Directions to Orthodoxy - First Hierarch of the ROCOR believes that the World Council of Churches is outdated

Nuns of an Orthodox monastery get ready for Pascha (Easter) at a monastery in Novgorod region in the north of Russia April 24, 2008. This post has been viewed 288 times.

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· Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney elected ROCOR head

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First Hierarch of the ROCOR believes that the World Council of Churches is outdated
Posted on Tue May 13 2008

May 13, Interfax - The new First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) doubted the relevancy of the World Council of Churches.

"The Moscow Patriarchate participates in the World Council of Churches for the purposes of maintaining a dialogue among Christians, but we can see that there is hardly any union reached, and this organization has lost its importance," said the First Hierarch Hilarion in his interview published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Tuesday.

According to Archbishop Hilarion, the foreign clergy and the laity have been interested in the Moscow Patriarchate's participation in this organization since 1960s, when Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI rescinded the excommunications of the Great Schism, "which the Orthodox and Catholic Churches imposed against each other in 1054."

"There were even certain instances of a communal prayer, which is strictly prohibited by our canons. But in 2000, the Moscow Patriarchate explicitly defined in its order, that the true Orthodox Church is the one initially created by Jesus. And Christians who diverted in their due times from the initial Church are not true Christians, and their belief is false. The Moscow Patriarchate indicates, the same as we do, that it is impossible to hold common services with those who had diverted," says Metropolitan Hilarion.

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