Page 11 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 67

Message of the Holy and Great Council of the
Orthodox Church

To the Orthodox people and to al people of good wil

TO GOD, “the Father of mercies and all comfort,” we address a hymn of
thanksgiving and praise for having enabled us to gather during the week of
Pentecost (18-26 June 2016) on Crete, where the Apostle Paul and his disciple
Titus preached the Gospel in the early years of the life of the Church. We give
thanks to the Triune God who was well pleased that in one accord we should
bring to a conclusion the work of the Holy and Great Council that was
convoked by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch. Bartholomew by the
common will of their Beatitudes the Primates of the local Orthodox
Autocephalous Churches.
Faithfully following the example of the Apostles and our god-bearing
Fathers we have once again studied the Gospel of freedom “for which Christ
has set us free” (Gal. 5: 1). The foundation of our theological discussions was
the certainty that the Church does not live for herself. She transmits the
witness of the Gospel of grace and truth and offers to the whole world the gifts
of God: love, peace, justice, reconciliation, the power of the Cross and of the
Resurrection and the expectation of eternal life.

1. The key priority of the Council was to proclaim the unity of the Orthodox
Church. Founded on the Eucharist and the Apostolic Succession of her
Bishops, the existing unity needs to be strengthened and to bear new fruits.
The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is a divine-human communion,
a foretaste and experience of the eschaton within the Holy Eucharist. As a
continuous Pentecost, she is a prophetic voice that cannot be silenced, the
presence of and witness to the Kingdom of the God of love. The Orthodox
Church, faithful to the unanimous Apostolic Tradition and her sacramental
experience, is the authentic continuation of the one Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church as confessed in the Creed and confirmed by the teaching of
the Church Fathers. Our Church lives out the mystery of the Divine Economy
in her sacramental life, with the Holy Eucharist at its center.
The Orthodox Church expresses her unity and catholicity “in Council”.
Conciliarity pervades her organization, the way decisions are taken and
determines her path. The Orthodox Autocephalous Churches do not constitute

9