A Reply to Those Who Speak Ill of the Holy and Great Synod

By Metropolitan Paul of Sisanio and Siatista

(An Excerpt from a Homily Delivered on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers 2016 by a Hierarch in Greece)

You heard today the Apostle Paul in the Apostolic Reading, and how he felt that by going to Rome he would die, for which he called upon the presbyters (bishops) of Ephesus and said to them:

"Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops. Be shepherds of the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:28-30).

He says that savage wolves in sheeps clothing will emerge, and try to cut off the faithful from the Church. And we unfortunately will easily leave, because we are egotistical.

The Six Apostolic Synods Mentioned in the Book of Acts

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Various synods, or rather to say conventions, of the Holy Apostles, according to some, were held as follows.

The first one in the year 33 or 34 after the Nativity of Christ, with regard to the selection of an apostle to take the place of Judas the traitor, when, after Joseph and Matthias were proposed, the lot fell to Matthias (Acts 1).

Great and Holy Pan-Orthodox Synod To Take Place in 2016

A decision has been made by the Sacred Synaxis of the First-Hierarchs of the Orthodox Church, who are currently meeting at the Phanar by invitation of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, that a Pan-Orthodox Synod will take place in 2016 and not 2015 as the Ecumenical Patriarch initially wanted.