Contribution and reception of the Holy and Great Orthodox Council of Crete

This article examines the Holy and Great Orthodox Council of Crete (2016), its doctrinal content and the conditions of its reception within world Orthodoxy. Dimitar Arnaudov offers an analytical study of the conciliar texts, highlighting the ecclesiological coherence that runs through them and constitutes their guiding thread. The main idea is that the ecclesiological dimension, although rarely made explicit as such, structures the entirety of the documents adopted by the Council. On the historical and theological level, the article sheds particular light on the decision of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church not to participate in this Council, analyzing the reasons and implications of this absence for conciliar reception. The perspective of a Bulgarian lay theologian gives this contribution an engaged and situated point of view on a major event in contemporary Orthodox history.