a situation that continues
XQWLOWRGD\ HJLQWKHFRQWH[WRIthe Ukrainian-Russian political and ecclesias-
WLFDO FRQIOLFW It is also no wonder that there is a strong lobby in the USA for
multifaceted support of the Ecumenical Throne HJWKHOrder of Saint Andrew
the Apostle: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate LQ $PHULFD and that the
Council of Crete was also subsidised by American Orthodox circles. The refusal
of the Moscow Patriarchate to participate in the Council of Crete is of course not
unrelated to the alleged “Americanisation” of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The latter is also supported by the Western world in general due to its sensitive
ORFDWLRQLQD0XVOLPFRXQWU\FRQVLGHULQJWKDWWKHSDUDPHWHU³,VODPLFZRUOG´KDV
acquired such a key dimension worldwide in recent times. These are central
geopolitical questions that cannot be ignored by various influential international
institutions and actors today IRUZKLFKUHOLJLRQLVDFHQWUDOLQVWUXPHQWRI IRUHLJQ
policy&RQVHTXHQWO\WKLVEHFRPHVDNLQGRIPL[HGEOHVVLQJIRU&RQVWDQWLQRSOH
On the one KDQGLWDFTXLUHVWKHPXFK-needed strong external support which is
vital for its future survival in the difficult modern Turkish political framework.
On the RWKHUKDQGLWGHHSO\SROLWLFLVes this historical see of Eastern Christianity
not the least by affecting its supranational and impartial ecumenical UROHZKLFK
is not completely recognisHG DV VXFK E\ RWKHU SRZHUIXO 2UWKRGR[ DFWRUV
especially from the Moscow Patriarchate.
As H[SHFWHG WKH Patriarchate of Moscow follows a completely different
agenda if one takes into consideration its impressive domestic and international
development and establishment in close relation to the state after the fall of the
Soviet Union (1989– . 1HHGOHVVWRVD\WKLVLVKDUGO\DnHZSKHQRPHQRQ
given the centuries-old close relations between church and state in the Russian
(PSLUH &KDUDFWHULVWLFDOO\ WKLV ZDV also continued to some extent under the
atheistic SovLHWUHJLPHZKLFKLQVWUXPHQWDOLVed the Orthodox Church for its own
ideological and other goals. An attempt to convoke a Pan-Orthodox Council in
Moscow in 1948 was even initiated under Joseph Stalinwho after World War II
KDGEHFRPHWROHUDQWWRZDUGVWKHFKXUFK\HWWKLV&RXQFLO enjoyed solely a limited
Orthodox attendance. 20
The developments in post-Soviet times led once more to an extraordinary
VWUHQJWKHQLQJ RI WKH 0RVFRZ 3DWULDUFKDWH DQG WKH 5XVVLDQ &KXUFK DV D ZKROH
FRQQHFWHG ZLWK WKH DVSLUDWLRQWR EHFRPH DW OHDVW de facto WKe most prominent
Orthodox actor in the world today – usuallyDWWKHGLVSHQVHRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOH
19 6HH 3DYORV 6HUDSKHLP ȉȠ ȅȚțȠȣȝİȞȚțȩ ȆĮĲȡȚĮȡȤİȓȠ ıĲȘ įȓȞȘ ĲȠȣ ȌȣȤȡȠȪ ȆȠȜȑȝȠȣ Ǿ
İțȜȠȖȒĲȠȣȆĮĲȡȚȐȡȤȘǹșȘȞĮȖȩȡĮ >7KH(FXPHQLFDO3DWULDUFKDWHLQWKH7KURHVRI
the Cold War. The Election of Patriarch AthenagoraV @ 7KHVVDORQLNL
3DVFKDOLV0.LWURPLOLGHVReligion and Politics in the Orthodox World: The Ecumenical
Patriarchate and the Challenges of Modernity/RQGRQand 1HZ<RUN1<–91.
20 6HH'DQLHOD.DONDQGMLHYD7KH5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[&KXUFK–)URP'HFOLQH to
Resurrection/RQGRQ–344.
The various forms of strong collaboration between political and religious leader-
ship under Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia today have already become the topic
of numerous studies. 21 The church ideologically supports the regime and its
IRUHLJQ SROLF\ HJ in the case of the internationally disputed annexation of
Crimea in 2014 ZKLOHLWis an integral part of Russian foreign policy. The state
also shares its fears about Western distorted ideas and influences that might
threaten the “Orthodox traditional YDOXHV´RI5XVVLD,QIDFWWKH5XVVLDQ&KXUFK
upholds a new traditionalism in fighting off potential Western threats while
remaining an international player. It is connected with active religious diplomacy
LQ TXLWH GLYHUVH VHWWLQJV UHOLJLRXV and cultural. This becomes evident IRU
H[DPSOH in the context of the Foundation “Russian World” (Ɋɭɫɫɤɢɣ ɦɢɪ 22 or
if one considers the recent opening of a +RO\ 7ULQLW\ &DWKHGUDO DQG D
Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Centre in central Paris near the Eiffel
Tower. The trip of Patriarch Kirill to Latin America LQKLVPHHting with
3RSH)UDQFLVLQ+DYDQD &XED and the way he was received there by religious
and non-religious actors also reveals the importance of his position within the
overall Russian geopolitical agenda.
All this may offer some explanations as to why the Russian ChurFKWRJHWKHU
with the other churches XQGHULWVLPPHGLDWHLQIOXHQFHDWWHPSWHGILUVWWRSRVWSRne
the Council of Crete and finally decided not to participate in it. Despite the
unanimous Pan-Orthodox decision in January 2016 to proceed with the convo-
cation of the Council in JuneWKHproblems and the objections multiplied as the
date of the Council was approaching. Political conflicts at that timeDVWKHRQH
between Russia DQG7XUNH\DOVRSOD\HGDUROHZKLFKH[SODLQVWKHWUDQVIHURIWKH
Council from Constantinople to Crete in the first place. FoUDQRXWVLGHREVHUYHU
it became more than clear that one was looking for a reason to say “no” and avoid
WDNLQJSDUWLQWKH&RXQFLOZKLFKLVZKDWILQDOO\KDSSHQHG$IWHUVXFKORQJDQG
intense pre-conciliar preparaWLRQV the Pan-Orthodox Council could have been
regarded as a further success for Constantinople and its claims for primacy within
the Orthodox worldto which Moscow did not necessarily want to consent. It is
also not accidental that one can observe various attempts from the Russian Church
21 6HH/HH7UHSDQLHUPolitical Symbols in Russian History: Church, State, and the Quest for
Order and Justice/DQKDP)DMIHUDQG5LPHVWDG³7KH3DWULDUFKDWHV´ DVQ ,ULQD
3DSNRYDThe Orthodox Church and Russian Politics1HZ<RUN1< .DWMD5LFKWHUV
The Post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church: Politics, Culture and Greater Russia/RQGRQ
2013.
22 6HH 'DQLHO 3 3D\QH ³6SLULWXDO 6HFXULW\ WKH 5XVVNL\ 0LU DQG WKH 5XVVLDQ 2UWKRGR[
Church: The Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on Russia’s Foreign Policy
5HJDUGLQJ 8NUDLQH 0ROGRYD *HRUJLD DQG $UPHQLD´ LQ $GDP +XJ HG Traditional
Religion and Political Power: Examining the Role of the Church in Georgia, Armenia,
Ukraine and Moldova /RQGRQ – 0LFKDá :DZU]RQHN 1HOO\ %HNXV and
0LUHOOD.RU]HQLHZVND-:LV]QHZVND HGV Orthodoxy Versus Post-Communism? Belarus,
Serbia, Ukraine and the Russkiy Mir1HZFDVWOH upon Tyne 2016.
to legitimise a higher ecclesiological and geopolitical role for itself than for
Constantinople in today’s complex world.
%HDULQJDOOWKLVLQPLQGLWEHFRPHVREYLous that the increased politicisation
and nationalisation of the Orthodox world contribute significantly to the problems
of inter-Orthodox cooperation and coordination. Many local Orthodox Churches
are closely linked to VWDWHDQGQDWLRQDOSROLFLHVDQGDVSLUDWLRQVZKLFKOHDGVWKHP
at times to endorse a different agenda towards sister churches and thus promote
2UWKRGR[GLVXQLW\,QIDFWLt is about the internal secularisation of the Orthodox
world as it falls victim to non-religious objectives and state instrumentalisation.
To be fairSROLWLFLVation is not a new phenomenon in Eastern Orthodox history.
+RZHYHUWhe main difference of today concerns the fact that it is taking place in
the context of the nation-sWDWHcoupled with respective nationalisDWLRQSURFHVVHV
which have historically had a divisive impact upon the Orthodox world as a whole
and still play a significant role in church politics. All this is related to specific
characteristics of the structure of the 2UWKRGR[ZRUOG HJthe system of autoce-
phaly DGPLQLVWUDWLYH SOXUDOLVP GHcentralisation ZKLFK LQ WKe modern context
was transformed into a national one in close association with the rise of modern
nation-states. In additioQWKHVWURQJFORVHQHVVEHWZHHQFKXUFKVWDWHDQGQDWLRQ
in OrthoGR[ FRQWH[WV FRQWLQXHV WR FUHDWH YDULRXV SUREOHPV DV LW FRQQHFWV WKH
church with various secular discoursesYLVLRQVDQGJRDOV 23
A related issue however LV that of the Orthodox diaspora ZKLFK IDFHs a
number of varied proEOHPV WKHRORJLFDl and jurisdicWLRQDO DOLNH 24 and received
attention during the Council in the document entitled “The Orthodox Diaspora”.
,Q WKLV FRQWH[W LW LV FUXFLDO WR underline that this issue has strong geopolitical
implications for local Orthodox Churches too JLYHQ WKDW LW SHUWDLQV WR WKHLU
international presence and the transnational ties kept by their believers
respectively. 25 It is thus not accidental that the OrthRGR[ &KXUFKHV HVSHFLDOO\
those of Constantinople and Moscow are at pains to keep Orthodox diasporic
communities under their control and influence and to incorporate new ones into
their jurisdictions. This important issue was addressed by the Council in an
23 6HH 9DVLOLRV 1 0DNULGHV ³:K\ DUH 2UWKRGR[ &KXUFKHV 3DUWLFXODUO\ 3URQH WR
1DWLRQDOL]DWLRQDQGHYHQWR1DWLRQDOLVP"´St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
325–/XFLDQ1/HXVWHDQ³$IWHUZRUG:K\DUH2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHV3URQHWR3ROLWLFDO
MobilL]DWLRQ 7RGD\"´ LQ 6DEULQD 5DPHW HG Orthodox Churches and Politics in
Southeastern Europe: Nationalism, Conservativism, and Intolerance&KDP6ZLW]HUODQG
FRUUHFWHG –255.
24 6HH 0DULD +lPPHUOL DQG Jean-)UDQoRLV 0D\HU HGV Orthodox Identities in Western
Europe: Migration, Settlement and Innovation )DUQKDP 6HEDVWLDQ Rimestad
Orthodox Christian Identity in Western Europe: Contesting Religious Authority/RQGRQ
2020.
25 6HH9LFWRU5RXGRPHWRI³Orthodox Christianity as a TransnatioQDO5HOLJLRQ7KHRUHWLFDO
+LVWRULFDODQG&RPSDUDWLYH&RQVLGHUDWLRQV´Religion, State & Society –
227.
attempt to deal with the growing differentiation of the Orthodox Church body in
diasporic contexts along national lines and simultaneously to keep broader Pan-
Orthodox unity alive and functioning. It is in this context of “global Orthodoxy”
that we may also encounter new forms of an Orthodox identification and practice
DGDSWHG WR WKH UHVSHFWLYH ORFDO GLDVSRULF HQYLURQPHQW ZKLFK DW WLPHV have an
influence on the mother churches too. 26 0RUHRYHUthis is exactly where the pre-
viously discussed iVVXHV RI DXWRFHSKDO\ V\QRGDOLW\ and primacy acquire addi-
tional significance. This is due to the lurking danger of an enhanced autonomi-
sDWLRQRI2UWKRGR[GLDVSRULFFRPPXQLWLHVZKLFKPD\WKHUHE\DWWHmpt to acquire
a more independent status at the expense of a mother church.
The Contributions
All the above issues as well as various connected ones are treated in the various
chapters of the present volume devoted to the Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 and
its broader significance for the Orthodox world and Christianity at large. This
volume arose from an international conference at the University of Erfurt (25-27
)HEUXDU\ in the historical venue of the Augustinian Monastery (where
Martin Luther lived as an AugustiQLDQIULDUIURPXQWLO under the aus-
pices of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde” '*2 . The contribu-
tions were all conceived before the Council took place and were completed after
it. 7KHLGHDZDVWRVKHGOLJKWRQWKHFXUUHQWVWDWHRIWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFKZLWK
the Pan-OrWKRGR[&RXQFLODVWKHFRPPRQEDFNJURXQGIURPDYDULHW\RIGLVFL-
plinary perspectives. The focus of the conference was not solely on the Council
as an ecclesiastical and theological event but enabled various other perspectives
LQFOXGLQJ JHR SROLWLFDOKLVWRULFDODQGsociological ones. ,QWKLVYROXPHthese
have been grouped not according to the respective GLVFLSOLQH but depending on
the specific topics discussed.
In the first aQGPDLQSDUWRIWKHYROXPHVL[ authors take a closer look at the
Pan-Orthodox Council itself and its participants. Paul Valliere opens up the
section with a chapter on the notion of “couQFLO´LQWKH2UWKRGR[WUDGLWLRQDOOXG-
ing to the difficulties in convening the Council of 2016 due to the lack of a clari-
fied concept of conciliarism and a UHIRUPLVWVSLULWDVZHOODV due to the selective
amnesia of the Orthodox Church. Valliere makes clear that there have been many
different historical realisations and theoretical treatments of the theological
principle of Orthodox conciliarity$WWKHVDPHWLPH the Council of Crete also
revealed a rival principle – that of metropolitan authority D YHUWLFDO DQG PRUH
centralised principle the phenomenon of hyper-episcopal conciliarism and
26 See *LXVHSSH *LRUGDQ DQG 6LQLãD =ULQãþDN HGV Global Eastern Orthodoxy: Politics,
Religion, and Human Rights&KDP6ZLW]HUODQG13–39.
hierarchical centralism in the church. 1HYHUWKHOHVVWKHFODLPWKDWWKHCouncil of

