Ionifa, V. (2014) Towards the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church. Fribourg: Institute for Ecumenical Studies University of Fribourg. - 214 p. A meeting of the heads of local Orthodox churches, held in Istanbul in March 2014, made a fundamental decision to convene a pan-Orthodox council ("Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church"), which is expected to be held in 2016. This is a unique event, because after the Great Schism of 1054, that is, the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, world Orthodoxy did not know a single general church council. At the same time, it is difficult to call the decision to hold such a council unexpected, since its preparation has been underway for almost a century. The Pan-Orthodox Council, according to its organizers, should be a demonstration to the whole world of the unity of the Orthodox Church, and therefore it is not supposed to consider controversial issues. The task of the council is to approve pre-agreed positions, the development of which took place during the so-called pre-council process. And we can say that this process reflected, as in a mirror, the main contradictions in inter-Orthodox relations in the XX-beginning of the XXI century. The book by Archpriest Viorel Ionita, a well - known Romanian theologian and long-time participant in the pre-conciliar process, is devoted to the history of the formation of the agenda of the Pan-Orthodox Council and the adoption of coordinated decisions on issues on this agenda. Vper- page 331The first book was published in Romanian in 2013, but a year later the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) released an English-language edition aimed at a wider audience. It is symbolic that the English-language edition was published two months after the landmark decision to convene the Pan-Orthodox Council, and thus V. Ionitsa's book covers almost the entire process of its preparation. Such a fast translation into English is undoubtedly due ... Читать далее