...please read this article on a speech given two days ago by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) regarding the 'Pan-Orthodox Council' that the Orthodox have been preparing for since 1961, and which remains unscheduled to this very day (italics and emphases mine):
He assured all those doubting that the Council will not be the Eighth Ecumenical Council and will not rescind or review the decisions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. “The Council will not cancel fasts, nor will it introduce married episcopate or allow a second marriage to clergyman. It will not recognize the authority of the Pope of Rome over the Orthodox Church or sign union with the Catholics. The long and short of it is that the Council will do nothing of that what some “defenders of Orthodoxy” fear, displaying zeal that exceeds reason. In case something adverse to the spirit and the letter of the Seven Ecumenical Council happens, the Russian Orthodox Church will renounce this Council and its decisions as she renounced the Council of Ferrara and Florence in 1441. I believe, however, that the other Local Orthodox Church (sic) will renounce it, too.”
The entire speech (in Russian) can be found here. It seems that the schedule of this Council will be decided in 2012, provided (according to Met. Hilarion) that there will be no attempt to abandon the principle of consensus in making decisions.
This comes only a month after Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople (often undeservedly seen by many Catholics and Orthodox as desiring immediate union with Rome) had strongly denied in a speech to Athonite monks that there is any forthcoming reunion between Orthodoxy and Catholicism (emphases and italics mine, and with the spelling of Georgetown corrected):
The Ecumenical Patriarch said that he has repeatedly stressed in the past "the essential differences between Orthodoxy and other confessions." Referring especially to the dialogue with the Catholic Church he emphasized that the Orthodox Church always prays "for the union of all" and may not refuse herself when invited to a dialogue on the purpose of attaining this union, "as is desired by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself", but not without substantial conditions:"Union is the ultimate goal, but before that there should be the identity in the faith."
"Speaking years ago to our Roman Catholic brothers I pointed out the path regularly followed by the Roman Catholic Church by accepting more and new doctrines, and in its journey towards our Church, instead of converging towards union, it has departed and driven further apart one another" (Georgetown University, 21 October 1997), added Mr. Bartholomew. He said further:"Furthermore, it is not true that we overlook the preconditions to the union of churches, nor is it true that we overlook the differences which prevent union."
These declarations stand in stark contrast to the affirmation of the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, Bishop Brian Farrell LC last month (around the same time that Pat. Bartholomew made the speech quoted above), that Orthodoxy and Catholicism "have the same faith" (emphases mine):
Q: Pope Benedict XVI has made this ecumenical dialogue - particularly with the Russian Orthodox Church - a priority of his pontificate. Why is this a priority for this Pope?Bishop Farrell: Well, let me start by saying yes there is a certain priority [with the Russian Orthodox] because that is the biggest of all the Orthodox Churches. But, this interest and desire for greater communion with the Orthodox embraces the entire Orthodox world to the point where our theological dialogue with the Orthodox cannot be with individual Orthodox Churches. We have agreed from the very beginning that it has to be with all of them together because all of them together form a unity. They have the same principals, they have the same structures and they have the same tradition, the same liturgical values and beauty. So they work as one in the theological dialogue.Now, in the meantime we also have bilateral or direct relationships with each one of these individual Orthodox Churches and since the Second Vatican Council, these relationships have developed enormously. With some Churches it has been faster than with others, with some it is deeper than with others, but we can say that with all of the Orthodox Churches, without exclusion, we have at this point very friendly, very open and very constant contact and collaboration in many ways. When Pope Benedict XVI says that yes, the dialogue with the Orthodox Churches is a priority, this is clear and if you ask me why I will simply say because they are so close to us. We have the same faith, we have the same sacraments, we have the same apostolic succession; therefore we absolutely consider that every one of their bishops and their priests are true bishops and true priests. In that we have a closeness that we do not have with any other Christian community.
