Conclusion of the consultative meeting in Damascus 

CONCLUSION OF THE CONSULTATIVE MEETING IN DAMASCUS

Representatives of Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox (non-Chalcedonian) Churches met from May 7 to 13, 1998, at St. Ephraim’s Seminary in Damascus, Syria, to discuss the forthcoming 8th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches. The Russian Orthodox Church was represented by hieromonk Hilarion (Alfeyev), secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, and Vladimir Shmaly of the DECR secretariat for inter-Christian relations. The meeting was organized by the World Council of Churches with the support of the Patriarchate of Antioch and the Syrian Orthodox (non-Chalcedonian) Church. The Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Finland did not participate in the meeting for various reasons.

This consultative meeting discussed the forms and levels of the participation of the Orthodox Churches in the 8th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches as well as prospects for their further participation in the work of the Council. The representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed their concern over the crisis in the World Council of Churches believed to be caused by the increasing gap between the Council’s Protestant majority and its Orthodox members and the fact that the agenda of the Council and of the forthcoming WCC General Assembly has included items unacceptable for the Orthodox. They stated the need for radical changes to be introduced in the World Council of Churches to allow for an adequate level of the Orthodox witness to the non-Orthodox by revoking the ecclesiologically ambiguous notion of membership and eliminating the Protestant domination in the Council. The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church also insisted on the need to comply with the decisions of the Pan-Orthodox Conference (April 29 – May 2, 1998, Thessaloniki, Greece) that the Orthodox delegates to the 8th Assembly of the WCC will not participate in any ecumenical worship services or voting procedures, except specially fixed cases – the statement which means that the Orthodox delegates will actually attend the Assembly as observers.

It was admitted in the discussion that there were different views on the Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches. At the same time the importance of preserving the pan-Orthodox unity was emphasized.

The discussion on the results of the meeting revealed certain differences among its participants. The draft final document, which had been prepared under decisive influence from the World Council of Churches officials, failed to reflect all the points of concern and proposals expressed by the Russian Orthodox Church and some other Local Orthodox Churches which were not represented at the meeting. In view of this the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church abstained from adopting the final document.