Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
A joyful day has now dawned, in which we celebrate the historic manifestation of the institution of the Church, which is constituted by the Holy Spirit, and we Orthodox brothers, who represent all the local Orthodox Autocephalous Churches, have gathered together in a liturgical assembly, so that we may carry out the duty and responsibility of the one Orthodox Church to the people and to the world today, by convening our Holy and Great Council.
Fr. Lawrence Farley
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
The point here is that the Councils were not content merely to produce documents for people to read for their edification. They insisted that these truths be followed, and backed them up with anathemas, excommunicating those who dissented from them.
Archpriest Patrick B. O’Grady
Finally, on principle, the Cretan Synod cannot succeed because the documents are rife with language drawn from secular or, at best, heterodox Christian, conceptions of the construct of mankind (confusion of nature and person), the oneness of the Church (in favour of the branch-theory, the latitudinarian child of Anglicanism), and the facile adoption of civil rights language without a sufficient grounding in the patristic tradition.
Fr. Peter Alban Heers
Protopresbyter Peter Heers, PhD., rector of the Holy Prophet Elias in Petrokerasa, Greece, and author of The Ecclesiological Renovation of Vatican II: An Orthodox Examination of Rome’s Ecumenical Theology Regarding Baptism and the Church, his doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Thessaloniki, recently spoke via video with the faithful gathered at the Apostle Paul Orthodox Christian Bookstore in Toronto, discussing various issues surrounding the present Council on the island of Crete, including the history of its preparation and the preparation of the documents under examination at the Council, as well as the disputes over the documents. Several short Q and A videos are offered below, followed by the entire presentation:
Met. Siluan (Muci)
It is in order to preserve this criterion that was followed from the beginning that the Church of Antioch wanted, on the one hand, to insist on the theme of unanimity in those three points-- the convocation, participation, and making decisions-- and, on the other hand, to be able to include in the council's agenda topics that are important for us in our pastoral practice. For us, this is of paramount importance.