Metropolitan of Chalcedon: What entered the life of the Churches, and what remained on paper?

Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, reflected on the significance of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, the decade since its convocation in Crete and the continuing need for the reception of its decisions in the life of the Church.

Speaking on behalf of the Organizing Committee, Metropolitan Emmanuel welcomed Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the opening of the conference “The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (2016–2026): Assessment and Prospects,” held in Chantilly, France, on Monday, October 5.

“Ten years,” he began, recalling that a decade has passed since Pentecost Sunday in June 2016, when the Primates and delegations of ten Autocephalous Orthodox Churches began the work of the Holy and Great Council with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.

For the history of the Church, he observed, a decade is a very short period, yet it is sufficient “to see what has taken root and what still awaits.”

From Rhodes to Crete Metropolitan Emmanuel recalled the lengthy process that led to the Council, beginning with the First Pan-Orthodox Conference in Rhodes in 1961, convened by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, and continuing through the First…