EASTERN ORTHODOX churches often pass beneath the media radar, despite their status as truly ancient. The attacks by ISIS on Orthodox communities in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere have brought into focus dwindling populations of Christians in the Middle East. Russia’s invasion of Crimea and popular uprisings in Kiev raised the alarm on the tenuous position of Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
In February, headlines were made again when Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met in Cuba, the first-ever meeting of a pope and a Moscow patriarch. Additionally, a historic meeting will be held in June on the Greek island of Crete, bringing together leaders of all 14 loosely linked Orthodox churches for the first time in 12 centuries.
Both the pope-patriarch encounter and the troubled preparations for the convening of the pan-Orthodox leaders are extremely complex; one might call them Byzantine.
The meeting between the pope and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was years—and several papacies—in the making. There were always obstacles, not the least of which was the Soviet system and bitter internecine church wars in Ukraine that pitted the Roman Catholic-affiliated Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church against the Russian Orthodox Church. After the end of the Soviet regime, the UGCC entered a renaissance and the Orthodox churches in Ukraine splintered, which Moscow has cited as a reason for refusing any meeting between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church.
Despite that, some observers think that the Putin government exerted pressure on the Russian Orthodox Church to create the opening that led to the meeting in Havana, which was welcomed as a breakthrough in both ecclesiastical and diplomatic relations.
Yet the joint statement released by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill has pleased very few. A sometimes vague but mostly careful text celebrates all the right things—including the need for an end to violence in Syria, North Africa, and other Middle East locations where Christians are imperiled. However, the still-occupied Crimea and embattled eastern Ukraine receive an indeterminate assessment; one that serves Russian interests mostly by refusing to acknowledge Putin’s aggressive policies of invasion and disruption there.
The June meeting of Orthodox leaders was called by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Committees have been at work for more than 50 years to define crucial issues that a Pan-Orthodox Council should address.
These topics include who leads among the churches (primacy), the church calendar, rules on fasting and on marriage with non-Orthodox Christians, how to grant independence to local churches, how to hold ecumenical relationships with non-Orthodox churches, and the broader role of the Orthodox churches in the world. That final area raises questions about the status of LGBT people, same-sex marriage, abortion, the environment, civil and religious rights, and freedom—all the business that needs discussing when you haven’t met since 787 AD.
Without the Soviet regimes as a common enemy impeding a council, the churches have discovered that their internal conflicts remain as obstacles. At a preliminary planning meeting outside Geneva in January, the Russian Orthodox Church successfully advocated against a majority-rules process, favoring one in which any church in disagreement on any issue can veto, effectively blocking not only action but even discussion on that issue. As a result, several important issues have already been removed from the June agenda. There are also reports of some church leaders now disapproving of previously accepted documents on ecumenical relations, marriage, and the church in the contemporary world.
It is not at all clear that the expected leaders will all attend the council. Already the location has been switched from Istanbul to Greece because of Russian-Turkish political tensions.
A historical perspective would cause one to be skeptical of both the meeting between pope and patriarch as well as the forthcoming council in Crete. However, one should also recognize the presence of the Spirit in our less-than-perfect endeavors. These movements toward communion, despite imperfections, are gifts.
Michael Plekon is a professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York. He serves as a priest at St. Gregory the Theologian Orthodox Church in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
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