The Shepherd, July 2010
NEWS SECTION
PATRIARCH KYRILL’S STRONG WORDS TO WCC
THE WEBSITE of the Moscow Patriarchate reports that on 28th June 2010, His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia, “received the Rev. Dr. Olaf Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, currently on an official visit to Moscow. The meeting took place after the Divine Liturgy celebrated at the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin.… His Holiness remarked that the World Council of Churches was experiencing a protracted crisis caused by the contradiction between the declared aspiration to Christian unity and the deepening of differences among Christians on certain doctrinal issues, including anthropology and morality in the first place. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church added that attempts of some Protestant communities to revise the standards of Christian morality bring about the alienation of the Orthodox from the WCC. If the Orthodox Christians would not have paid attention to these trends, it would have been a deviation from Christian truth and would have given a cause for schism in the Orthodox Churches.… Christianity in the counties belonging to Christian traditions needs common efforts of all Christians to be made for defending it from secular forces that are trying to impose anti-Christian and anti-religious state of opinion on the entire world. I am confident that you are fully aware of this danger and intend to do anything possible to make common Christian witness more active.” These comments are surely to be welcomed, although perhaps they do not go far enough. The Patriarch only touched upon and did not at all address the fundamental question of doctrine, and furthermore, although he sees the danger of schism among the Orthodox, he appears to be unaware of the fact of schism among the Orthodox, mostly caused by the involvement of the “official Churches” in ecumenism. Of course, as reported in a release from the WCC itself, “Patriarch Kirill has been deeply involved in the ecumenical movement since his youth. As a 22-year old delegate, he participated at the WCC 4th Assembly in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1968. From 1971 to 1974 he was representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the WCC. Between 1975 and 1998 he was a member of the WCC central and executive committees. As the chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department for External Relations between 1989 and his enthronement as patriarch in February 2009 Kirill played a key role in the advancement of a variety of ecumenical initiatives.” Perhaps the real import of the Patriarch’s words is that the ecumenical interests of the Moscow Patriarchate have, since his enthronement, shifted significantly from dialogue with the Protestant world to rapprochement with Rome.
PAN-ORTHODOX ASSEMBLY AT THYATEIRA HOUSE
AS REPORTED on the Sourozh Diocese website (Moscow Patriarchate), there was a Pan-Orthodox Assembly of Bishops with responsibility in the British Isles, held at Thyateira House, on 21st June. The Assembly was convened in accordance with the decision reached at the 4th Pre-conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference Meeting at Chambésy (Switzerland) in 2009. Eleven hierarchs participated under the presidency of Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira and Great Britain. Of the eleven, one was from the Patriarchate of Antioch, three were from the Moscow Patriarchate, one each from the Georgian, Serbian, and Romanian Churches, and, in addition to Archbishop Gregorios himself, three other bishops from the Œcumenical Patriarchate. “Three Commissions were set up: Theological Commission, with Metropolitan Kallistos as Chairman will for the time-being deal with liturgical, canonical and ecumenical questions, & with the preparation of an agreed list of Saints of the British Isles.” “Pastoral & Inter-Orthodox Commission with Archbishop Elisey as Chairman will deal with Inter-Orthodox relations & with the organization of Pan-Orthodox events.” “Educational Commission with Archbishop Gregorios as Chairman will be concerned, among other things, with chaplains to universities, catechetical work & publications.”
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