Ecumenical Patriarch, at Chantilly conference, defends 2016 Crete Council and warns against a "closed and gloomy Orthodoxy"

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew opened an international scientific conference in Chantilly, France, on the evening of Monday, Oct. 5. The conference is titled "The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (2016–2026): Assessment and Prospects" and runs through Thursday, Oct. 8 under the Ecumenical Patriarchate's auspices. Per the Patriarchate's published program, speakers come from several Orthodox churches, including the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania and the Churches of Cyprus and Greece. Catholic, Anglican and World Council of Churches participants are also scheduled. Archbishop John of Tirana and All Albania is attending.

In the address, which Orthodoxia News Agency published in full in Greek, the Patriarch called the 2016 council in Crete a defining event for modern Orthodoxy. He revisited the last-minute decision of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Russia, Bulgaria and Georgia not to take part. That decision, he said, was taken on "non-ecclesiastical criteria," caused "great sorrow" and tested synodality, but "in no way" damaged the Orthodox Church's synodal identity. No theological reason existed to call the council off, he said, and postponing it would have meant cancelling it for good, "perhaps what some desired." He also criticized self-appointed critics who questioned the council's legitimacy.

Bartholomew called for a "council after the council," meaning the decisions should be put into practice in parishes, seminaries and youth work. He noted that the council's minutes have recently been published. He described synodality as the church's way of life, its "ethos," rather than simply the holding of meetings. He said Christian witness cannot come from a "closed and gloomy Orthodoxy" and that the church is history's "liberator," not its "adversary." He said dialogue with culture does not mean conforming to the spirit of the age. Citing the Crete encyclical, he said Orthodox theology must resist fundamentalism, which the council called "an expression of morbid religiosity" that feeds intolerance and violence "in the name of God." Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, chairing the organizing committee, said the aim was to reassess the council's documents in light of the past decade, not merely to mark an anniversary.