On-line resources on Holy and Great Council now available
In a recent press release on the web site of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America it was announced that a special web site providing background information and resources concerning the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, slated to convene in Crete June 16-27, 2016, is now available.
In a video on the Council site, His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople explains that “the foremost goal of this Pan-Orthodox Council is to demonstrate and declare the unity of the Orthodox Church as well as proclaim and pronounce a message of hope and love to the world.”
The historic gathering—in the planning stage since the 1960s—is being supported with digital communications and a multilingual team of experts. According to the GOARCH release, issues to be discussed at the Council span “the mission of the Orthodox Church in the modern world and its relations with other Christian churches to the importance of fasting and the sacrament of marriage.” Also on the agenda will be a discussion on “how the Orthodox Church determines autonomy and matters related to the Orthodox diaspora.”
The Council site features “other videos explaining the Holy and Great Council, resources for media and Orthodox parishes, and a listing of experts available for interviews” that includes the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, Theological Advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch; the Rev. Dr. Nathanael Symeonides, Director of GOARCH’s Department of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations; the Rev. Dr. Nicolas Kazarian, who teaches political geography in Paris, France; and Dr. Brandon Gallaher of the United Kingdom, a Professor of theology who is a member of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe. Texts of Council documents also are available on the Council site.
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