ROC finds meetings in "Amman format" the voice of Church’s conciliarity

Participants of the Meeting of Primates in Amman. A photo: t.me/bishopvictor

The Orthodox Church is looking for ways to restore the mechanisms of conciliarity, which suffered from the sole decision of one of the first hierarchs, the Jerusalem Patriarch Theophilos III, who convened the Council of Primates of Orthodox Churches in Amman and spoke as the voice of the conciliarity of the Church. This was stated in an interview with RIA Novosti by the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR MP), Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk.

He said that some Greek authors expressed displeasure with the idea of a meeting in Amman since it was not convened by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and explained the groundlessness of the claims. “In history and canon law, such meetings of primates were not limited in any way. Secondly, there are precedents when councils with the participation of other primates were convened by Jerusalem but not Constantinople patriarchs,” the metropolitan said.

He recalled the Councils of Jerusalem in 764 and 1443, as well as how in 1522 in Jerusalem Metropolitan Ioanniky of Sozopol, who seized the throne of Constantinople, was deposed, and in 1672 the Protestant confession of faith under the name of Patriarch of Constantinople Cyril Lucaris was condemned.

As reported earlier, on the anniversary of the meeting in Amman, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem published an open letter to the Primates of Local Orthodox Churches, in which he recalled what the Amman meeting was intended for and urged to continue meeting to solve common problems.

As the UOJ reported, the Russian Orthodox Church hopes for a meeting in the "Amman format" after the restrictions are lifted.

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