SYNODICAL AND PATRIARCHAL TEXTS

Synodical and Patriarchal Texts

This book was published in 2004, when there was a grave crisis in relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of Greece, caused by the issue of the elections for the Metropolitans of Thessaloniki and Eleftheropolis.

The first part contains various articles which appeared in newspapers and refer briefly to the history of the relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of Greece, and to the efforts that ought to be made on the part of both these Churches to bring the crisis to an end, and to avoid damaging our unity with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.  Proposals and possible solutions are put forward by the author, not only to help resolve the crisis, but also to preserve both the unifying ecumenical role of the Patriarchate and the authority of the Church of Greece.
The second and third parts contain a commentary on the two ‘Fundamental Sacred Texts’: a) The Patriarchal and Synodical Volume of 1850, by which the Church of Greece was granted Autocephaly (self-governing status), and b) The Patriarchal and Synodical Act of 1928, by which the Provinces of the Ecumenical Throne known as the ‘New Territories’ were ceded to the ‘guardianship’ of Greece.