EP - things will be progressing as scheduled

(Holy Council) - Orthodox Church will gather in Crete - Holy and Great Council moving forward

The worldwide Orthodox Church is about to begin its historic move toward unity in Crete. His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will arrive on the Greek island at 1 p.m. on 15 June, where he will convene the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, the first gathering of its kind in some 1,000 years. More representatives from self-governing Orthodox Churches will arrive on 16 June.

Items on the agenda have been under discussion for more than 50 years by Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commissions and Pan-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Conferences.

In preparation for the Holy and Great Council, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew convened a Synaxis of Primates of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches at the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Geneva, from 21 to 28 January 2016. For months now, a Small Synaxis of the Primates has been scheduled for 17 June as well.