I reached out to Fr. John Chryssavgis, Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and theological advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch, and asked him to shed some light on the issues surrounding the council.
The council’s prospects have been beset by strife among particular Orthodox churches, with a total of four—prominently including the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate—pulling out of participation at the last minute. This strife itself speaks to a need for greater understanding of Orthodoxy in the West. However, since Russia’s return to the world stage and its emergence during Putin’s third presidential term as the global standard bearer for “traditional values” and social conservatism, the Russian Orthodox Church—headed by Patriarch Kirill I—has played a prominent political role.
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