The collection of materials of the conference of the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission "World Orthodoxy: Primacy and Conciliarity in the light of Orthodox doctrine", held on September 16-17, 2021 in Moscow, was published in the Publishing House "Cognition".
In his opening speech at the conference, opening the collection, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill noted that the situation in the family of Orthodox Churches reflects the crisis that has engulfed it. This crisis has different aspects, one of the most significant is the threat to Orthodoxy:
"As the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is obliged to take care of preserving and strengthening relations with all Local Orthodox Churches, I cannot help but feel personal pain from what is happening in our relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople and with those Churches that were drawn into recognition by him of the so-called autocephalous Ukrainian Church, which in fact represents nothing but legitimization of the church schism".
The collection includes reports by foreign and domestic patrologists, theologians and historians of the Church devoted to a wide range of topical topics related to the current state of affairs in the Local Orthodox Churches: understanding the structure of Universal Orthodoxy; primacy and conciliarity; the relationship of the canonical structure of the Church with acts in the field of church administration, etc.
The book will be useful for deepening knowledge on patristics, church history, dogmatic theology, Christian anthropology, as well as for preparing students of theological, historical-philosophical, historical, cultural and religious studies specialties.
The publication was carried out under the general editorship of the chairman of the SBBC, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Budapest and Hungary, with the financial support of the non-profit organization "Foundation for the Support of Christian Culture and Heritage".