Crete was not a true oneFRPLQJERWKIURPWKRVHDUJXLQJWKDWLWZDVQot demo-
cratic and from the last-minute defectors arguing that their absence invalidated LW
misses the mark. The Council ZDVLQGXELWDEO\RQHZKHUHDVLWVSODFHLQWKHKLVWRU\
of the Orthodox Church will be premised on future developments. To this pur-
SRVHFontacts with Roman Catholics may be SURYHQSURGXFWLYH DVWKHVH have
also discovered the significance of a creative ecclesiology and conciliarityGHVSLWH
the existence of various authoritarian trends within their church structure.
,QKHUFKDSWHU(YD06\QHNconsiders the Council of Crete and its partici-
pants from a canon law SHUVSHFWLYHDVOHJDOity in the Orthodox context is often
based on historical precedent. 0RUHRYHUWKHFDQRQOaw of the Orthodox Church
originates from a long and E\JRQHKLVWRULFDOSHULRGZKLFKPDNHVLWXQVXLWDEOHIRU
the many questions and dilemmas that have arisen only in the modern era. ,QIDFW
no clear answers can be given in many instances due to the new political realities
of today. With all these caveats in mind and numerous examples to point to6\QHN
provides a succinct overview of the distinction between universal and local church
in its historical and current guises. It is more than obvious that canon law issues
at the level of the universal church also have clear repercussions on the local level.
2QWKHRWKHUKDQGWKHORFDOFhurch is often better suited to resolve many of the
open questions. Synek therefore argues for a bottom-up approach to Orthodox
canon law rather than the other way around in order to lessen canonical problems
and complications in inter-Orthodox relations.
'DQLHOD.DONDQGMLHYDRQKHUSDUWcharts the difficult geopolitical relationship
between the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow from the mid-19th
century to the late 20th century revealing their constant rivalry on the geopolitical
scene. Due to tKHFRPPXQLVWWDNHRYHU2UWKRGR[\KDVEHHQYLUWXDOO\LJQRUHGLQ
modern studies of LQWHUQDWLRQDOUHODWLRQVDQGJHRSROLWLFVZKLFKUHPDLQHGPRUH
secularly oriented$VLVZHOONQRZQWKLVVLWXDWLRQKDVFKDQJHGUDGLFDOO\LQSRVW-
communist times. Kalkandjieva speaks of a special category of “ecclesiastical
JHRSROLWLFV´ ZLWK UHJDUG WR 2UWKRGR[\ ZKLFK is not state-GULYHQ DOWKRXgh it
remains connected to state policies. She divides these developments into four
SKDVHVHDFKRIZKLFKVKRZs a different geopolitical set-XSLQZKLFKWKHWZRPDLQ
Patriarchates of the Orthodox world deployed their power resources and gathered
VHFXODUDOOLHV)RU.DONDQGMLHYDLWLVWKLVIDWHIXOLQWHUOLQNDJHEHWZHHQtheology
and geopolitics that lies at the root of many current problems in the Orthodox
&KXUFK especially LWV DSSDUHQW ODFN RI YLVLEOH XQLW\ DV GHPRQVWUated in the
Council of Crete.
,QWKHLUMRLQWFKDSWHU$OH[DQGHU.\UOH]KHYand Andrey Shishkov attempt to
develop a viable typology and categorise the different autocephalous church
structures that make up the Orthodox world. Their main argument is that the
different churches have widely divergent self-understandings HJ GLIIHUHQW
HFFOHVLRORJLHV DQG QRWLRQV RI SULPDF\ ZKLFK PDNHV 3DQ-Orthodox unity a
GLIILFXOW HQGHDYRXU DV the claimed rights of many churches are contested by

others. This is especially applicable to the Patriarchates of Constantinople and
0RVFRZZKRare different in many vital UHVSHFWV HJ0RVFRZ¶V³PDWHULDOLW\´
vs. ConstantinoSOH¶V ³LPPDWHULDOLW\´ DQG entertain radically distinct views of
their role within global Orthodoxy. For .\UOH]KHY and ShishkovLWZDV first of
allWKLVHOHPHQWWKDWOHGIRXU2UWKRGR[&hurches to cancel their participation in
the Council of Crete. The Council also demonstrated the inefficiency of the pre-
conciliar instruments to ensure Pan-Orthodox unLW\1HYHUWKHOHVVWKHDXWKRUVsee
the potential for a more thoroughly Pan-Orthodox process to emanate from what
they consider a “failed” Pan-Orthodox Council of Crete.
A look at “alternative Orthodoxy” from the perspective of Religious Studies
is offered in the contribution of Sebastian Rimestad. The inapplicability of the
democratic ideal for an Orthodox council had already been alluded to in Valliere’s
chapterEXW5LPHVWDGWDNHVXSagain the question of who was not invited to the
Council of Crete 1H[W WR LWV GHPRJUDSKLF LQFRPSOHWHQHVV WKLV LQFOXGHV PDQ\
groups that are not considered part of the mainstream Orthodox Church (including
ZRPHQ OD\ SHRSOH aQG GLDVSRULF FKXUFK VWUXFWXUHV According to 5LPHVWDG
most of these groups are not concerned with developments in mainstream world
Orthodoxy anywayDVWKH\GRQRWFRQVLGHUWKHVHGHYHORSPHQWVUelevant to them.
+RZHYHU WKH distinguishing line between “canonical” and “alternative” Ortho-
doxy is far from clear-FXWDQGLVRIWHQWKHUHVXOWRILVVXHVRISROLWLFVDQGRUFKXUFK
discipline. *HQHUDOO\VSHDNLQJ³Dlternative Orthodoxy” is an issue that the Ortho-
dox mainstream cannot fully ignore or neglectJLYHQthat several matters involved
are of true Pan-Orthodox significance and relevance.
The second part of the volume entitled “The Orthodox Church and the
Modern World” groups four contributions together that are concerned with how
the Orthodox Church relates to the secular world of today. It begins with the
chapter of Alexander AgadMDQLDQ ZKR ORRNV DW the conciliar document “The
Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World” and contextualises it in the
overall Orthodox discourse about the modern world. Comparing this document to
earlier Russian Orthodox texts RQ VLPLODU WRSLFV $JDGMDQLDQ KLJKOLJKWV WKH
ambivalent and less pronounced attitude of Orthodox theologians towards the
ZRUOG ³RXW WKHUH´ ZKLFh is cautiously approached and only partly embraced
because of the strong Orthodox predilection for the inward perspective and of
otherworldly orientations. This is a fundamental issue that highlights many differ-
ences between East and West. A closer look at the history of the Orthodox enga-
gement with the world can reveal such OrthRGR[ SHFXOLDULWLHV 1R GRXEW WKLV
engagement does existEXW it is often neglected or downplayed. 0RUHRYHUWKH
tendency to remain vague and uncommittedDVPHQWLRQHGDERYH shines through
in several passages of the conciliar document as well. Agadjanian makes clear
that the conservative tone of this document owes much to the objections of the
Russian 2UWKRGR[VLGHZKLFKLQWKHpre-conciliar discussion rounds systemati-

cally tried to suppress any OLEHUDO WRQH DQG WUHQG HYHQ LI LQ WKH HQG LW GLG QRW
participate in the Council itself. +HQFHWhe approved document appears to be a
compromise that oscillates between a critique of secularism and a controlled
positive attitude towards the world.
The second contribution in this part by Aristotle Papanikolaou approaches a
VLPLODUTXHVWLRQEXWIURPDPRUHOLEHUDOSRLQWRIYLHZEDVHGRQWKHH[SHULHQFH
of Greek Orthodoxy in the pluralistic US milieu. +HUH LW LV Qot about the full
compatibility between secularity and Orthodox ChristianityEXWabout the kind of
democratic liberalism that the church should endorse in the current public political
space. This raises the issue of the potential differences between Orthodox dias-
poras in Western settings and Orthodox majority countries as far as their
respective relationship to the modern world is concerned. Using the example of
WKHOHJDOLVDWLRQRIJD\PDUULDJHZKLFKLVDIDFWLQthe 86$3DSDQLNRODRXDUJXHV
that much of the Orthodox theology opposing modern developments per se are
thinly veiled aWWHPSWVDWLGHQWLW\SROLWLFVZKLFK do not deserve to be called theo-
logical arguments at all. +HDOVRFULWLFLVHVWKHFRQFLOLDUdocument on the church’s
relations to the modern world as based on a rather outdated notion of secularity.
This is because secularity impliesDPRQJRWKHUWKLQJV the notion of SOXUDOLVP
which does not necessarily turn against religion. Traditional Orthodox cultures as
majorities privilege a cultural and historical monism and try to impose their
morality HYHU\ZKHUH ZKLFK LV KLJKO\ SUREOHPDWLF in modern pluralistic and
GLIIHUHQWLDWHG VRFLHWLHV ,Q WKLV FRQWH[W 3DSDQLNRODRX DWWHPSWV WR DUWLFXODWH WKH
contours of an “Orthodox Christian secularism” in the broader context of an Or-
thodox polLWLFDO WKHRORJ\ DLPHG DW thinking anew the position of the church
within the currently evolving public political space.
,QKLVFRQWULEXWLRQ/XFLDQ1/HXVWHDQRIIHUVDKLVWRULcal view on the rela-
tionship between Orthodox identityDOWHULW\ DQGQDWLRQDOLVP+HWDNHVthe reader
on a journey to a past where ethnic or national affiliation did not play such a
significant role as today. This recalls WKHIDFWWKDWHYHQLQWKHPRGHUQZRUOGVXFK
identities are not always clearly identifiable. In Leustean’s opinionWKH&RXQFLO
RI &UHWH IDLOHG WR DGGUHVV WKH FUXFLDO LVVXHV LQ UHODWLRQ WR QDWLRQDOLVP simply
because it did not want to acknowledge the “elephant in the room”: The Orthodox
Church today factually exists within the modern system of nation-states hence it
must adapt and act accordingly on various levels. This is especially important for
the status of the so-called “diaspora structures” that exist outside the borders of
nation-states recognised as having their own Orthodox Churches.
6LPLODUO\ Vassilis Pnevmatikakis in his chapter argues that the Orthodox
diasporic FRPPXQLWLHV ZKLFK DUH JHQHUDOO\ FRQVLGHUHG as an ecclesiastical
anomaly in Orthodox ecclesiology and as living in a “jurLVGLFWLRQDOFKDRVáre in
fact valuable assets. They show an Orthodox world that is freer and more inde-
pendent from direct political interference in contrast to the “mother churches” in
predominantly Orthodox countries. ,Q DGGLWLRQ the Orthodox diaspora is very

