RPTs SYNOD ADOPTED SEVERAL DECISIONS ON ISSUES OF PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL
During a session held on 22 October under the chairmanship of Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill, the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church considered a number of issues pertaining to the sphere of external church relations.
The chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (OVTsS), Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion, reported at the session on the Fifth Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council conference held on 10-17 October in Chambesy, Switzerland. The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church led by Metropolitan Ilarion participated in the session with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill. The delegation included Archbishop of Berlin-Germany and Great Britain Mark, deputy chairman of the Department of External Church Relations Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, cleric of the Western American diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) Archimandrite Irinei, and translator Fr. Anatoly Churiakov.
This conference was convened in accordance with a decision of a meeting of primates of local Orthodox churches held in Istanbul on 6-9 March 2014 for the purposes of considering a draft of the document "Autonomy and the Means of its Proclamation," developed at a session of the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission of 2009 and also of studying results of the work of a Special Inter-Orthodox Commission for Review of Documents of the Pan-Orthodox Council, whose sessions were held in Chambesy on 30 September to 3 October 2014 and 16-20 February and 30 March-2 April 2015.
On the basis of conclusions of the conference, a draft of a document for the Pan-Orthodox Council, "Autonomy and Means for its Proclamation," was approved and also the documents "The Importance of Fasting and its Observance Today" and "Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World" were redacted and approved.
A draft of the document "The Contribution of the Orthodox Church in Achieving Peace, Justice, Freedom, Brotherhood, and Love among Nations and the Elimination of Racial and Other Discriminations" was given a new title, "Mission of the Orthodox Church in the Modern World." In accordance with a resolution of the Holy Synod of 13 July 2015, the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church presented at the conference fundamental amendments to the document. Because the achievement of consensus on a number of substantive positions turned out to be impossible, the draft of the document redacted by the Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference was not signed by the heads of the delegations of the Russian and Georgian Orthodox churches.
The position of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Fifth Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference was approved by the Holy Synod. The synod's Bible and Theology Commission was instructed to study further the draft of the document "Mission of the Orthodox Church in the Modern World," taking into account the discussion held at the fifth Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference and to present its conclusions at the next session of the synod.
Concern was expressed in connection with the absence of a draft of the council's decision on the topic "The Orthodox Diaspora," and also the absence of a consensus regarding the contents of drafts of documents of the Pan-Orthodox Council "The Calendar Question" and "On Impediments to Marriage," on which work has been conducted over the course of many decades now. Members of the Holy Synod acknowledge that the achievement of a general Orthodox consensus regarding the draft of the document "Autocephaly in the Orthodox Church and Procedure for its Proclamation" and its inclusion in the agenda of the Pan-Orthodox Council is especially important. This was reported on the official RPTs website. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 October 2015)
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