Pan-Orthodox Secretariat of the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church concludes its first meeting

On March 30, 2016, the Pan-Orthodox Secretariat of the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church concluded its first meeting, which took place at the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Orthodox center in Chambesy, Switzerland. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church was represented at the meeting by Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), and the Rev. Anatoly Churyakov, who acted as an interpreter.

The meeting was chaired by Metropolitan Jeremiah of Switzerland (Patriarchate of Constantinople). The points under discussion included a procedure for the work of the Pan-Orthodox Secretariat. It was agreed in particular to set up a commission for creating and supporting a website of the Pan-Orthodox Council and six special commissions of the Secretariat for the technical support of the Council including provision of materials for participants in plenary sessions and commissions, recording the amendments approved by plenary sessions and entering them into the Council’s texts in its official languages, collecting signatures under the final documents, providing simultaneous translation, accrediting journalists, and managing the subsequent publication of the minutes and decisions of the Council.

The meeting of the Secretariat was attended by delegations of the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow, Georgia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria and the Orthodox Churches of Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Poland and the Czech Lands and Slovakia.

DECR Communications Service