The Pan-Orthodox Council, which is officially called “Great and Holy,” will not take place as planned. It has disintegrated before our eyes just two weeks before it opens. Of the 14 local Orthodox Churches, four have refused to attend. And even those which have not refused to attend are fiercely critical of the prepared documents. What has happened? Can it be that the problems and internal conflicts in the Orthodox world are so serious that it is no longer possible to hold a Council? Theological and historical problems are here closely intertwined with church politics.

Why the Russian Church chose to bless Empire.

Talk delivered at Heidelberg University, Germany on November 27, 2014.

Presentation at the ‘Christianity – Orthodoxy and the media in modern world’ conference. 12–14 May 2014, Thessaloniki

The official publication of the Russian Orthodox Church, the "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", recently marked its 80th anniversary. The Journal’s Executive Editor, Sergey Chapnin, spoke to archpriest Mikhail Dudko about the publication’s history, its objectives, and its future.