The latest Antipatriarch

[muckefuck]

At the first major pan-Orthodox synod in more than a decade, representatives of the twelve main Orthodox churches voted not to recognise the authority of Patriarch of Jerusalem Irineos I. Why? He authorised the sale of three buildings in East Jerusalem to anonymous Jewish investors. Full BBC article here. As someone raised in a religion with a hierarchical and authoritarian structure, I found this part most interesting:

The vote does not directly call for Patriarch Irineos' removal. But the act of refusing to recognise his authority is expected to put additional pressure on him to resign....[The synod] does not actually have the authority to formally dismiss Patriarch Irineos or pick his successor. This is the job of the synod of the Jerusalem church.

When's the last time something like this happened? During the Soviet cooption of Orthodox churches? How did events play out then?

Comments

Stuff like this

[arkanjil.livejournal.com]

plays so deep under the radar here, that you'd be hard pressed to find out. I remember hearing about the sale and the stink it raised at the time; the Beeb (I think) spent some time digging around it 'cause it was all hush hush, with a number of intermediaries muddying the waters. No real smoking gun tho; s'nice to see that the issue wasn't totally dropped.

Hmm, google brought up this apparently, it's not at all cozy at home for the guy either...

What I found of interest in the article was that Petra still has a patriarch, err, metropoliton of it's very own. Who knew?