Whither goest Moscow?

More than a few emails have been received with a single question: "Is Moscow pulling out of the Council?" An article from Sputnik News has given that impression, but I have yet to see any corroboration. What has been corroborated and been officially declared by Moscow is that they are going to have what has been described as an "emergency meeting" Monday to decide how to proceed. If anything can be said about the Russian Church it is meticulous. There will be a pronouncement. It will be clear and probably quite long.

What will it say? A few options present themselves.

1. Moscow will go as normal.
2. They will go and treat this as a "local conference" or some other lesser designation.
3. The Council will now be a preamble to the real Council to be scheduled later.
4. They will say they will go if some number of items are fixed before the Council is to convene.
5. They will not go at all.

---

(mospat.ru) - On Monday, June 13, 2016, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet for an extraordinary session.

The chairman of the Department for the Church’s Relations with the Mass Media, V. Legoida, explained that the Holy Synod meeting would take place to discuss the extraordinary situation, which has developed after the refusal of several Local Orthodox Churches to participate in the work of the Pan-Orthodox Council planned to take place from June 18 to 27 in Crete.