Preparation and reception of the Council

This article by Noël Ruffieux examines the preparation, holding and reception of the Pan-Orthodox Council, conceived as a single and inseparable process. Adopting a historical and ecclesiological approach, the author traces one hundred and ten years of conciliar gestation, from the encyclicals of Patriarch Joachim III in 1902 to the pre-conciliar conferences of the 2000s, showing how the political upheavals of the twentieth century constantly hindered the project. He then examines the unresolved questions concerning the composition of the Council, its decision-making procedures and the updating of its preparatory documents. The main contribution of the article lies in the articulation between conciliarity and reception: the latter requires the association of the pleroma — bishops, clergy and laity — with the entire process, a response to the contemporary challenges of the Church, and the recognition of a legitimate diversity among local Churches in the reception of conciliar decisions, without the unity of faith being compromised.