significant in terms of historical and current geopolitics. )RU3QHYPDWLNDNLVWKH
issue of the diaspora is not in itself a pressing issue for the Orthodox Church
QRZDGD\VJLYHQWKDW jurisdictionalism proves to be very useful and productive
under specific circumstances. Jurisdictional plurality is a reality and works
according to a flexible system. Despite the existence of still unresolved
ecclesiolRJLFDOSUREOHPVWKLVVLWXDWLRQ should not necessarily lead to Orthodox
disintegration and ensuing schisms. ,QGHHG WKLV LVVXH UHYHDOV once more the
underlying problematic relationship between the church and the modern world
and there can be no solution until this fundamental tension has been comprehen-
sively understood in its various articulations.
The last part of the volume is devoted to the place of the Orthodox Church
within broader Christianity DQG (FXPHQLVP DV LOOXVWUDWHG E\ WKH FRQFLOLDU
document on Orthodox relations with the rest of the Christian world. From a
5RPDQ &DWKROLF SHUVSHFWLYH 3Hter De Mey compares this document with the
corresponding document from the Second VaticDQ &RXQFLO Unitatis Redinte-
gratio +H DOVR FRPSDUHV ERWK &RXQFLOV PRUH EURDGO\ showing numerous
similarities and parallelsEXWDOVRFRQVLGHUDEOHGLIIHUHQFHVbetween them HJ
FRQFHUQLQJWKHUROHRIIRUHLJQREVHUYHUVWKHRORJLDQV DQGFDQRQODZVSHFLDOLVWV
,QDGGLWLRQKHSRLQWVWRvarious problematic and unresolved issues in the self-
understanding of the Orthodox Church (e.g. H[FOXVLYLW\ IXQGDPHQWDOLVP WKDW
complicate ecumenical relations. 1HYHUWKHOHVV'H0H\FKDUDFWHULVHVWKHCouncil
as an important step forward in the ecumenical dialogue underway between the
Orthodox and the Roman Catholics and recognises that the Orthodox have a tradi-
tion of openness towards other Christians and cKXUFKHVZKLFK may be reactivated
WRGD\$IWHUDOOGLDORJXHLVWKHSUHIHUHQWLDOPHWKRGLQcontemporary Ecumenism.
In her contribution ZULWWHQIURPD+XVVLWHWKHRORJLFDOSRLQWRIYLHZIvana
Noble appears to be both optimistic and critical with regard to the Council of
Crete. She concedes that the Council and its documents contain shortcomings and
XQFOHDU SDVVDJHV \HW she also finds the potential to open up a new era for the
Orthodox Church including its relations to the other Christian Churches. Truth be
WROGWKH2UWKRGR[ do exhibit various deficits from a Western Christian point of
YLHZH[FOXVLYLW\ODFNRIVHOI-FULWLTXHVHQVHRIVXSHULRULW\limited historicisa-
WLRQprioritisation of a contemplative rather than an active ZRUOGHQJDJHPHQWDV
well as a one-dimensional ecclesiology. What is mostly neededWKRXJKin her
YLHZis a true ecumenical mutuality between the Christian Churches in East and
:HVWQDPHO\the readiness both to give and to take. 7RWKLVSXUSRVHWhe Orthodox
QHHG WR UHGLVFRYHU WKHLU RSHQQHVV ZKLFK FDQ EH WHVWLILHG VHYHUDO WLPHV DFURVV
KLVWRU\DQGUHQGHULWWKHLUPDLQVWUHDPRULHQWDWLRQ today.
The last contribution by 3DQWHOLV.DODLW]LGLVFORVHVWKHFLUFOHZLWKDQ2UWKR-
dox theological account of the Council and its challHQJHVJRLQJIRUZDUG2YHUDOO
he recognises the achievements that have been reached through the conciliar
SURFHVVZLWKLQWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK$WWKHVDPHWLPHKHSRLQWVWRVRPHVWHSV
that were not taken during tKH&RXQFLORI&UHWHwhich could have rendered the
Orthodox Church even more relevant with a global reach in the contemporary
world. +H contends that the Council revealed the serious problems that many
Orthodox still have with Ecumenism by relying on their religious exclusivity.
During the Council LWVHOIit became clear that the “ecclesiality” of other Christian
Churches is still under question (cf. the debates whether the term “church” should
EHXVHGIRUWKHPWRR 2IILFLDOO\PRVt Orthodox Churches do participate in the
Ecumenical Movement (HJin the World CRXQFLORI&KXUFKHV but at the same
WLPHthere is an ambiguity towards Ecumenism because of more conservative and
exclusive Orthodox voices and trends. 0RUHLPSRUWDQWO\VXFK theological differ-
ences among the churches were often transformed into cultural ones with far-
reaching repercussions. Such trends are currently expressed on an official level
HJ by the Russian Orthodox Church DV ZHOO DV by Orthodox hardliners of
varied provenance trying to stop many creative developments within the Orthodox
ZRUOG HJFRQFHUQLQJWKHRUGLQDWLRQRIZRPHQDn issue discussed more system-
DWLFDOO\LQUHFHQW\HDUV ,QWKHHQGZhat KalaLW]LGLVVXSSRUWVLVWKHQHHGto avoid
identifying Orthodox unity with Orthodox uniformity and to allow room for
Orthodox diversity and plurality.
Concluding Remarks
+DVWKH3DQ-Orthodox Council of 2016 ushered in a new era for the Orthodox
&KXUFKDVDVNHGLQWKHWLWOHRIWKHSUHVHQWYROXPH" 1RGRXEWLWLVQRWDQHYHQW
that can be simply ignored and passed over in silence. OQ WKH FRQWUDU\ LW LV a
milestone for the Orthodox world and an important step in the conciliar process
which scholars a century from now might consider a watershed. The already now
existing wide literature on the topic attests to the significance of the event. All
contributions in this volume DUHXQLWHGLQWKHLUHPSKDVLVWKDWWKH*UHDWDQG+RO\
Synod of the Orthodox Church wDVDODQGPDUNRFFXUUHQFHHYHQ if it did not fully
live up to the expectations either of its participants or of those who decided not to
attend it. <HWDVDOUHDG\LQGLFDWHGWKHSRVW-conciliar period was characterised by
alarming developments for the Orthodox world. Instead of promoting and deepen-
ing Pan-2UWKRGR[XQLW\which was – after all – the JRDORIWKH&RXQFLOit came
to unleash centrifugal forces that became stronger and more pervasive. The
previously mentioned rift between Constantinople and Moscow that followed the
declaration of Ukrainian Church autocephaly in 2019 may serve as a pertinent
example for the current lack of unity within the Orthodox Church.
Aside from thiVWKH3DQ-Orthodox Council certainly had various limitations.
,WFDQQRWIRULQVWDQFHEHcompared to the Second Vatican Council as far as its
production and appeal are concerned. The approved documents tried to address
YDULRXVYLWDOLVVXHVRIWRGD\LQDFRQVWUXFWLYHZD\\HWWKH\VHHPed to be bound
more to tradition and basically did not break any new ground. In some caseVWKLV
fidelity to tradition was coupled with a controlled openness to new realities and
FKDOOHQJHV\HWLQDEDODQFed way and avoiding PRUHUDGLFDORSWLRQV(YHQVRLW
is surprising to witness that various Orthodox circles (e.g. the Monastic Commu-
nity RIWKH+RO\0RXQWDLQ$WKRV considered the Council highly problematic in
many respects and basically backed those churches that officially refused to
participate in it. Such voices mostly came from the multifaceted current of Ortho-
dox rigorismIXQGDPHQWDOLVPZKLFKDVDOUHDG\QRWHG has significantly gained
in intensity and influence during the last decades and receives support from many
VLGHVHYHQIURPVHOHFWHGFKXUFKKLHUDUFKV
,Q WKH HQG DOO WKLV UHYHDOV WKH SOXUDOLW\ RI YRLFHV ZLWKLQ WKH FRQWHPSRUDU\
Orthodox world and KRZGLIILFXOWLWLVUHDOLVWLFDOO\VSHDNLQJWRUHDFKDEURDGHU
and durable Pan-Orthodox agreement on key issues. In such a disparate Orthodox
HQYLURQPHQW LW LV DGYLVDEOH WR UHPDLQ rather modest and avoid setting high
standards from the outset. The Orthodox conciliar process still has a long way to
go. This is not only evident in the fact that many issues were completely left out
RIWKH&RXQFLOGHOLEHUDWLRQVDQGQHJRWLDWLRQVIRUH[DPSOHWKH2UWKRGR[DWWLWXGHV
towards non-Christian religions (especially WR,VODP RUDFULWLFDOH[DPLQDWLRQRI
WKH LQWULFDWH UHODWLRQV EHWZHHQ FKXUFK VWDWH and politics and the consequences
thereof. It is also worth mentioning that the approved conciliar documents are
rather shorteven though they try to treat huge issues in a concise way. All this
PHDQVWKDWWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFKHVKDYHDORWWRGRLQWKH\HDUVWRFRPHQRWRQO\
in terms of overcoming their jurisdictional GLIIHUHQFHV EXW DOVR LQ GHYHORSLQJ
further their theological reflection. The conciliar documents are but a first timid
step in making Orthodox deliberations known to a wider public. They also reflect
various compromises that were reached between a fidelity to tradition and a con-
trolled openness towards the future.
+LVWRULFDOO\ VSHDNLQJ WKH &KULVWLDQ &KXUches have not remained bound to
WKHLUSDVWDQGWUDGLWLRQ$OWKRXJKLQPDQ\FDVHVUHOXFWDQWDQGKHVLWDQWWKH\ZHUH
forced by socio-historical developments to adapt themselves to new necessities
and reformulate their message accordingly. Such transitions were not necessarily
portrayed as breaks with the past and as moments of discontinuity in the history
of the &KULVWLDQ&KXUFKEXWoften as continuities in disguise. :LWKRXWTXHVWLRQ
the whole issue always depends on the respective observer and the concomitant
perspective. :DVIRUH[DPSOH0DUWLQ/XWKHU a reform-oriented Catholic? Or did
WKH5HIRUPDWLRQPDUNDEUHDNLQWKHKLVWRU\RI:HVWHUQ&KULVWLDQLW\"1RGRXEW
there were elemeQWV RI FRQWLQXLW\ ZLWK WKH SDVW and Luther’s intention may
primarily have been the reform of the Roman Catholic Church instead of the
FUHDWLRQRIDQHZ&KULVWLDQ&KXUFK<HWZKDWFRXQWVPRUHKHUHDUHWKHUHVXOWVRI
his whole endeavouU ZKLFK XQOHDVKHG XQFRQWUROODEOH IRUFHV WKDW OHG WR Whe
emergence of the various Reformed Churches. )URPWKLVDQJOHWKH5HIRUPDWLRQ
in the end meant a break with the past and led to the liberalisation and pluralisation
RI:HVWHUQ&KULVWLDQLW\regardless of whether this was Luther’s initial intention.
+RZHYHUZhat is important and deserves to be emphasised here is that Western
Churches in many respects appeared readier to deal with such challengesZKLFK
often engendered painful consequences+RZHYHU they were able to change and
adapt their policies and strategies accordingly. This is due to various reasons
pertaining to the specificities of this religious field. It holds true for the Protestant
&KXUFKHVEXWDOVRIRUWKH5RPDQ&DWKROLF&KXUFKZKRVHHVWDEOLVKPHQWhas been
attacked and seriously challenged in modern times. It took several centuries for
WKH&DWKROLFVWRFRPHWRWHUPVZLWKWKHEDVLFWHQHWVRIPRGHUQLW\HVSHFLDOO\DIWHU
WKH 6HFRQG 9DWLFDQ &RXQFLO DQG DUWLFXODWH D QHZ FRXUVH RI GHYHORSPHQW %XW
simply the fact that both Roman Catholics and Protestants have profited from one
another in the long runHYHQ if often WDFLWO\DQGLPSOLFLWO\ attests to the potential
of the Western Churches to develop further and explore new paths and territories.
The case of Orthodox Christianity LVGLIIHUHQWLQPDQ\UHVSHFWVDVOrtho-
dox Churches generally show less readiness IRUFKDQJHUHIRUP and innovation. 27
The assumption that the Christian message has a perennial significance beyond
time and space corroborates such attitudes. There still exists a notorious and
influential OrthoGR[WUDGLWLRQDOLVPZKLFKinhibits further developments within
WKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOG7KLVLVRIWHQFRQQHFWHGZLWKDFUHGXORXVXQFULWLFDOYHQHUD-
WLRQRIWKHSDVWZKLFKLVvalued higher than the present and the future. Further
2UWKRGR[ FKDUDFWHULVWLFV VXFK DV WKH YLUXOHQW DQWL-Westernism and defensive
introversion FRPSOLFDWH WKH SLFWXUH No doubt WKH 2UWKRGR[ ZRUOG LV QRW D
PRQROLWKLF EORFN DQG RQH PD\ certainly ILQG H[DPSOHV ERWK KLVWRUical and
currentWKDWUHYHDODQRWKHUDQGPRUHUHIRUP-RULHQWHGSLFWXUHRILW<HWLWLVVWLOO
quite important to remember ZKDWUHSUHVHQWVWKHPDLQVWUHDPDQGVHWVWKHUXOHQRW
the potential exceptions from it. Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon at the Second
Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference in Chambésy (3-12 September
sincerely lamented that in most cases Orthodox Christians still live today in a
VLWXDWLRQRIHXGDLPRQLFVHOI-complacent inertia and immobility and in the bliss-
fulness of the sacred heritage of the Church Fathers. This is why they can neither
properly address nor solve current SUREOHPVeither those of the Orthodox world
27 6HH 9DVLOLRV 1 0DNULGHV ³2KQH /XWKHU (LQLJH hEHUOHJXQJHQ ]XP )HKOHQ HLQHV
5HIRUPDWRUVLP2UWKRGR[HQ&KULVWHQWXP´LQ+DQV0HGLFNDQG3HHU6FKPLGW HGV Luther
zwischen den Kulturen. Zeitgenossenschaft – Weltwirkung *|WWLQJHQ –
idHP ³2UWKRGR[ &KULVWLDQLW\ &KDQJH ,QQRYDWLRQ &RQWUDGLFWLRQV LQ 7HUPV"” LQ7ULQH
Stauning Willert and Lina Molokotos-/LHGHUPDQ HGV Innovation in the Orthodox
Christian Tradition? The Question of Change in Greek Orthodox Thought and Practice
Farnham – 3DQWHOLV .DODLW]LGLV ³&KDOOHQJHV RI 5HQHZDO DQG 5HIRUPDWLRQ
)DFLQJWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK´The Ecumenical Review –164.
or those of others. 28 In facWWKHHQWLUHSUH-conciliar process sought to accomplish

