News and events
 
 
 
 
 

The Jordanian king Abdullah's decree with ratification of Mr Eirinaios' renouncement from his office as the Patriarch of Jerusalem publicized yesterday afternoon ( 21.05.2005 )

Yesterday afternoon, Jordan ratified the Jordanian Cabinet’s decision of Patriarch Eirinaios’ renouncement by a Royal Decree. King Abdullah’s decree, which was publicized shortly after 18:00 Greek time, and based on a 1958 bill, removes Mr Eirinaios from his office as the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Jordan’s actions will initiate further developments, since the green light is given to the Holy Sepulcher Brotherhood and Phanar to elect a suffragan that will attend to the procedures, which will lead to elections. It is expected that that the Decree will be published in the Government Gazette in the coming days, and following that it will be promulgated to the Patriarchate. Up to this moment, there has not been an official reaction by the part of Mr Eirinaios. However according to information broadcast by NET correspondent in Jerusalem, Panos Charitos, Mr Eirinaios is directed to take the case to Israeli justice. (http://news.ert.gr/en/newsDetails.asp?ID=8087)

 

Yesterday morning, the Continuous Holy Synod of the Church of Greece held an unscheduled meeting in view of the Panorthodox Conference in Phanar, on Monday. It authorized Archbishop Christodoulos to handle the Jerusalem Patriarchate issue carte blanche during the conference and appointed the Hierarchs that will accompany him. The Synod, as the Syros Metropolitan Bishop Dorotheos announced, was briefed on the existing written documents that were at its disposal on the issue of the Jerusalem crisis, before it decided to authorize Archbishop Christodoulos. As Mr Dorotheos noted, the Archbishop has held many meetings with regulators, Hierarchs and others in order to get a conclusive view of the developments. In closing, he announced that it was decided that the Archbishop will be accompanied by the head of Regulation Issues, Fillipon Metropolitan Bishop Prokopios and by Mr Dorotheos himself. (http://news.ert.gr/en/newsDetails.asp?ID=8086)

 

The head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Cyril (Gundyaev) of Smolensk and Kaliningrad will represent the Russian Orthodox Church at the Panorthodox Synod in Istanbul, which following the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is to be opened on May 23. Metropolitan Cyril will be accompanied by the deputy head of the Department, Bishop Mark (Golovkov) of Egorevsk and the secretary of inter-Orthodox relations, the protopresbyter Nikolay Balashov, and also the assistant in the Department Mr Sergey Govorun, as a translator (informs the Interfax). 

 

The members of the Holy Synod of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church sent a letter to Mr Meni Mazouzou, a legal advisor in the Israeli Government. In the letter is asked “Israel not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Patriarchate” and the police cover of Patrairch Eirinaios to be removed, since with its presence the Israeli police prevents his practical removal. (Седмица. Ru)