After an interlude of more than a millennium, 55 years of careful planning, and within days of its opening, the first global gathering of Orthodox churches since the year 787 is teetering on the brink of collapse amid dissent and power struggles.

The historic “holy and great council” of the world’s 14 self-governing Orthodox churches, due to begin in Crete on Sunday, may not go ahead after five pulled out.

The unravelling of the week-long Pan-Orthodox Council, which has been in preparation since 1961, began with Bulgaria saying earlier this month it wanted a postponement, citing disagreements over the agenda.

On Monday, the Russian Orthodox church – the largest and richest – announced it would not attend the meeting, dealing what may be a fatal blow to the gathering.

The council was called by the ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the “first among equals” of leaders of the global Orthodox churches, which collectively represent 300 million people. In the past 1,000 years there have been smaller council meetings, but none on the scale of the Crete gathering.

The aim of next week’s meeting is to discuss their future, issues of unity and efforts to heal the bitter rift with the Roman Catholic church, which dates back to the “great schism” of 1054.



Agenda items include the mission of the Orthodox church in the 21st century, autonomy, marriage, the importance of fasting, and relations with the rest of the world.



On 3 June, the Bulgarian Orthodox church reversed its earlier commitment to attend the meeting. Among its reasons were disagreements over the agenda and the proposed seating plan for the 500 participants. It cancelled a chartered flight to Crete and informed the heads of the other 13 churches about its decision. The Serbian, Georgian and Antioch churches followed suit, leading to Russia saying it would not attend without all churches present.

Hilarion Alfeyev, a bishop in the Russian church, said: “We have made a decision that we will not be able to take part in the all-Orthodox synod if other churches do not go. All churches should take part … and only in this case the decisions of this assembly will be legitimate.”



The council’s organising committee has called dissenting churches to a meeting on Friday to try to resolve differences. “There is no mandate to change or postpone and we are going to proceed,” said the Rev Alexander Karloutsos, a member of the council’s organising committee.

Mark Woods, a contributing editor to Christian Today, said he was doubtful that the council could take place without the Russian church. But, he added, “if it doesn’t go ahead, it’s a blow to Bartholomew’s authority. It represents a diplomatic failure on the part of the ecumenical patriarch and his advisers. It’s a great pity that they are now at the stage where things have erupted into a crisis.”



Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the ‘first among equals’, with Pope Francis. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Tensions over where power lies, and between conservative and liberal wings, are behind the ruction. Although Bartholomew is “first among equals” of the churches’ patriarchs, the Istanbul church he represents is small and poorly resourced.



The Russian Orthodox church, on the other hand, represents a majority of Orthodox Christians and commands huge wealth. Its leader, Patriarch Kirill, is closely allied to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, whom he has described as “a miracle of God”.



“The rivalry between the powerful Russian church, which encompasses two-thirds of the world’s Orthodox population, and the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, which numbers less than 3,000 faithful in Istanbul but boasts a primacy of honour over all of Orthodoxy, has in fact been for years one of the most serious conflicts within the Christian East,” wrote the Italian analyst Sandro Magister earlier this year.



He added: “Kirill plainly intends, in fact, to strip Bartholomew of his exclusive status as the top symbolic representative of Orthodoxy in the world which Bartholomew enjoys, partly due to the excellent relations that he maintains with the Church of Rome and the pope.”



Some Orthodox churches are deeply concerned about “inter-Christian cooperation”, especially those who believe Catholicism to be heresy; and some fear relatively liberal influences on the issues of marriage and how the church responds to modern society.



Added to the potent mix of dissent is a bitter dispute between the Antioch and Jerusalem patriarchs. Three years ago the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem appointed without consultation a priest as archbishop of Qatar, triggering a turf war with the Antioch Patriachate over which church has jurisdiction.

Pope Francis announced he was sending two Vatican observers to Crete. One of them, Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, said that the Orthodox document on ecumenical relations was “very conservative”.



“It insists on the point that the Orthodox church is the only one, true church. It recognises relations with the Catholic church are hugely important and positive, but there is no recognition of the Catholic church as church in the proper sense,” he told America magazine.



Anglicans, Lutherans, Oriental Orthodox and other Christian denominations are also planning to send observers if the meeting goes ahead.