a major breakthrough in the Orthodox world by overcoming this traditional Ortho-
dox inertia and immobility.
All in allWhe documents of the Council in most cases do not say anything
UDGLFDOO\QHZEXWPDLQO\ confirm the existing status quo0RUHRYHULWLVGLIILFXOW
to discern any creative theological statements in them that can be used as specific
markers of Orthodox Christianity. The fact that the documents took several
decades to prepare ensures that they are not even completely up to date on the
current challenges of the world. 7KXVFomparing the Pan-Orthodox Council of
June 2016 to the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church of the
1960s reveals that the latter was much more creative. Its sessions lasted for several
\HDUV ZKLOH WKH 3DQ-Orthodox Council was scheduled for a little more than a
week. 0RUHRYHU LQ WKH 6HFRQG 9DWLFDQ &RXQFLO external observers did play a
role in the formulatLRQRIWKHFRQFLOLDUGRFXPHQWVZKLFKZDVQRWIRUHVHHQIRUWKH
Council of Crete. )LQDOO\ the Vatican Council was a relatively open-ended one
WKDWVRXJKWWRPDNHWKHFKXUFKFRQIRUPWRWKHGHPDQGVRIPRGHUQLW\whereas
the Pan-Orthodox Council was bent on preserving the status quo and avoid
destabilisation. It is still possibleWKRXJKWKDWWKH conciliar GRFXPHQWVZKHQWKH\
are received in the ORFDOFKXUFKHVEHFRPHWKHVHHGVRIDFUHDWLYHUH-interpretation
of the modern Orthodox Church. %ut it is unlikely that this re-interpretation can
parallel the post-conciliar developments within the Roman Catholic Church.
Whether they will play an important role in the development of bilateral and
multilateral ecumenical relations remains questionable. ,QDQ\FDVHWKHVKRUWand
critical reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the conciliar documents does
not seem to be promising. 29
Seen from this perspective and despite its limitations and ensuing SUREOHPV
the Pan-Orthodox Council of Crete did cause a UHIRUPG\QDPLFZKLFKKDVDOUHDG\
led to productive and promising developments. We are referring here to the al-
ready mentioned new social document that was published under the auspices of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and its Synod in March 2020. It
was entitled “For the Life of the World: Towards a Social Ethos of the Orthodox
Church” 30 and can be characterised as “progressive” in many respects. It was con-
ceived as an official Orthodox social teaching in order to fill a perceived vacuum.
28 6HH6HFUHWDULDWIRUWKH3UHSDUDWLRQRIWKH+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLORIWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK
HG ȈȊȃȅǻǿȀǹ VII Chambésy-*HQHYD
29 6HH0HWURSROLWDQ+LODULRQRI9RORNRODPVN³7KH'RFXPHQWVRIWKH&RXQFLORI&UHWH7KH
Results of the Study of the Documents of the Council of Crete Prepared by the Synodal
%LEOLFDO-Theological Commission of the Russian Orthodo[ &KXUFK´ The Ecumenical
Review –434.
30 6HH85/KWWSVZZZJRDUFKRUJVRFLDO-ethos >@6HHDOVR'DYLG%HQWOH\+DUW
DQG -RKQ &KU\VVDYJLV HGV For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the
Orthodox Church %URRNOLQHMA %DUEDUD+DOOHQVOHEHQ HG Für das Leben der
This plan KDGEHHQDQQRXQFHGDWWKH&RXQFLORI&UHWHJLYHQWKDWthe conciliar

document “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World” was only a
first attempt to officially deal with social issues. The concrete steps were initiated
just after the Council of Crete through the appointment of a special international
theological commission to work on such a document in consultDWLRQZLWKWKH+LHU-
archs and the Dioceses of the Ecumenical Throne worldwide. The new social
document was in a way a “response” to the previous initiatives of the Russian
Orthodox ChurchZKLFKLQhad published its own official document “%DVHV
of the Social Concept”. 'HVSLWHFRPPRQDOLWLHVWKHUHDUHimportant differences
between these two Orthodox social documents in that the new one attempts to put
the whole issue on a stronger Pan-Orthodox basis. This GHYHORSPHQWZKLFKKDV
already been positiYHO\HYDOXDWHGE\YDULRXVVLGHVLVZLWKRXWGRXEWDGLUHFWDQG
quite rapid outcome of the Council of Crete. 31 ,I QRWKLQJ HOVH it attests to the
dynamic the &RXQFLO KDV XQOHDVKHG IURP ZKLFK IXUWKHU GHYHORSPHQWV DUH
expected to take place in the future.
Welt. Auf dem Weg zu einem Sozialethos der Orthodoxen Kirche. Mit einem Geleitwort
des Ökumenischen Patriarchen Bartholomäus0QVWHU2020.
31 On the QHZVRFLDOGRFXPHQWVHH9DVLOLRV10DNULGHV“Le nouveau document social de
O¶eJOLVH RUWKRGR[H 6RQ RULHQWDWLRQ VRQ pODERUDWLRQ VRQ FRQWH[WH HW VRQ LPSRUWDQFH´
Istina –'LHWPDU6FKRQBerufen zur Verwandlung der Welt. Die Ortho-
doxe Kirche in sozialer und ethischer Verantwortung Regensburg 2021. See also the
special thematic issue of the journal Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West 48:11
(
THE COUNCIL AND
ITS PARTICIPANTS
The Idea of a Council ȈȪȞȠįȠȢɋɨɛɨɪ in Orthodox
Tradition and Ecclesiology
Paul Valliere
The idea of a council (ıȪȞȠįȠ‫ב‬ɫɨɛɨɪ LQ2UWKRGR[\LVDODUJHVXEMHFWEHFDXVH
conciliar practice has a long history in Orthodoxy. For many centuries that history
was not exclusively eastern: Councils in Orthodoxy were part of the common
legacy of the universal church. With the gradual separation of the Christian West
from the Christian East during the MLGGOH$JHVWKHFRQFLOLDUSDWKVRIWKHWZR
churches diverged. Yet the divergence of the two church traditions after their
separation must be evaluated with care. The conciliar practices of the Eastern and
Western CKXUFKHV KRZHYHU PXFK WKH\ GLIIHU VKDUH D common root and are
mutually relevant. Catholic tradition is discernible on both sides of the divide.
A self-conscious view of itself as a conciliar church is one of the distinguish-
ing features of the Orthodox Church. Orthodox leaders and Orthodox theologians
are unanimous in proclaiming their church to be a conciliar church –conciliar in
spirit and conciliarly governed. Orthodoxy also has a highly developed
appreciation for what one might call the poetry of conciliarism. %\WKHSRHWU\RI
conciliarism I mean the use of the conciliar idea and conciliar terminology to
express the very being of the cKXUFK WKH VXEVWDQFH RI HFFOHVLDOLW\ Father
$OH[DQGHU6FKPHPDQQZURWH³before we understand the place and the function
of the council in WKH&KXUFKZHPXVW >«@see the Church herself as a council”. 1
%LVKRS $WDQDVLMH -HYWLü EHOLHYHG WKH VDPH ³Ior the Church itself is already a
sabor (ıȪȞȠįȠȢ DQassembly (ıȪȞĮȟȚȢ DQGDFRPPXQLW\ țȠȚȞȦȞȓĮ That is why
we must see the existence and presence of synods (even as instituWLRQV DV D
tradition DOUHDG\LQWKHHDUO\GD\VRIWKHOLIHRIWKH&KXUFKDWUDGLWLRQRIsabornost
IXQFWLRQLQJLQWKH>&KXUFK – PV@DOUHDG\ORQJEHIRUHWKHFRQYRFDtion of the First
Ecumenical Council.” 2 Georges Florovsky made the point by playing on the literal
meaning of ekklesia: “Church is ecclesia DQ DVVHPEO\ which is never ad-
journed.” 3 'PLWULL.KRPLDNRYWKHVRQRI$OHNVHL.KRPLDNRYDQGDPHPEHURI
1 $OH[DQGHU 6FKPHPDQQ ³7RZDUGV D 7KHRORJ\ RI &RXQFLOV´ >@ LQ LGHP Church,
World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West &UHVWZRRG1< –
here 163.
2 $WDQDVLMH-HYWLü³9DVHOMHQVNLVDERULLåLYRSUHGDQMH&UNYH´>(FXPHQLFDO&RXQFLOVDQGWKH
/LYLQJ 7UDGLWLRQ RI WKH&KXUFK@ LQBogoslovlje ;;9,, ;;;,, TXRWHGE\
7KRPDV %UHPHU Ekklesiale Struktur und Ekklesiologie in der Serbischen Orthodoxen
.LUFKHLPXQG-DKUKXQGHUW:U]EXUJ
3 ,QKLVHQGRUVHPHQWRIWKHLGHD)ORURYVN\FLWHVERWK+DQV.QJDQG9DVLOLL9%RORWRY
“Dr. Küng suggested that we should regard the Church herself as a µ&RXQFLO¶DQ$VVHPEO\
DQG DV D &RXQFLO FRQYHQHG E\ *RG +LPVHOI aus göttlicher Berufung DQG WKH KLVWRULF
40 Paul Valliere
the Pre-&RQFLOLDU&RPPLVVLRQLQ5XVVLDLQZURWH “The Church is itself a

