ANTIOCH NEVER AGREED FOR THE HOLY COUNCIL TO MEET!

Notes on Arab Orthodoxy – 20/6/16

Much noise has been made about the Patriarchate of Antioch’s absence from the Great and Holy Council.

This absence has also provoked the absence of the Moscow Patriarchate which insisted that “if even one is absent, then the Great and Holy Council should be postponed.”

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, they are insisting: since all signed for holding the Holy Council, they had to come and now they are exposed.

Characteristically, in a recent interview the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate said that all 14 churches had signed!

Had they all actually signed? Romfea.gr reveals: NO, they did not all sign!

From the first moment, the Patriarchate of Antioch had its reservations!

They requested that the council’s rules of procedure and the disagreement with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem be resolved first, and then, without differences with the Sister Church of Jerusalem, they could participate in the Council of Crete.

“We never signed that we would take part. We asked that our differences be resolved and the Ecumenical Patriarchate told us that we would start a dialogue after the Great and Holy Council, something to which we could not agree… As you see, there was never consensus, so what unanimity is His All-Holiness talking about?” a representative of the Patriarchate of Antioch told Romfea.gr.

In the photograph published today by Romfea.gr, it is clear: Patriarch John of Antioch, through his representative, did not agree in January in Geneva for his church to participate in the Great Council.

And this absence also brought about the absence of the Russians, as they had warned, with the result that this Great and Holy Council will, unfortunately, have conspicuous absences.

Moreover, for reasons of their own, the Patriarchate of Georgia and the Patriarchate of Bulgaria are absent.