The Holy and Great Council will convene on the Greek island on June 20-26 after over 50 years of preparations. On Saturday, the Ukrainian parliament asked the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, to make the Ukrainian Church independent from Moscow's Patriarch Kirill.
"His All Holiness [Bartholomew] has promised that Constantinople will not discuss this," Archdeacon John Chryssavgis said.
“Among the topics that will indeed be raised is the persecution and execution of Orthodox Christians across many countries, such as Syria and Iraq. There are Orthodox Christians in North Africa and in Ukraine, and it is true that people shed their blood and die there, brothers are fighting brothers and Orthodox Christians are fighting Orthodox Christians,” the archdeacon said.
The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, also known as the Pan-Orthodox Council, is set to be held on the Greek island of Crete on June 19-26, after more than 50 years of preparations. A number of churches, including the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church have refused to participate in the council as the procedure and documents of the council have not been worked out properly yet.
