News
In brief comments to the Fourth Preconciliar Panorthodox Conference which met recently at the Orthodox Centre of Chambésy, near Geneva, the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, assured the participants that the WCC and its member churches are accompanying them in their work in thoughts and prayers, "knowing the importance of the decisions that the conference was preparing."
At the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and following the unanimous decision taken by the primates of the Orthodox churches who had met in 2008 at the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in Istanbul, the Fourth Preconciliar Panorthodox Conference gathered to consider the issue of canonical organization of the Orthodox churches in diaspora.
The outcome was that the conference approved a number of documents on this issue which were previously elaborated by the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission.
The conference expressed the Orthodox churches’ unanimous agreement to solve the canonical organization of Orthodox communities living in diaspora based on the principles of ecclesiology and both the canonical tradition and practice of the Orthodox Church.
New Episcopal Conferences were created to respond to new pastoral needs. These conferences, presided in each place by the bishop representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, will promote Orthodox unity, exercise a collegial pastoral ministry and offer a common witness to the world.
The conference began with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy on 7 June, the day of Pentecost, and concluded its work on 13 June. It was attended by the delegates of all autocephalous (Eastern) Orthodox Churches. Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon chaired the meeting while Metropolitan Jeremy (Kalligiorgis) of Switzerland facilitated the proceedings as secretary for the Preparation of the Holy Council.
Official documents of the conference in Greek, Russian and French