worldwLGH &RXQFLO D FRXQFLO ZKLFK GRHV QRW PHHW LQ IRUPDO DQG FRQWLQXRXV
session only because this is in fact impossible.” 4 7KH UHFRJQLWLRQ RI WKH +RO\
Trinity as a kind of “council” hence the view of the conciliar church as an image
RI WKH +RO\ 7ULQLW\ LV ZLdespread in modern Orthodox theology. Thus
Schmemann: ³>7KH&KXUFK – PV@LVLQGHHGDFRXQFLOLQWKHGHHSHVWPHDQLQJRI
WKLVZRUGEHFDXVHVKHLVSULPDULO\WKHUHYHODWLRQRIWKH%OHVVHG7ULQLW\RI*RG
and of divine life as essentially a perfect council >«@She is an image of the Trinity
and the gift of Trinitarian life because life is redeemed and restored in her as
essentially conciliar.” 5 The same idea was expressed by advocates of the Russian
Conciliar Movement more than a century ago. ,Q$IDQDVLL9asiliev wrote:
“The concept of sobornost rests upon the fundamental dogma of the tri-unity of
the Godhead. 7KHUHODWLRQVKLSRIWKH+\SRVWDVHVRIWKH%OHVVHG7ULQLW\ZKLFKZH
FRQIHVVDUHODWLRQVKLp without confusion or division – LHWKHLQGHSHQGHQFHRI
each of the three Divine Persons and at the same time Their full concord and unity
– may be called the Sobornost of the Godhead.” 6 )DWKHU-XVWLQ3RSRYLüVDZWKH
idea of a council embedded in the dogma of the Incarnation. “The divine-human
sabornost of the Church springs entirely from the divine-human personhood of
the Lord Christ. 7KHK\SRVWDWLFXQLRQRIWKHWZRQDWXUHVGLYLQHDQGKXPDQLQ
the Lord Christ is actually a ‘sabor’ a ıȪȞȠįȠȢ of the two natures.” 7 The
formulation of the being of the church in conciliar terms also appears near the
beginning of the “EQF\FOLFDO RI WKH +RO\ DQG *UHDW &RXQFLO” of 2016: “The
&RXQFLOV WKDW LV WKH (FXPHQLFDO RU *HQHUDO &RXQFLOV DV &RXQFLOV aus menschlicher
BerufungDVDµUHSUHVHQWDWLRQ¶RIWKH&KXUFK—LQGHHGDµWUXHUHSUHVHQWDWLRQ¶EXW\HWQR
more than a representation. It is interesting to note that a similar conception had been made
DOUHDG\ PDQ\ \HDUV DJR E\ WKH JUHDW 5XVVLDQ &KXUFK KLVWRULDQ 9 9 %RORWRY LQ KLV
Lectures on the History of the Ancient Church. Church is ecclesiaDQDVVHPEO\ZKLFKLV
QHYHU DGMRXUQHG´ *HRUJHV )ORURYVN\ ³7KH $XWKRULW\ RI WKH $QFLHQW &RXQFLOV DQG WKH
7UDGLWLRQRIWKH)DWKHUV´>@LQLGHPBible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox
View (Collected Works of Georges Florovsky 1 %HOPRQW0$–KHUH–
97. )ORURYVN\FLWHV+DQV.QJIURPKLVERRNStrukturen der Kirche )UHLEXUJLP%UHLVJDX
–74.
4 'PLWULL $.KRPLDNRYɋɨɛɨɪ, ɫɨɛɨɪɧɨɫɬɶ, ɩɪɢɯɨɞ ɢ ɩɚɫɬɵɪɶ >&RXQFLOSobornost’
3DULVKDQG3DVWRU@0RVFRZ >:ULWWHQLQ@
5 6FKPHPDQQ³7RZDUGVD7KHRORJ\RI&RXQFLOV´ as n. 1 –164.
6 Afanasii Vasiliev ³ɉɟɪɜɨɟ ɹɜɥɟɧɢɟ ɜɨɫɤɪɟɫɚɸɳɟɣ ɫɨɛɨɪɧɨɫɬɢ Ɋɢɠɫɤɢɣ ɟɩɚɪɯɢ-
ɚɥɶɧɵɣɫɨɛɨɪɫɟɧɬɹɛɪɹ– 6-ɝɨɨɤɬɹɛɪɹɝɨɞɚ´ >7KH)LUVW0DQLIHVWDWLRQRIWKH
Reappearance of Sobornost’. The Riga Eparchial Council 20 September – 2FWREHU@
ɉɪɢɛɚɜɥɟɧɢɹɤɐɟɪɤɨɜɧɵɦȼɟɞɨɦɨɫɬɹɦ
7 -XVWLQ3RSRYLüDogmatika pravoslavne Crkve >7KH'RJPDWLFVRIWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK@
%HOJUDGH–YROTXRWHGE\%UHPHUEkklesiale Struktur DVQ 187.
The Idea of a Council in Orthodox Tradition and Ecclesiology 41
&KXUFK LQ KHUVHOI LV D &RXQFLO HVWDEOLVKHG E\ &KULVW DQG JXLGHG E\ WKH +RO\
Spirit.” 8
This wonderful theological poetry is designed to express what may be called
the beauty of fellowship. 2UWKRGR[WKHRORJ\DQFLHQWDQGPRGHUQLVHORTXHQWRQ
the subject. Yet this eloquence prompts a question: Why have the Orthodox
Churches of the world found it so difficult to convene an actual Council in modern
times? The question has occurred to just about everyone who has studied the
vicissitudes of the conciliar process leading up to the convocation of the recent
+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLODSURFHVVWKDWEHJDQLQWKHVEHJDQDQHZLQWKH
VEXWGLGQRWUHVXOWLQDCouncil until 2016. The slow progress toward a Pan-
Orthodox Council would be easy to explain if the Orthodox Church did not
HPEUDFHWKHSULQFLSOHRIFRQFLOLDUJRYHUQPHQWWREHJLQZLWKEXWDVZHKDYHQRWHG
virtually all Orthodox leaders and thinkers embrace this principle. 6Rwhy did the
Orthodox Church find it so difficult to convene a general Council? And why was
the Council WKDWFRQYHQHGLQVXFKDQLPSHUIHFWDVVHPEO\PDUUHGDVLWwas
E\GHIHFWLRQVLQFOXGLQJWKHIDLOXUHRIWKHZRUOG’s largest Orthodox Church (the
5XVVLDQ2UWKRGR[&KXUFK WRDWWHQG"
Another critical question concerns the timidity of the Council’s agenda.
Almost all of the items slated for action at the Council of 2016 were carry-overs
from inter-Orthodox conversations that were completed already by the end of the
1970s. The epochal changes in Orthodox existence brought about by the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the communist regimes of Eastern Europe at the end of
the 20th century were scarcely referenced in the work of the Council. $ERYHDOO
the architects of the agenda were determined to avoid any proposals that could
conceivably be regarded as reformist or even self-FULWLFDOLHSURSRVDOVLQYROYLQJ
substantive changes in the way Orthodox mission and ministry are conducted in
the contemporary world. 9
Two examples may be cited here for purposes of illustration. The first is the
question of the restoration of communion between the Orthodox Church and the
Oriental Orthodox Churches. 0RUHWKDQDTXDUWHUFHQWXU\DJR-RKQ0H\HQGRUII
wrote optimistically of “the last steps to unity” among the separated churches of
Eastern Christendom following two and a half decades of productive theological
8 ³(QF\FOLFDORIWKH+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLORIWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK&UHWH´,7KH
GRFXPHQWVRIWKH+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLODUHDYDLODEOHRQWKH&RXQFLO¶VRIILcial website:
URL: KWWSVZZZKRO\FRXQFLORUJ>@
9 For a review of the Council’s agenda by a group of reform-minded Orthodox scholars
ZULWLQJRQWKHHYHRIWKHDVVHPEO\VHH1DWKDQDHO6\PHRQLGHV HG Toward the Holy and
Great Council: Theological Reflections1HZ<RUN1<0RVWRIWKHHVVD\VPD\DOVR
EHIRXQGDW85/KWWSVSXEOLFRUWKRGR[\RUJDUFKLYHVRWVD-special-project-on-the-great-
and-holy-FRXQFLO>@7KHHVVD\VZHUHWKHIUXLWRIDSURMHFWVSRQVRUHGE\WKH
Orthodox Theological Society in America and the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of
)RUGKDP8QLYHUVLW\1HZ<RUN
42 Paul Valliere
dialogue. 10 $ EURDG scholarly consensus had emerged that the Orthodox and
2ULHQWDO2UWKRGR[FRPPXQLWLHVUHSUHVHQWRQHDQGWKHVDPH2UWKRGR[WUDGLWLRQ
albeit articulated in two different theological idioms. The case for the reunion of
the Eastern Churches was as ready for conciliar action as it was ever likely to be. 11
Yet not a trace of this issue is to be found among the agenda of the Council of
2016. The results of a half-century of productive theological dialogue among the
churches of Eastern Christendom were simply ignored.
The restoration of the female diaconate is another case that has been vetted
with care by some of the best theological minds in the Orthodox world during the
last half-century.12 Yet neither this issue nor any other aspect of the vocation of
women in the ministry and mission of the Orthodox Church found a place among
the agenda of the Council of 2016. One finds instead a deliberate silence on the
subject of women in the church.
When seeking explanations for the very imperfect record of Orthodox
conciliar pUDFWLFHRQHPD\EHJLQE\VLPSO\FRQVLGHULQJWKHJDSQRWWRVD\FKDVP
between rhetoric and practice. $V -RKQ &KU\VVDYJLV WKH SUHVV RIILFHU RI WKH
Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Council RIREVHUYHGIROORZLQJWKHCouncil
“it is much easier to preach but much more difficult to practise conciliarity”. To
EHVXUHWKLVVWDWHPHQWDSSOLHVWRFRQFLOLDUSUDFWLFHLQDOOFKXUFKHVQRWMXVWWKH
Orthodox Church. %XWWKHJDSEHWZHHQUKHWRULFDQGUHDOLW\LVZLGHULQWKH2UWKR-
dox Church than in other churches precisely because of the eloquence with which
Orthodoxy preaches conciliar values in principle. John Chryssavgis continues:
“:H2UWKRGR[FODLPWKDWZHDUHDFRPPXQDOFKXUFKDQGFROOHJLDOERG\EXWWKH
fact remains that we are often much closer to the system that we decry and de-
QRXQFHLQWKH5RPDQ&DWKROLF&KXUFKZKLFKWRGD\LVDFWXDOO\PRYLQJDZD\IURP
the medieval papal system of hierarchy and authority.” 13
10 -RKQ 0H\HQGRUII ³7KH /DVW 6WHSV WR 8QLW\´ St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 33
–329.
11 2QHVKRXOGQRWHKRZHYHUWKDW=L]LRXODVDIHZ\HDUVHDUOLHUDGGUHVVHGWKHSURVSHFWVIRU
UHXQLRQ ZLWK JUHDWHU UHVHUYH WKDQ 0H\HQGRUII 6HH -RKQ ' =L]LRXODV ³(FFOHVLRORJLFDO
Issues Inherent in the Relations between Eastern Chalcedonian and Oriental Non-Chalce-
GRQLDQ&KXUFKHV³LQ3DXORV*UHJRULRV:LOOLDP+/D]DUHWKDQG1LNRV$1LVVLRWLV HGV
Does Chalcedon Divide or Unite? Towards Convergence in Orthodox Christology
*HQHYD–156.
12 Recent writing on the subject of the female diaconate and the diaconate as such testifies to
the OrthRGR[ &KXUFK¶V QHHG WR DGGUHVV WKH VXEMHFW )RU H[DPSOH WKH FRQWULEXWLRQV WR
3HWURV 9DVVLOLDGLV 1LNL 3DSDJHRUJLRX DQG (OHQL .DVVHORXUL-+DW]LYDVVLOLDGL HGV Dea-
conesses, the Ordination of Women and Orthodox Theology1HZFDVWOHXSRQ7\QH
John Chr\VVDYJLVRemembering and Reclaiming Diakonia: The Diaconate Yesterday and
Today %URRNOLQH0$
13 ³µ/RRNLQJ%DFNDWWKH+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLO¶+HUDFOHV)LOLRVRIµ/LJKWIURPWKH3KDQDU¶
VSHDNV ZLWK 5HY 'U -RKQ &KU\VVDYJLV $UFKGHDFRQ RI WKH (FXPHQLFDO 3DWULDUFKDWH´
The Idea of a Council in Orthodox Tradition and Ecclesiology 43
A second explanation of the sluggishness of Orthodox conciliarism is the

absence of a leader who has the undisputed authority to call a general Council. In
WKH%\]DQWLQHHUDJHQHUDOFRXQFLOVZHUHFDOOHGE\WKH5RPDQHPSHURU Following
WKHIDOORI%\]DQWLXPQRVXFKRIILFHKDVH[LVWHGLQWKH2UWKRGR[ZRUOG Since the
Ecumenical Patriarch does not enjoy pDSDOVWDWXVLQWKH2UWKRGR[&KXUFKKHKDV
not generally been seen as having the right to call a council on his own authority.
,QWKHFDVHRIWKH&RXQFLORIWKHDXWKRULW\WRFDOOD3DQ-Orthodox Council
was vested in the Synaxis of the Primates of the fourteen autocephalous Orthodox
Churches. Such an approach can be termed conciliar in that it vests authority in
an assembly of elders rather than a single authority figure. <HWDVWKHGHIHFWLRQV
RQWKHHYHRIWKH+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLOPDGHSODLQWKHZRUNRIDQDVVHPEO\RI
elders can be undone by personal and political rivalries within the group.
6RGRHVWKHH[DPSOHRIWKH+RO\DQG*UHDW&RXQFLORIVXJJHVWWKDWWKH
Orthodox Church is not as conciliar as it claims to be? It is tempting to think so.
%XWDPRUHQXDQFHGIRUPXODWLRQFRPHVFORVHUWRWKHWUXWK7KH2UWKRGR[&KXUFK
is indeed a conciliar cKXUFKEXWWKHFRQFLOLDUSULQFLSOHLVQRWWKHonly principle of
HFFOHVLDVWLFDOJRYHUQPHQWWKDWKDVVKDSHGDQGFRQWLQXHVWRVKDSHWKHH[HUFise of
authority in Orthodoxy. There is at least one other powerful principle to be reck-
RQHGZLWKQDPHO\WKHmetropolitan or primatial SULQFLSOHLHWKHJRYHUQment
of the church by powerful hierarchs occupying the historical FHQWUDOO\ located
sees (Patriarchates and Metropolises Authority in Orthodoxy is characterised by
WKHWHQVLRQEHWZHHQFRQFLOLDULVPDQGPHWURSROLWDQLVPLHEHWZHHQKRUL]RQWDOO\
and vertically oriented authority structures. $WWLPHVWKLVKDVEHHQDFUHDWLYHWHQ-
VLRQDOWKRXJKLWKDVDOVREHHQDQLQKLELWLQJRFFDVLRQDOO\GHVWUXFWLYHIRUFHLQWKH
life of the Orthodox Church.
This tension is very old in the history of the church. One sees it clearly in the
high PDWULVWLFSHULRGDQGSRVVLEO\PXFKHDUOLHUDWWKHYHU\RULJLns of conciliar
practice in the Christian Church. It was probably no accident that conciliar deci-
sion-PDNLQJZKLFKFDQEHGRFXPHQWHGIURPWKHPLGGOHRIWKHVHFRQGFHQWXU\
DURVHLQFHQWUDO$VLD0LQRUDQGWKH5RPDQSURYLQFHRI$IULFDUHJLRQVWKDWZHUH
remote from the great apostolic-metropolitan centres of the early church. The
councils that assembled in Asia Minor in response to the Montanist prophecy were
conducted by small provincial churches. ,Q 1RUWK $IULFD WKH FLW\ RI &DUWKDJH
ranked as a great meWURSROLWDQFHQWUHEXWWKHPHWURSROLWDQChurch of Carthage
FRXOGQRWFODLPDQDSRVWROLFIRXQGDWLRQZKLFKOLPLWHGLWVDXWKRULW\DQGSUHVWLJH
,QGHHGWKHJUHDW&DUWKDJLQLDQELVKRS&\SULDQZDVDQHDUO\FULWLFRIPHWURSROLta-
nism in the cKXUFKWKHNLQGRIgovernment that was emerging in Rome and Ale-
xandria at the time. “None of us has set himself up as bishop of bishops” he
Huffington Post85/KWWSZZZKXIILQJWRQSRVWFRPUHY-dr-john-chryssav
JLVORRNLQJ-back-at-the-holy-BEBKWPO>@
44 Paul Valliere
declared. 14 0RUHRYHU WKH Church of North Africa had a numerous episcopate

