Orthodox Times.<\/a><\/p>\nIn particular, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem posted two announcements on its website announcing its intention to take action.<\/p>\n
The initiative came after Patriarch Theophil\u03bfs of Jerusalem visited the Vatican to attend the celebration of the elevation of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pizzaballa, at the Holy College of Cardinals.<\/p>\n
During his visit to the Vatican, he met with Pope Francis, \u201cextending a hand of goodwill from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem for Mediation, in order to start a new dialogue to end the suffering and heal the wounds in the Orthodox family\u201d.<\/p>\n
Patriarch Theophilos refers to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem as the \u201cMother of all Churches\u201d, a logic that reminds us of similar announcements from the Moscow Patriarchate, which question the primacy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as the Mother Church.<\/p>\n
And it recognizes the profound impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, not only on Orthodox Christians but also on the entire ecumenical Christian community.<\/p>\n
This new initiative \u2013 which is not elaborated on or given any relevant information about what it will involve \u2013 stems \u201cfrom the rich history of reconciliation and peace efforts by the Patriarchate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Recognizing the challenges and deep divisions, \u201cthe Patriarchate of Jerusalem is committed to the spiritual mission of dialogue and reconciliation. As St. Paul wrote, \u201cChrist is our peace,\u201d and the Patriarchate stands ready to help in every possible way to help end conflict and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patriarch Theophilos took a similar initiative in February 2020, when he convened in Amman, Jordan, first a \u201cgathering of Primates\u201d and then, seeing that the intention of participation was minimal, he called the initiative a \u201cfraternal gathering\u201d.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of the Hierarchs refused to participate. Present were Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the late Patriarch of Serbia, Irinej, and Metropolitan Rastislav of the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n
From the Church of Romania, Metropolitan Niphon of Targoviste was present.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting the presence at that time of Metropolitan Onufriy in Amman, as head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who was seated at the right of the Patriarch of Moscow (see photo below).<\/p>\n
The whole idea then was to present as an initiative of Patriarch Theofilos, a gathering of the Primates of Orthodoxy, something that had caused strong reactions in the Orthodox Church, as it is the responsibility of the Ecumenical Patriarch to convene such a Synaxis.<\/p>\n
It is characteristic that the Churches of Greece, Cyprus, and Albania had replied that they would not attend, as well as the Patriarchates of Georgia, Bulgaria, Alexandria, and Antioch.<\/p>\n
The question that -reasonably- arises is whether this initiative of Patriarch Theophilos comes after consultations with other Primates about their intentions, who will be invited to participate in what Patriarch Theophilos presents as a movement of unity, and what are the expectations from such an effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the Amman \u201cfiasco\u201d in Jordan in February 2020, with the \u201cgathering of Primates\u201d finally taking the form of a \u201cfraternal gathering\u201d, the Patriarch of Jerusalem is taking a new initiative in order to \u201caddress the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the threat of schism in the body of the Orthodox Church\u201d. That\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":174905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5142,5147],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-174990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world-en"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2.webp?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174991,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174990\/revisions\/174991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}