Greek media: Bishops of a number of Orthodox Churches will not sign the final documents of the Council

A number of Metropolitans withheld their signatures from the final documents put forth by the recently concluded Pan-Orthodox Council in Crete, reports Аgionoros.ru. 

While the names of all delegate bishops from each of the ten represented Local Churches were added to each document by the Secretariat of the Holy and Great Council, there were those who abstained from signing the documents “The Sacrament of Marriage and its Impediments” and “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World”, the most disputed text.

It is reported that Met. Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpatkos and Agios Vlasios, who had a lively debate at the Council with Met. John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon over the theology of personhood withheld his signature from both documents.

Additionally, Metropolitans Athanasius of Limassol, Neophytos of Morphou, Nikolaos of Amathus, Epiphanios of Ledra, and Porphyrios of Neapolis of the Church of Cyprus and Irinej of Bačka of the Serbian Orthodox Church withheld their signatures from the document “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.”

Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou confirmed on the official website of his diocese a refusal to sign the text “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.” In the declaration addressed to the participants of the Crete Council, he described the document as "dogmatically vague" and called it the result of "diplomatic compromise." Citing a number of quotations of Venerable Paisius Athos and Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kapsokalyvite, elders Sophronii (Sakharov), and Jacob (Tsalikis) and other advanced devotees, the bishop emphasized that the document was at odds with their doctrine and said that it is not clear that the Orthodox Church is the only bearer of the fullness of truth.

The rest of the bishops have neither confirmed nor denied the fact of refusal to sign the documents. However, the number of Serbian bishops who withheld their signatures from some documents is much bigger.

While it was previously reported that eight Metropolitans in all chose not to sign the relations document, Metropolitan Vasileios of Constantia and Ammochostos has personally stated that he did indeed sign all conciliar documents.

Recall that at the moment final documents published on the official website of the Council make it impossible to find out which of the bishops signed a particular document.

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