UHODWLYHWRLWVVL]H $V-RKQ0H\HQGRUIIQRWHGWKH1RUWKAfrican Church apparent-
ly preserved the original concept of episcopacy in the church whereby the Eu-
charistic president of every local congregation was regarded as a bishop.15 A
FRQWH[WVXFKDV1RUWK$IULFDZKHUHDPXOWLSOLFLW\RIOHDGHUVH[HUFLVHGDroughly
HTXDOPHDVXUHRIDXWKRULW\ZDVWKHLGHDOHQYLURQPHQWIRUWKHFXOWLYDWLRQRIFRQ-
ciliarism. In a context dominated by a towering authority-ILJXUH VXFK DV WKH
metroSROLWDQ ³SRSH´ RI5RPHRU$OH[DQGULDFRQFLOLDUSUDFWLFHZDVERXQGWREH
more constrained.
Conciliarism and metropolitanism are natural antagonists. %XWWKLVLVQRWWR
say that the two cannot be reconciled or synthesised. )RUH[DPSOHWKHIDPRXV
ıȪȞȠįȠȢ ‫݋‬ȞįȘȝȠࠎıĮ of Constantinople is to some extent an example of the synthe-
sis of the two principles. $V)DWKHU-RVHSK+DMMDUDUJXHGLQKLVFODVVLFVWXG\RI
WKHLQVWLWXWLRQWKH3DWULDUFKRI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHHQMR\HG³HFXPHQLFDO´VWDQGLQJQRW
RQO\EHFDXVHRIWKHXQLTXHVWDWXVRIWKHFLW\RI&RQVWDQWLQRSOHEXWDOVREHFDXVH
of his presidency of a synod drawn from the four quarters of the empire. 16 Seen
LQDZLGHUKLVWRULFDOFRQWH[WWREHVXUHWKHıȪȞȠįȠȢ ‫݋‬ȞįȘȝȠࠎıĮ manifested a cen-
traliVLQJ WHQGHQF\ LQ WKH %\]DQWLQH &KXUFK D WHQGHQF\ WKDW EHFDPH PRUH SUR-
nounced in the course of the Middle Ages. So this synod was at best an ambigu-
ous model for conciliarism. Even more ambiguous were the later centralised
synods made in the image of the ıȪȞȠįȠȢ ‫݋‬ȞįȘȝȠࠎıĮVXFKDVWKH+RO\*RYHUQLQJ
Synod of the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire (1721–
Another impediment to conciliar practice in Orthodoxy is the absence of a
fully clarified idea of conciliarism. Georges Florovsky made this observation with
14 4XRWHGLQ+HQU\&KDGZLFNThe Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the

