Orthodox Schism: The Meeting of Primates at Amman Did Not Take Place

For those keeping track of the Orthodox Schism at home, the last few days saw the gathering (by Moscow, acting through Jerusalem) of a purported "Meeting of the Primates of the Local Churches" in Amman, Jordan. Of all the nonsensical-surrealist events in this schism so far, this may be the most nonsensical and the most surreal.

To recap, late last year, after visiting Moscow, the Patriarch of Jerusalem issued a call to all the heads of the autocephalous churches to meet and fraternally dialogue in order to end the schism in Orthodoxy. This initiative was immediately backed up and trumpeted abroad by the Patriarchate of Moscow, leading to the overwhelming conclusion among almost all bystanders that the initiative in fact originated with Moscow and was going to be used by them as a means to gather support and take further steps against Constantinople. Almost immediately, Constantinople and the autocephalous churches closest to it refused to attend, citing both this perception and the quasi-doctrinal claim that only Constantinople has the authority to summon Pan-Orthodox meetings like this. More recently, the Patriarch of Jerusalem met with the Patriarch of Constantinople and by all reports was soundly berated, then dismissed with a letter that strongly denounced the initiative as a threat to Orthodox unity and accused Jerusalem of openly courting the favor of the Russian state. In the aftermath of this, the Patriarch of Jerusalem issued a statement "clarifying" that the proposed meeting was to be only a very informal initial conference, not an official Synaxis or Meeting of Primates. Several more autocephalous churches issued statements indicating they would not attend, while the majority steadfastly maintained silence on the whole issue, leading to a great deal of understandable confusion, literally until the minute when delegations were supposed to arrive in Jordan, over who would attend and who wouldn't. Less than a week before the meeting, the Patriarch of Antioch finally issued a statement (predictably) saying he would not be there due to his continuing (unrelated) schism with the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

What finally met in Amman over the last few days, therefore, was a highly winnowed group, consisting of delegations from only six of the universally-acknowledged autocephalous churches of Orthodoxy, including most notably His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow himself. Besides the Church of Jerusalem, all the churches represented were in Eastern Europe with close ties to Moscow. Even then, two of these churches refused to actually send their Primates and instead sent delegations of subordinate bishops. After a single day of meetings around a small conference table presided over by a fuschia powerpoint bearing the legend "Maintaining the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace," a joint press release was issued that is so generic in its content that it asserts practically nothing other than the fact that the meeting took place.

From accounts of the meeting itself, it seems to have been dominated, predictably, by Moscow, with the Patriarch of Moscow himself delivering a lengthy speech that is effectively a manifesto on Moscow's position in the Schism, once again comparing the present conflict to that between Rome and Constantinople in 1054, asserting that the fundamental issue is the quasi-Papal abuse of primacy by Constantinople, and laying out a set of detailed policy proposals that should be taken up and implemented by a Pan-Orthodox Council. The leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) also delivered a speech denouncing Constantinople's interference in his canonical territory and calling for "a conciliar church administration that will be in demand and effective for salutary ministry of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Orthodox Church in a new world space." Every other remark I've seen from every other bishop present seems to amount to little more than vague platitudes about the need for peace and fraternal dialogue. At the end of the meeting, the bishops apparently agreed to meet again at some point this year to hopefully begin discussions on a possible agenda for a possible Pan-Orthodox Synod or a possible Meeting of Primates.

It's honestly hard to know how to read this event. On the one hand, Moscow's inability to wrangle up more than a handful of primates, and their inability to get even this handful of primates to actually clearly side with them and denounce Constantinople, is a clear sign that, for all Moscow's success in dividing local churches and preventing them from openly siding with the UOC, they have no ability at present to actually take Constantinople's place as leader of global orthodoxy. The other autocephalous churches, whatever their problems with Constantinople, evidently have little interest in breaking communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and even less in in any way submitting to any purported authority of the Moscow Patriarchate within global Orthodoxy. Even divided, Orthodoxy will remain a set of balkanized national churches, with little ability, even among those cut off from Constantinople and following Moscow's lead, to act in concert.

