The Russian Orthodox Church suspended its membership in the Conference of European Churches

On October 11, the Russian Orthodox Church suspended its membership in the Conference of European Churches (CEC). As the DECR told Interfax , this decision was caused by the fact that the President of the Estonian Orthodox Church, Pastor Jean-Arnold de Clermont, “with the support of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, made repeated attempts to delay the consideration of the application” of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate for membership in this organization.

A similar application by the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAOC), which is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and not recognized by other Orthodox churches, was accepted in 2007.

Let us recall that the Russian Orthodox Church previously refused to participate in meetings of the inter-Orthodox commission and the mixed commission on Orthodox-Catholic theological dialogue due to the presence of representatives of the EAOC.

Sources

• The Russian Church suspends membership in the Conference of European Churches // Interfax-religion. 2008. October 11.