Great 2[IRUG
15 -RKQ 0H\HQGRUII ,PSHULDO 8QLW\ DQG &KULVWLDQ 'LYLVLRQV 7KH &KXUFK – $'
&UHVWZRRG1<Q
16 ³'DQVOHVFRQMRQFWXUHVJUDYHVTXLQpFHVVLWqUHQWODUpXQLRQGXV\QRGHSHUPDQHQWO¶RQD
constaté que l’autorité SDWULDUFDOHV¶DVVXUDLWGHODYRL[GpOLEpUDWLYHGXFROOqJHpSLVFRSDO
TXL DVVXPDLW DORUV XQH UHVSRQVDELOLWp HIIHFWLYHXQ U{OH LUUHPSODऊable et une orientation
GpFLVLYHGDQVOHVGpFLVLRQVHWOHVGLVFXVVLRQV3UpVLGpSDUOHSDWULDUFKHOHV\QRGHSRXYDLW
être DSSHOp OH V\QRGH SDWULDUFDO 0DLV YpULWDEOH V\QRGH O¶DXWRULWp GHV pYrTXHV UpXQLV
collégialement n’était pas pour autant diminuée ni supplantée par celle du patriarche. Le
SUHVWLJHRHFXPpQLTXHGXSDWULDUFKHE\]DQWLQHQHGpSHQGDLWSDVGHVRQV\QRGHTXLjson
WRXUQ¶DYDLWGHVWDWXWTXHJUHIIpVXUOHVLqJHSDWULDUFDO/HSDWULDUFKHQHSHUVRQQLILHSDVOH
V\QRGH ELHQ TX¶LO HQ VRLW OH UpSUHVHQWDQW DWWLWUp LO QH OXL HVW SDV VXSpULHXU TXRLTX¶LO OH
SUpVLGHPDLVLOQHSHXWSDVV¶HQSDVVHUFDULOSHUGUDLWDORUVOa base canonique et historique
de son autorité ‘extraterritoriale’ ou oecuménique. Le Patriarche byzantin est impensable
historiquement sans le synode et sans le synode ce patriarcat serait juridiquement réduit
aux dimensions épiscopales communes dans la cKUpWLHQWp FHOOHV G¶XQ pYrFKp RX G¶XQH
PpWURSROH´ -RVHSK +DMMDU Le Synode permanent (ȈȊȃȅǻȅȈ ǼȃǻǾȂȅȊȈǹ) dans
l’Église byzantine des origines au XIe siècle 5RPH
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“Come in here Cecily” he said gently. He closed their bedroom
door and locked it. “Now lets talk this over quietly. Sit down dear.” He
put a chair behind her. She sat down suddenly stiffly like a
marionette.
“Now look here Cecily you have no right to talk the way you do
about my friends. Mrs. Oglethorpe is a friend of mine. We
occasionally take tea together in some perfectly public place and
that’s all. I would invite her up here but I’ve been afraid you would be
rude to her.... You cant go on giving away to your insane jealousy
like this. I allow you complete liberty and trust you absolutely. I think I
have the right to expect the same confidence from you.... Cecily do
be my sensible little girl again. You’ve been listening to what a lot of
old hags fabricate out of whole cloth maliciously to make you
miserable.”
“She’s not the only one.”
“Cecily I admit frankly there were times soon after we were
married ... when ... But that’s all over years ago.... And who’s fault
was it?... Oh Cecily a woman like you cant understand the physical
urgences of a man like me.”
“Havent I done my best?”
“My dear these things arent anybody’s fault.... I dont blame you....
If you’d really loved me then ...”
“What do you think I stay in this hell for except for you? Oh you’re
such a brute.” She sat dryeyed staring at her feet in their gray
buckskin slippers, twisting and untwisting in her fingers the wet string
of her handkerchief.
“Look here Cecily a divorce would be very harmful to my situation
downtown just at the moment, but if you really dont want to go on
living with me I’ll see what I can arrange.... But in any event you
must have more confidence in me. You know I’m fond of you. And for
God’s sake dont go to see anybody about it without consulting me.
You dont want a scandal and headlines in the papers, do you?”
“All right ... leave me alone.... I dont care about anything.”
“All right.... I’m pretty late. I’ll go on downtown in that taxi. You
don’t want to come shopping or anything?”
She shook her head. He kissed her on the forehead, took his
straw hat and stick in the hall and hurried out.
“Oh I’m the most miserable woman,” she groaned and got to her
feet. Her head ached as if it were bound with hot wire. She went to
the window and leaned out into the sunlight. Across Park Avenue the
flameblue sky was barred with the red girder cage of a new building.
Steam riveters rattled incessantly; now and then a donkeyengine
whistled and there was a jingle of chains and a fresh girder soared
crosswise in the air. Men in blue overalls moved about the
scaffolding. Beyond to the northwest a shining head of clouds soared
blooming compactly like a cauliflower. Oh if it would only rain. As the
thought came to her there was a low growl of thunder above the din
of building and of traffic. Oh if it would only rain.
Ellen had just hung a chintz curtain in the window to hide with its
blotchy pattern of red and purple flowers the vista of desert
backyards and brick flanks of downtown houses. In the middle of the
bare room was a boxcouch cumbered with teacups, a copper
chafingdish and percolator; the yellow hardwood floor was littered
with snippings of chintz and curtainpins; books, dresses, bedlinen
cascaded from a trunk in the corner; from a new mop in the fireplace
exuded a smell of cedar oil. Ellen was leaning against the wall in a
daffodilcolored kimono looking happily about the big shoebox-
shaped room when the buzzer startled her. She pushed a rope of
hair up off her forehead and pressed the button that worked the
latch. There was a little knock on the door. A woman was standing in
the dark of the hall.
“Why Cassie I couldn’t make out who you were. Come in....
What’s the matter?”
“You are sure I’m not intwuding?”
“Of course not.” Ellen leaned to give her a little pecking kiss.
Cassandra Wilkins was very pale and there was a nervous quiver
about her eyelids. “You can give me some advice. I’m just getting my
curtains up.... Look do you think that purple goes all right with the
gray wall? It looks kind of funny to me.”
“I think it’s beautiful. What a beautiful woom. How happy you’re
going to be here.”
“Put that chafingdish down on the floor and sit down. I’ll make
some tea. There’s a kind of bathroom kitchenette in the alcove
there.”
“You’re sure it wouldn’t be too much twouble?”
“Of course not.... But Cassie what’s the matter?”
“Oh everything.... I came down to tell you but I cant. I cant ever
tell anybody.”
“I’m so excited about this apartment. Imagine Cassie it’s the first
place of my own I ever had in my life. Daddy wants me to live with
him in Passaic, but I just felt I couldn’t.”
“And what does Mr. Oglethorpe...? Oh but that’s impertinent of
me.... Do forgive me Elaine. I’m almost cwazy. I don’t know what I’m
saying.”
“Oh Jojo’s a dear. He’s even going to let me divorce him if I want
to.... Would you if you were me?” Without waiting for an answer she
disappeared between the folding doors. Cassie remained hunched
up on the edge of the couch.
Ellen came back with a blue teapot in one hand and a pan of
steaming water in the other. “Do you mind not having lemon or
cream? There’s some sugar on the mantelpiece. These cups are
clean because I just washed them. Dont you think they are pretty?
Oh you cant imagine how wonderful and domestic it makes you feel
to have a place all to yourself. I hate living in a hotel. Honestly this
place makes me just so domestic ... Of course the ridiculous thing is
that I’ll probably have to give it up or sublet as soon as I’ve got it
decently fixed up. Show’s going on the road in three weeks. I want to
get out of it but Harry Goldweiser wont let me.” Cassie was taking
little sips of tea out of her spoon. She began to cry softly. “Why
Cassie buck up, what’s the matter?”
“Oh, you’re so lucky in everything Elaine and I’m so miserable.”
“Why I always thought it was my jinx that got the beautyprize, but
what is the matter?”
Cassie put down her cup and pushed her two clenched hands into
her neck. “It’s just this,” she said in a strangled voice.... “I think I’m
going to have a baby.” She put her head down on her knees and
sobbed.
“Are you sure? Everybody’s always having scares.”
“I wanted our love to be always pure and beautiful, but he said
he’d never see me again if I didn’t ... and I hate him.” She shook the
words out one by one between tearing sobs.
“Why don’t you get married?”
“I cant. I wont. It would interfere.”
“How long since you knew?”
“Oh it must have been ten days ago easily. I know it’s that ... I
dont want to have anything but my dancing.” She stopped sobbing
and began taking little sips of tea again.
Ellen walked back and forth in front of the fireplace. “Look here
Cassie there’s no use getting all wrought up over things, is there? I
know a woman who’ll help you.... Do pull yourself together please.”
“Oh I couldn’t, I couldn’t.” ... The saucer slid off her knees and
broke in two on the floor. “Tell me Elaine have you ever been through
this?... Oh I’m so sowy. I’ll buy you another saucer Elaine.” She got
totteringly to her feet and put the cup and spoon on the mantelpiece.
“Oh of course I have. When we were first married I had a terrible
time....”
“Oh Elaine isn’t it hideous all this? Life would be so beautiful and
free and natural without it.... I can feel the howor of it cweeping up on
me, killing me.”
“Things are rather like that,” said Ellen gruffly.
Cassie was crying again. “Men are so bwutal and selfish.”
“Have another cup of tea, Cassie.”
“Oh I couldn’t. My dear I feel a deadly nausea.... Oh I think I’m
going to be sick.”
“The bathroom is right through the folding doors and to the left.”
Ellen walked up and down the room with clenched teeth. I hate
women. I hate women.
After a while Cassie came back into the room, her face greenish
white, dabbing her forehead with a washrag.
“Here lie down here you poor kid,” said Ellen clearing a space on
the couch. “... Now you’ll feel much better.”
“Oh will you ever forgive me for causing all this twouble?”
“Just lie still a minute and forget everything.”
“Oh if I could only relax.”
Ellen’s hands were cold. She went to the window and looked out.
A little boy in a cowboy suit was running about the yard waving an
end of clothesline. He tripped and fell. Ellen could see his face
puckered with tears as he got to his feet again. In the yard beyond a
stumpy woman with black hair was hanging out clothes. Sparrows
were chirping and fighting on the fence.
“Elaine dear could you let me have a little powder? I’ve lost my
vanity case.”
She turned back into the room. “I think.... Yes there’s some on the
mantelpiece.... Do you feel better now Cassie?”
“Oh yes,” said Cassie in a trembly voice. “And have you got a
lipstick?”
“I’m awfully sorry.... I’ve never worn any street makeup. I’ll have to
soon enough if I keep on acting.” She went into the alcove to take off
her kimono, slipped on a plain green dress, coiled up her hair and
pushed a small black hat down over it. “Let’s run along Cassie. I
want to have something to eat at six.... I hate bolting my dinner five
minutes before a performance.”
“Oh I’m so tewified.... Pwomise you wont leave me alone.”
“Oh she wouldnt do anything today.... She’ll just look you over and
maybe give you something to take.... Let’s see, have I got my key?”
“We’ll have to take a taxi. And my dear I’ve only got six dollars in
the world.”
“I’ll make daddy give me a hundred dollars to buy furniture. That’ll
be all right.”
“Elaine you’re the most angelic cweature in the world.... You
deserve every bit of your success.”
At the corner of Sixth Avenue they got into a taxi.
Cassie’s teeth were chattering. “Please let’s go another time. I’m
too fwightened to go now.”
“My dear child it’s the only thing to do.”
Joe Harland, puffing on his pipe, pulled to and bolted the wide
quaking board gates. A last splash of garnet-colored sunlight was
fading on the tall housewall across the excavation. Blue arms of
cranes stood out dark against it. Harland’s pipe had gone out, he
stood puffing at it with his back to the gate looking at the files of
empty wheelbarrows, the piles of picks and shovels, the little shed
for the donkeyengine and the steam drills that sat perched on a split
rock like a mountaineer’s shack. It seemed to him peaceful in spite of
the rasp of traffic from the street that seeped through the hoarding.
He went into the leanto by the gate where the telephone was, sat
down in the chair, knocked out, filled and lit his pipe and spread the
newspaper out on his knees. Contractors Plan Lockout to
Answer Builders’ Strike. He yawned and threw back his head.
The light was too blue-dim to read. He sat a long time staring at the
stub scarred toes of his boots. His mind was a fuzzy comfortable
blank. Suddenly he saw himself in a dress-suit wearing a top hat with
an orchid in his buttonhole. The Wizard of Wall Street looked at the
lined red face and the gray hair under the mangy cap and the big
hands with their grimy swollen knuckles and faded with a snicker. He
remembered faintly the smell of a Corona-Corona as he reached into
the pocket of the peajacket for a can of Prince Albert to refill his pipe.
“What dif does it make I’d like to know?” he said aloud. When he lit a
match the night went suddenly inky all round. He blew out the match.
His pipe was a tiny genial red volcano that made a discreet cluck
each time he pulled on it. He smoked very slowly inhaling deep. The
tall buildings all round were haloed with ruddy glare from streets and
electriclight signs. Looking straight up through glimmering veils of
reflected light he could see the blueblack sky and stars. The tobacco
was sweet. He was very happy.
A glowing cigarend crossed the door of the shack. Harland
grabbed his lantern and went out. He held the lantern up in the face
of a blond young man with a thick nose and lips and a cigar in the
side of his mouth.
“How did you get in here?”
“Side door was open.”
“The hell it was? Who are you looking for?”
“You the night watchman round here?” Harland nodded. “Glad to
meet yez.... Have a cigar. I jus wanted to have a little talk wid ye,
see?... I’m organizer for Local 47, see? Let’s see your card.”
“I’m not a union man.”
“Well ye’re goin to be aint ye.... Us guys of the buildin trades have
got to stick together. We’re tryin to get every bloke from night
watchmen to inspectors lined up to make a solid front against this
here lockout sitooation.”
Harland lit his cigar. “Look here, bo, you’re wasting your breath on
me. They’ll always need a watchman, strike or no strike.... I’m an old
man and I havent got much fight left in me. This is the first decent job
I’ve had in five years and they’ll have to shoot me to get it away from
me.... All that stuff’s for kids like you. I’m out of it. You sure are
wasting your breath if you’re going round trying to organize night
watchmen.”
“Say you don’t talk like you’d always been in this kind o woik.”
“Well maybe I aint.”
The young man took off his hat and rubbed his hand over his
forehead and up across his dense cropped hair. “Hell it’s warm work
arguin.... Swell night though aint it?”
“Oh the night’s all right,” said Harland.
“Say my name’s O’Keefe, Joe O’Keefe.... Gee I bet you could tell
a guy a lot o things.” He held out his hand.
“My name’s Joe too ... Harland.... Twenty years ago that name
meant something to people.”
“Twenty years from now ...”
“Say you’re a funny fellow for a walking delegate.... You take an
old man’s advice before I run you off the lot, and quit it.... It’s no
game for a likely young feller who wants to make his way in the
world.”
“Times are changin you know.... There’s big fellers back o this
here strike, see? I was talkin over the sitooation with Assemblyman
McNiel jus this afternoon in his office.”
“But I’m telling you straight if there’s one thing that’ll queer you in
this town it’s this labor stuff.... You’ll remember someday that an old
drunken bum told you that and it’ll be too late.”
“Oh it was drink was it? That’s one thing I’m not afraid of. I don’t
touch the stuff, except beer to be sociable.”
“Look here bo the company detective’ll be makin his rounds soon.
You’d better be making tracks.”
“I ain’t ascared of any goddam company detective.... Well so long
I’ll come in to see you again someday.”
“Close that door behind you.”
Joe Harland drew a little water from a tin container, settled himself
in his chair and stretched his arms out and yawned. Eleven o’clock.
They would just be getting out of the theaters, men in
eveningclothes, girls in lowneck dresses; men were going home to
their wives and mistresses; the city was going to bed. Taxis honked
and rasped outside the hoarding, the sky shimmered with gold
powder from electric signs. He dropped the butt of the cigar and
crushed it on the floor with his heel. He shuddered and got to his
feet, then paced slowly round the edge of the buildinglot swinging his
lantern.
The light from the street yellowed faintly a big sign on which was
a picture of a skyscraper, white with black windows against blue sky
and white clouds. Segal and Haynes will erect on this site a modern
uptodate Twentyfour Story Office Building open for occupancy
January 1915 renting space still available inquire....
Jimmy Herf sat reading on a green couch under a bulb that lit up
a corner of a wide bare room. He had come to the death of Olivier in
Jean Christophe and read with tightening gullet. In his memory
lingered the sound of the Rhine swirling, restlessly gnawing the foot
of the garden of the house where Jean Christophe was born. Europe
was a green park in his mind full of music and red flags and mobs
marching. Occasionally the sound of a steamboat whistle from the
river settled breathless snowysoft into the room. From the street
came a rattle of taxis and the whining sound of streetcars.
There was a knock at the door. Jimmy got up, his eyes blurred
and hot from reading.
“Hello Stan, where the devil did you come from?”
“Herfy I’m tight as a drum.”
“That’s no novelty.”
“I was just giving you the weather report.”
“Well perhaps you can tell me why in this country nobody ever
does anything. Nobody ever writes any music or starts any
revolutions or falls in love. All anybody ever does is to get drunk and
tell smutty stories. I think it’s disgusting....”
“’Ear, ’ear.... But speak for yourself. I’m going to stop drinking....
No good drinking, liquor just gets monotonous.... Say, got a
bathtub?”
“Of course there’s a bathtub. Whose apartment do you think this
is, mine?”
“Well whose is it Herfy?”
“It belongs to Lester. I’m just caretaker while he’s abroad, the
lucky dog.” Stan started peeling off his clothes letting them drop in a
pile about his feet. “Gee I’d like to go swimming.... Why the hell do
people live in cities?”
“Why do I go on dragging out a miserable existence in this crazy
epileptic town ... that’s what I want to know.”
“Lead on Horatius, to the baawth slave,” bellowed Stan who stood
on top of his pile of clothes, brown with tight rounded muscles,
swaying a little from his drunkenness.
“It’s right through that door.” Jimmy pulled a towel out of the
steamertrunk in the corner of the room, threw it after him and went
back to reading.
Stan tumbled back into the room, dripping, talking through the
towel. “What do you think, I forgot to take my hat off. And look Herfy,
there’s something I want you to do for me. Do you mind?”
“Of course not. What is it?”
“Will you let me use your back room tonight, this room?”
“Sure you can.”
“I mean with somebody.”
“Go as far as you like. You can bring the entire Winter Garden
Chorus in here and nobody will see them. And there’s an emergency
exit down the fire escape into the alley. I’ll go to bed and close my
door so you can have this room and the bath all to yourselves.”
“It’s a rotten imposition but somebody’s husband is on the
rampage and we have to be very careful.”
“Dont worry about the morning. I’ll sneak out early and you can
have the place to yourselves.”
“Well I’m off so long.”
Jimmy gathered up his book and went into his bedroom and
undressed. His watch said fifteen past twelve. The night was sultry.
When he had turned out the light he sat a long while on the edge of
the bed. The faraway sounds of sirens from the river gave him
gooseflesh. From the street he heard footsteps, the sound of men
and women’s voices, low youthful laughs of people going home two
by two. A phonograph was playing Secondhand Rose. He lay on his
back on top of the sheet. There came on the air through the window
a sourness of garbage, a smell of burnt gasoline and traffic and
dusty pavements, a huddled stuffiness of pigeonhole rooms where
men and women’s bodies writhed alone tortured by the night and the
young summer. He lay with seared eyeballs staring at the ceiling, his
body glowed in a brittle shivering agony like redhot metal.
A woman’s voice whispering eagerly woke him; someone was
pushing open the door. “I wont see him. I wont see him. Jimmy for
Heaven’s sake you go talk to him. I wont see him.” Elaine
Oglethorpe draped in a sheet walked into the room.
Jimmy tumbled out of bed. “What on earth?”
“Isn’t there a closet or something in here.... I will not talk to Jojo
when he’s in that condition.”
Jimmy straightened his pyjamas. “There’s a closet at the head of
the bed.”
“Of course.... Now Jimmy do be an angel, talk to him and make
him go away.”
Jimmy walked dazedly into the outside room. “Slut, slut,” was
yelling a voice from the window. The lights were on. Stan, draped
like an Indian in a gray and pink-striped blanket was squatting in the
middle of the two couches made up together into a vast bed. He was
staring impassively at John Oglethorpe who leaned in through the
upper part of the window screaming and waving his arms and
scolding like a Punch and Judy show. His hair was in a tangle over
his eyes, in one hand he waved a stick, in the other a
creamandcoffeecolored felt hat. “Slut come here.... Flagrante delictu
that’s what it is.... Flagrante delictu. It was not for nothing that
inspiration led me up Lester Jones’s fire escape.” He stopped and
stared a minute at Jimmy with wide drunken eyes. “So here’s the cub
reporter, the yellow journalist is it, looking as if butter wouldnt melt in
his mouth is it? Do you know what my opinion of you is, would you
like to know what my opinion of you is? Oh I’ve heard about you from
Ruth and all that. I know you think you’re one of the dynamiters and
aloof from all that.... How do you like being a paid prostitute of the
public press? How d’you like your yellow ticket? The brass check,
that’s the kind of thing.... You think that as an actor, an artiste, I dont
know about those things. I’ve heard from Ruth your opinion of actors
and all that.”
“Why Mr. Oglethorpe I am sure you are mistaken.”
“I read and keep silent. I am one of the silent watchers. I know
that every sentence, every word, every picayune punctuation that
appears in the public press is perused and revised and deleted in the
interests of advertisers and bondholders. The fountain of national life
is poisoned at the source.”
“Yea, you tell em,” suddenly shouted Stan from the bed. He got to
his feet clapping his hands. “I should prefer to be the meanest
stagehand. I should prefer to be the old and feeble charwoman who
scrubs off the stage ... than to sit on velvet in the office of the editor
of the greatest daily in the city. Acting is a profession honorable,
decent, humble, gentlemanly.” The oration ended abruptly.
“Well I dont see what you expect me to do about it,” said Jimmy
crossing his arms.
“And now it’s starting to rain,” went on Oglethorpe in a squeaky
whining voice.
“You’d better go home,” said Jimmy.
“I shall go I shall go where there are no sluts ... no male and
female sluts.... I shall go into the great night.”
“Do you think he can get home all right Stan?”
Stan had sat down on the edge of the bed shaking with laughter.
He shrugged his shoulders.
“My blood will be on your head Elaine forever.... Forever, do you
hear me?... into the night where people dont sit laughing and
sneering. Dont you think I dont see you.... If the worst happens it will
not be my fault.”
“Go-od night,” shouted Stan. In a last spasm of laughing he fell off
the edge of the bed and rolled on the floor. Jimmy went to the
window and looked down the fire escape into the alley. Oglethorpe
had gone. It was raining hard. A smell of wet bricks rose from the
housewalls.
“Well if this isnt the darnedest fool business?” He walked back
into his room without looking at Stan. In the door Ellen brushed silkily
past him.
“I’m terribly sorry Jimmy ...” she began.
He closed the door sharply in her face and locked it. “The goddam
fools they act like crazy people,” he said through his teeth. “What the
hell do they think this is?”
His hands were cold and trembling. He pulled a blanket up over
him. He lay listening to the steady beat of the rain and the hissing
spatter of a gutter. Now and then a puff of wind blew a faint cool
spray in his face. There still lingered in the room a frail cedarwood
gruff smell of her heavycoiled hair, a silkiness of her body where she
had crouched wrapped in the sheet hiding.
Ed Thatcher sat in his bay window among the Sunday papers. His
hair was grizzled and there were deep folds in his cheeks. The upper
buttons of his pongee trousers were undone to ease his sudden little
potbelly. He sat in the open window looking out over the blistering
asphalt at the endless stream of automobiles that whirred in either
direction past the yellowbrick row of stores and the redbrick station
under the eaves of which on a black ground gold letters glinted
feebly in the sun: Passaic. Apartments round about emitted a
querulous Sunday grinding of phonographs playing It’s a Bear. The
Sextette from Lucia, selections from The Quaker Girl. On his knees
lay the theatrical section of the New York Times. He looked out with
bleared eyes into the quivering heat feeling his ribs tighten with a
breathless ache. He had just read a paragraph in a marked copy of
Town Topics.
Malicious tongues are set wagging by the undeniable fact
that young Stanwood Emery’s car is seen standing every
night outside the Knickerbocker Theatre and never does it
leave they say, without a certain charming young actress
whose career is fast approaching stellar magnitude. This
same young gentleman, whose father is the head of one of
the city’s most respected lawfirms, who recently left Harvard
under slightly unfortunate circumstances, has been
astonishing the natives for some time with his exploits which
we are sure are merely the result of the ebullience of boyish
spirits. A word to the wise.
The bell rang three times. Ed Thatcher dropped his papers and
hurried quaking to the door. “Ellie you’re so late. I was afraid you
weren’t coming.”
“Daddy dont I always come when I say I will?”
“Of course you do deary.”
“How are you getting on? How’s everything at the office?”
“Mr. Elbert’s on his vacation.... I guess I’ll go when he comes
back. I wish you’d come down to Spring Lake with me for a few days.
It’d do you good.”
“But daddy I cant.” ... She pulled off her hat and dropped it on the
davenport. “Look I brought you some roses, daddy.”
“Think of it; they’re red roses like your mother used to like. That
was very thoughtful of you I must say.... But I dont like going all
alone on my vacation.”
“Oh you’ll meet lots of cronies daddy, sure you will.”
“Why couldnt you come just for a week?”
“In the first place I’ve got to look for a job ... show’s going on the
road and I’m not going just at present. Harry Goldweiser’s awfully
sore about it.” Thatcher sat down in the bay window again and
began piling up the Sunday papers on a chair. “Why daddy what on
earth are you doing with that copy of Town Topics?”
“Oh nothing. I’d never read it; I just bought it to see what it was
like.” He flushed and compressed his lips as he shoved it in among
the Times.
“It’s just a blackmail sheet.” Ellen was walking about the room.
She had put the roses in a vase. A spiced coolness was spreading
from them through the dustheavy air. “Daddy, there’s something I
want to tell you about ... Jojo and I are going to get divorced.” Ed
Thatcher sat with his hands on his knees nodding with tight lips,
saying nothing. His face was gray and dark, almost the speckled
gray of his pongee suit. “It’s nothing to take on about. We’ve just
decided we cant get along together. It’s all going through quietly in
the most approved style ... George Baldwin, who’s a friend of mine,
is going to run it through.”
“He with Emery and Emery?”
“Yes.”
“Hum.”
They were silent. Ellen leaned over to breathe deep of the roses.
She watched a little green measuring worm cross a bronzed leaf.
“Honestly I’m terribly fond of Jojo, but it drives me wild to live with
him.... I owe him a whole lot, I know that.”
“I wish you’d never set eyes on him.”
Thatcher cleared his throat and turned his face away from her to
look out the window at the two endless bands of automobiles that
passed along the road in front of the station. Dust rose from them
and angular glitter of glass enamel and nickel. Tires made a swish
on the oily macadam. Ellen dropped onto the davenport and let her
eyes wander among the faded red roses of the carpet.
The bell rang. “I’ll go daddy.... How do you do Mrs. Culveteer?”
A redfaced broad woman in a black and white chiffon dress came
into the room puffing. “Oh you must forgive my butting in, I’m just
dropping by for a second.... How are you Mr. Thatcher?... You know
my dear your poor father has really been very poorly.”
“Nonsense; all I had was a little backache.”
“Lumbago my dear.”
“Why daddy you ought to have let me know.”
“The sermon today was most inspiring, Mr. Thatcher.... Mr.
Lourton was at his very best.”
“I guess I ought to rout out and go to church now and then, but
you see I like to lay round the house Sundays.”
“Of course Mr. Thatcher it’s the only day you have. My husband
was just like that.... But I think it’s different with Mr. Lourton than with
most clergymen. He has such an uptodate commonsense view of
things. It’s really more like attending an intensely interesting lecture
than going to church.... You understand what I mean.”
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do Mrs. Culveteer, next Sunday if it’s not too
hot I’ll go.... I guess I’m getting too set in my ways.”
“Oh a little change does us all good.... Mrs. Oglethorpe you have
no idea how closely we follow your career, in the Sunday papers and
all.... I think it’s simply wonderful.... As I was telling Mr. Thatcher only
yesterday it must take a lot of strength of character and deep
Christian living to withstand the temptations of stage life nowadays.
It’s inspiring to think of a young girl and wife coming so sweet and
unspoiled through all that.”
Ellen kept looking at the floor so as not to catch her father’s eye.
He was tapping with two fingers on the arm of his morrischair. Mrs.
Culveteer beamed from the middle of the davenport. She got to her
feet. “Well I just must run along. We have a green girl in the kitchen
and I’m sure dinner’s all ruined.... Wont you drop in this afternoon...?
quite informally. I made some cookies and we’ll have some gingerale
out just in case somebody turns up.”
“I’m sure we’d be delighted Mrs. Culveteer,” said Thatcher getting
stiffly to his feet. Mrs. Culveteer in her bunchy dress waddled out the
door.
“Well Ellie suppose we go eat.... She’s a very nice kindhearted
woman. She’s always bringing me pots of jam and marmalade. She
lives upstairs with her sister’s family. She’s the widow of a traveling
man.”
“That was quite a line about the temptations of stage life,” said
Ellen with a little laugh in her throat. “Come along or the place’ll be
crowded. Avoid the rush is my motto.”
Said Thatcher in a peevish crackling voice, “Let’s not dawdle
around.”
Ellen spread out her sunshade as they stepped out of the door
flanked on either side by bells and letterboxes. A blast of gray heat
beat in their faces. They passed the stationery store, the red A. and
P., the corner drugstore from which a stale coolness of sodawater
and icecream freezers drifted out under the green awning, crossed
the street, where their feet sank into the sticky melting asphalt, and
stopped at the Sagamore Cafeteria. It was twelve exactly by the
clock in the window that had round its face in old English lettering,
Time to Eat. Under it was a large rusty fern and a card announcing
Chicken Dinner $1.25. Ellen lingered in the doorway looking up the
quivering street. “Look daddy we’ll probably have a thunderstorm.” A
cumulus soared in unbelievable snowy contours in the slate sky.
“Isnt that a fine cloud? Wouldnt it be fine if we had a riproaring
thunderstorm?”
Ed Thatcher looked up, shook his head and went in through the
swinging screen door. Ellen followed him. Inside it smelled of varnish
and waitresses. They sat down at a table near the door under a
droning electric fan.
“How do you do Mr. Thatcher? How you been all the week sir?
How do you do miss?” The bonyfaced peroxidehaired waitress hung
over them amicably. “What’ll it be today sir, roast Long Island
duckling or roast Philadelphia milkfed capon?”
IV. Fire Engine
S
uch afternoons the buses are crowded
into line like elephants in a
circusparade. Morningside Heights to
Washington Square, Penn Station to Grant’s
Tomb. Parlorsnakes and flappers joggle
hugging downtown uptown, hug joggling
gray square after gray square, until they see
the new moon giggling over Weehawken
and feel the gusty wind of a dead Sunday
blowing dust in their faces, dust of a typsy
twilight.
T
hey are walking up the Mall in Central Park.
“Looks like he had a boil on his neck,” says Ellen in front of
the statue of Burns.
“Ah,” whispers Harry Goldweiser with a fat-throated sigh, “but he
was a great poet.”
She is walking in her wide hat in her pale loose dress that the
wind now and then presses against her legs and arms, silkily,
swishily walking in the middle of great rosy and purple and
pistachiogreen bubbles of twilight that swell out of the grass and
trees and ponds, bulge against the tall houses sharp gray as dead
teeth round the southern end of the park, melt into the indigo zenith.
When he talks, forming sentences roundly with his thick lips,
continually measuring her face with his brown eyes, she feels his
words press against her body, nudge in the hollows where her dress
clings; she can hardly breathe for fear of listening to him.
“The Zinnia Girl’s going to be an absolute knockout, Elaine, I’m
telling you and that part’s just written for you. I’d enjoy working with
you again, honest.... You’re so different, that’s what it is about you.
All these girls round New York here are just the same, they’re
monotonous. Of course you could sing swell if you wanted to.... I’ve
been crazy as a loon since I met you, and that’s a good six months
now. I sit down to eat and the food dont have any taste.... You cant
understand how lonely a man gets when year after year he’s had to
crush his feelings down into himself. When I was a young fellow I
was different, but what are you to do? I had to make money and
make my way in the world. And so I’ve gone on year after year. For
the first time I’m glad I did it, that I shoved ahead and made big
money, because now I can offer it all to you. Understand what I
mean?... All those ideels and beautiful things pushed down into
myself when I was making my way in a man’s world were like
planting seed and you’re their flower.”
Now and then as they walk the back of his hand brushes against
hers; she clenches her fist sullenly drawing it away from the hot
determined pudginess of his hand.
The Mall is full of couples, families waiting for the music to begin.
It smells of children and dress-shields and talcum powder. A
balloonman passes them trailing red and yellow and pink balloons
like a great inverted bunch of grapes behind him. “Oh buy me a
balloon.” The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them.
“Hay you gimme one of each color.... And how about one of those
gold ones? No keep the change.”
Ellen put the strings of the balloons into the dirtsticky hands of
three little monkeyfaced girls in red tarns. Each balloon caught a
crescent of violet glare from the arclight.
“Aw you like children, Elaine, dont you? I like a woman to like
children.”
Ellen sits numb at a table on the terrace of the Casino. A hot gust
of foodsmell and the rhythm of a band playing He’s a Ragpicker
swirls chokingly about her; now and then she butters a scrap of roll
and puts it in her mouth. She feels very helpless, caught like a fly in
his sticky trickling sentences.