That being said, Moscow has predictably made much of even this, openly arguing (through Metropolitan Hilarion, their head of external relations) that the number of primates present doesn't affect the meeting's importance, and that even a Pan-Orthodox Synod would not, in fact, have to include all the Orthodox churches to be both valid and authoritative. They will likely continue to press ahead on further meetings, giving themselves more time and applying more of their substantial resources towards getting more primates and churches to show up to the next meeting, seeking to lay the groundwork for a possible anti-Constantinopolitan "Pan-Orthodox" Synod.

Whether any of this will ever actually happen in any meaningful sense, however, is very doubtful. Certainly this meeting did not take place. Barring some kind of miracle, global Orthodoxy will only continue to divide.

Orthodox Schism: Moscow's Ecclesiastical Total War

For those keeping track of the Orthodox Schism at home, the Patriarch of Moscow has recently taken a number of steps that I find, frankly, both surprising and extremely disturbing.

In the first place, in response to the recognition of Ukrainian autocephaly by the Church of Greece and the Greek Church of Alexandria, they have predictably broken communion with these churches. This was expected. However, in doing so, they have gone out of their way to make clear that they are not breaking communion with the whole of these churches, but only with those individual bishops and dioceses within them that have publicly agreed to the recognition, and that they are happy to maintain or increase relations with any bishops or faithful within these churches who will side with them. In other words, Moscow is not just breaking communion with these churches as united autocephalous jurisdictions, but is attempting to break them down internally, dividing them diocese-by-diocese into rival bodies at war with one another and siding either with Moscow or Constantinople. This is, to say the least, an extreme move--a total division of Orthodox believers without any tangible attempts at justification in ecclesiology or doctrine--and it only remains to be seen how effective it will prove as a strategy. Most likely it will be very effective indeed, thanks to Moscow's money and influence: internal dissension is spreading everywhere, and by one count twelve Greek bishops have already spoken out against their own head and aligned themselves with Moscow.

Secondly, Moscow, via the bare proxy of the Church of Jerusalem (whose alleged primacy has never in all of church history been anything but a joke), has called for a "pan-Orthodox synod" made up of all the heads of the autocephalous churches to meet in February to discuss and settle the issue of Ukraine. Given the fact that Constantinople claims the sole right to summon such pan-Orthodox assemblies, this has functioned from the beginning as an obvious and naked attempt to get the remaining autocephalous Churches to openly "pick sides" in the conflict, as well as to provide further cover for Moscow's own global ecclesiastical consolidation of power. Constantinople and its closest allies almost immediately refused to attend, and the Patriarch of Antioch will almost certainly not be present at any meeting called by Jerusalem (with which he is currently in schism for unrelated reasons). What will eventually meet in Jordan in February will not be all the heads of Orthodoxy, but a partial, factional grouping of Moscow's allies and anyone else they can bully into showing up, which will predictably do whatever it is Moscow wants: denounce Ukrainian autocephaly and Constantinople, certainly, and perhaps go even farther. The mere holding of an allegedly "pan-Orthodox" meeting without and in opposition to Constantinople will act as a public showcase of the formation of two rival global Orthodox Churches.

Both of these moves, in response to the fairly modest gains by Constantinople of two recognitions by autocephalous Churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, represent extreme escalations toward a sort of ecclesiastical total war. Both have the clear goal of dividing global Orthodoxy permanently into two rival camps, one led by Constantinople, one by Moscow, with battle-lines drawn not between, but within, existing Orthodox jurisdictions.

I have never exactly been a fan of the Moscow Patriarchate, but in my judgment these latest moves are nothing short of revolting, and I sincerely hope they can be undone before they do further damage.

The farther Moscow continues on this path, however, the more suffering and division it will bring for our Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters everywhere in the world, cutting across nations and Churches and parishes and even families. Prayers are in order for the praying types. God have mercy on us all.