Russian Orthodox Church suspends participation in activities of Conference of European Churches

During the Conference of European Churches Central Committee meeting on 11 October 2088, it was announced that the Russian Orthodox Church suspended her membership in this organization.

The reason for this decision was the ungrounded reluctance in defiance to the CEC Constitution and Rules to consider the application for CEC membership from the Estonian Orthodox Church, which is a self-governed Church in the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate. Earlier in November 2007, the CEC Central Committee gave a favourable response to the membership application from the “Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church”, which is part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In the then resolution the CEC Central Committee stated that as the Estonian Orthodox Church had handed in an application for membership, the Central Committee asked the General Secretary to examine whether this Church conformed to the criteria of CEC membership and ‘in accordance with the effective procedure to prepare a recommendation to be acted on by the Central Committee in 2008’.

In April 2008, a CEC delegation visited Estonia and met with the primate of the Estonian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Kornily of Tallinn and All Estonia, as well as clergy of this Church and representatives of other Churches in Estonia. During those meetings, the conformity of this Church to the CEC membership criteria was ascertained and a recommendation was made to admit her to the Conference, as was reconfirmed by the report about the visit presented to the recent CEC Central Committee meeting. Other Churches in Estonia and the Council of Churches in that country favoured this Church’s membership in the CEC as well. The recommendations to admit the Estonian Orthodox Church to the CEC membership was made on the basis of the report on the visit of the CEC delegation and by the CEC General Secretary Colin Williams.

In spite of this, during the recent CEC Central Committee meeting, the CEC President, Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, with the support of the Patriarchate of Constantinople representatives made repeated attempts to defer discussion on the CEC membership application from the Estonian Orthodox Church. It was argued that the status of Orthodox jurisdictions in Estonia was not settled between the Patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople. This issue however does not have anything to do with discussion on the Estonian Orthodox Church’s application for CEC membership since the only criteria for refusal to admit a Church is her failure to conform to the membership criteria. The desire to reach consensus among all the CEC member churches was given as another reason for deferring the consideration. However, this demand for consensus was not set forth in considering the EAOC’s application and the Russian Orthodox delegation had to abstain in the vote because the EAOC leaders had ventured upon unfriendly statements and actions against the Estonian Orthodox Church.

While the Central Committee had enough time to make a decision, the voting on the Estonian Orthodox Church’s membership in the CEC was put off till the Central Committee’s last day when many of its members were already absent. The delegates of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and other Greek Churches demonstratively left the hall. As a result there was no quorum and no vote.

The refusal to consider as appropriate the Estonian Orthodox Church’s application for CEC membership by the only body in the CEC, the Central Committee, that has power to act on it has led to a situation in which the participation of this Church in the 2009 CEC Assembly in Lyons is impossible in principle. In this connection, in solidarity with our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Estonia, the Russian Orthodox Church has decided to suspend her membership in the CEC until the Estonian Orthodox Church’s membership to this organization is granted.

This development has shown the bias of the CEC leaders. The two identical applications presupposing the same procedure and the same criteria of membership have been treated with different approaches, which is a gross violation of the principles of equality and impartiality. The CEC President and General Secretary have glaringly broken the promises they gave during their meeting with His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia on September 30 when they agreed upon the details of the admission of the Estonian Orthodox Church to the CEC membership. There are political tendencies discernable among the real reasons for the CEC leaders’ dishonest and biased conduct.

It has to be stated with profound regret that the CEC is losing its role of a reconciling and uniting force by increasingly ignoring the voice of Churches in the countries outside the European Union. In this way the Conference is losing its historical calling to be a bridge between East and West. The present leadership of the CEC, in the first place its President, bear a personal responsibility for so sad a development.

While suspending her membership in the CEC, the Russian Orthodox Church states her desire to continue developing good relations with the CEC member churches for the sake of joint efforts in advocating and asserting Christian values in the life of Europe today.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Vice-Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, is ready to give his comments on this issue. Tel: +37259688338

DECR Communication Service

• Russian Orthodox Church suspends participation in activities of Conference of European Churches
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• Memorandum on the meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate delegations