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Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad (eds) · The Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016

Vasilios N. Makrides &

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Die Qualität der in dieser Reihe Prior to publication, the quality of

The Pan-Orthodox Council

Cover image: The Primates of the ten autocephalous Orthodox Churches

Photo: © John Mindala

Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad

THE COUNCIL AND ITS PARTICIPANTS

Alexander Kyrlezhev / Andrey Shishkov

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE MODERN WORLD

THE COUNCIL AND WORLD CHRISTIANITY

Notes on Contributors ....................................................................................... 269

Vasilios N. Makrides / Sebastian Rimestad

Contextualising and Assessing the Pan-Orthodox Council

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closely related to the administrative pluralism of the Orthodox Church structures.

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and to promote the many positive sides of the gatheringZKLOHWKRVHVWD\LQJDW

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as well as of those with a non-FDQRQLFDOVWDWXVZKLFKKRZHYHr de facto operate

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10 6HH3DQWHOLV.DODLW]LGLVet al. HGV Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for

11 6HH 9DVLOLRV 1 0DNULGHV ³2UWKRGR[ &KULVWLDQ Rigorism: Attempting to Delineate a

7KLUGDpoint worth mentioning relates to the Orthodox attitude towards mission

theology. In addLWLRQ the readiness for a sustained dialogue with secular

hierarchical centralism in the church. 1HYHUWKHOHVVWKHFODLPWKDWWKHCouncil of

GLIILFXOW HQGHDYRXU DV the claimed rights of many churches are contested by

Russian 2UWKRGR[VLGHZKLFKLQWKHpre-conciliar discussion rounds systemati-

predominantly Orthodox countries. ,Q DGGLWLRQ the Orthodox diaspora is very

or those of others. 28 In facWWKHHQWLUHSUH-conciliar process sought to accomplish

This plan KDGEHHQDQQRXQFHGDWWKH&RXQFLORI&UHWHJLYHQWKDWthe conciliar

the Pre-&RQFLOLDU&RPPLVVLRQLQ5XVVLDLQZURWH “The Church is itself a

declared. 14 0RUHRYHU WKH Church of North Africa had a numerous episcopate

14 4XRWHGLQ+HQU\&KDGZLFNThe Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the