Orthodox squabbles



Balamand, June 6, 2016
 "ANTIOCHIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL UNTIL ISSUES ARE RESOLVED - ANTIOCHIAN SECRETARIAT"
From the secretariart of the Antiochian Patriarchate:During the course of its seventh exceptional session still open since the 25th of May 2016, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch held a meeting on the 6th of June 2016 presided by His Beatitude Patriarch John X and in the presence of Their Eminencies the Bishops, to study the positions of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches...
 ...the Bulgarian Church issued, on the 1st of June 2016, a synodical decision in which it mentioned its reservations and asked His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch to postpone the convening of the Great Council to a later date while actively continuing its preparatory works, otherwise it refrains from taking part in it.
Read more: Antiochian Orthodox Church will not participate in Pan-Orthodox Council until issues are resolved 
Stories like this are why I think Christians, and not only the Orthodox, need to look at unity on a basic and personal level before taking it to bureaucratic processes and meetings. When unified is something that we are not something we do, when unity comes out of our personal understandings about what the church is and who we are, we will have an easier time working together on the political minutiae. 
On the other hand, I like it that the Orthodox talk to each other in their differences, rather than closing themselves off from one another as some others do, and their process for doing things prevents them, at least, from any rush to judgment.


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