Alexei Lysenko, Oleg Starodubtsev
In Orthodox circles, some want to venerate wonderworking icons without fail, to visit “the holiest places”, to bring earth from the grave of one or another saint, to dry up and keep prosphora given them by a priest at home and so on. Do these practices bring us closer to paganism or are they indicative of our reverence for divine things?
Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland
The Orthodox Church in the contemporary world, full of disappointments and divisions, should be an example of love “not of this world”. It’s the Church that puts an end to human reasoning and facilitates the passage towards mutual understanding and unity. And this is exactly what everyone needs. Therefore we should rejoice at each manifestation. And this manifestation is the Holy and Great Council.
Nicholas Sooy
This peculiar Christian notion of power has long captivated me. He who is greatest is the servant. At a banquet (or during a Church service), Christians should be tripping over themselves to give up their seats and to find the lowest position. Power in Christianity is inverted. It is an ‘upside down Kingdom’ as the phrase goes. A kingdom which belongs not to the powerful men, but to the ‘little ones.’
Patriarch Daniel of Romania
During the opening session of the Holy and Great Council held Monday, June 20, 2016, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, addressed a word in which he stressed the importance of synodality and respecting it not only at the local level, but also at the pan-Orthodox level. The homily of His Beatitude was appreciated by the Ecumenical Patriarch and characterised as theological.
Fr. Alexander Volkov
Press Secretary of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Fr. Alexander Volkov spoke in an interview with RIA-Novosti about the circumstances surrounding the preparations for the Council of the Orthodox Churches on Crete, and offered his evaluation of the situation that has grown up around the summit of Orthodox representatives.