Patriarchate of Antioch doubts the feasibility of Pan-Orthodox Council

The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, scheduled for June 2016, may never be convened in Crete. Following the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Patriarchate of Antioch questioned the feasibility of the Council, reports the Greek news agency Romfea.

In its notification, the Patriarchate of Antioch declares his disappointment that the Ecumenical Patriarchate referred the resolution of the issue of Qatar for the period following the Pan-Orthodox Synod. The Patriarchate of Antioch informed of its decision the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Because of the tense relationship between the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which opened its archiepiscopal chair in Qatar, the Patriarchate of Antioch doubts "the unity of Orthodoxy." And therefore, there is no reason to convene the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church.

The Patriarchate of Antioch expects (like the Bulgarian Church) appropriate movements of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and sisters Churches, which would show genuine, not ostentatious unity of the Orthodox world. Non response of the Church of Constantinople to resolve disputed issues by the conciliar discussion calls into question participation of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in the Pan-Orthodox Council, said in a statement of the Patriarchate of Antioch.

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