Orthodox council is unlikely to be convened due to Ukrainian situation, says Romanian theologian

2 July 2014, RISU

The Churches of World Orthodoxy are affected by the situation in Ukraine. Therefore the way to the Pan-Orthodox council to which many Christians are looking forward will to be long and difficult, states Radu Preda, a theologian of the Romanian Patriarchate in his interview with Kathpress, according to portal-credo.ru.

In the near future the council is unlikely to be convened, as the key actors, especially head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Ist are “too different”.

Another reason is that the Orthodox world has “gone crazy”, says Preda, referring to the situation in Ukraine. There exists a huge potential for the conflict, as the Moscow Patriarchate applies in Ukraine “a protectorate option”.

Also, according to the Romanian expert, there are numerous conflicts between the Churches of the World Orthodoxy: between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Patriarchate, between Moscow and the Orthodox Churches in Moldova, Estonia and Serbia. All these problems should be addressed to by the Council, which is scheduled to take decisions unanimously, states the theologian.
“We have done very little to be ready for the Pan-Orthodox Council”, he summed up earlier.

Since April, Preda has chaired the Romanian Institute for investigating crimes of the communist regime in Bucharest.


Orthodox council is unlikely to be convened due to Ukrainian situation, says Romanian theologian