[Magdalen] The Orthodox World.

[Roger Stokes]

On 05/06/2016 05:27, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
> The Byzantine East:
>   
> The periodic infighting among the denominations/churches of the West
> pale in comparison with the ongoing squabbles of the Orthodox in  Europe.
>   
> The 14 members of the Pan-Orthodox Council are periodically at each  other's
> throats, it seems.  Currently the Orthodox Patriarchs of  Antioch,
> of Bulgaria and of Moscow and their respective churches are at odds.

Part of this may be due to the fact that the Patriarchate of Moscow 
likes to remind the other Churches that ut us by far the largest of them 
amd so ought to be the dominant voice.

> Ironically, the Pan-Orthodox Council is usually held up as a symbol of  the
> unity of the Orthodox.  Not this year.

When the disagreements mean that it can't meet in Constantinople, the 
usual meeting place for these occasional Councils and the seat of the 
Ecumenical Patriarch.
> A friend monitors the Orthodox with a special interest in ecumenism
> with the Roman Catholic Church, and his coverage of these squabbles
> has been heavy with infighting recently.  The disputes center on  a
> variety of subjects, both jurisdictionally and doctrinally.
>   
> Orthodox relations with the RCC seems to be at a low point currently,
> with the Orthodox lumping them in with the Protestants of the West as
> heretics.

Against that we need to remember that a few months ago the Pope met one 
of the Patriarchs in Cuba.  More recently he was with the Greek Orthodox 
Patriarch visiting migrants in Lesbos and the Greek Orthodox helped with 
selecting the small group he took back to Rome with him.

Roger