We are publishing the proposed amendments by the Geek Church on the text about the position of the Orthodox Church in Today's World, which were submitted during the 1^st day of the proceedings of the Holy and Great Synod, (20/6/2016), held in Crete, and the final decisions that were taken with a unanimous approval.

The first Session of the Holy and Great Synod

On Monday afternoon of the 20^th June, the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church convened and discussed the text "The mission of the Orthodox Church in the Today's World".

 The Greek Church was the only one to submit a proposed amendment on this text, referring to three points.

The first one called for the following amendment: "As a prerequisite of a broader cooperation, the common acceptance of the man's value can be useful. The local Orthodox Churches are the ones who can contribute to inter-religious communication and collaboration, for people's peaceful co-existence, without this involving any religious syncretism".

This proposal by the Greek Church became acceptable.

Secondly, in the text "About freedom and responsibility. 1. Freedom is one of God's greatest gifts to the human being as a specific bearer of the image of a personal God and member of a community of persons, which, through the unity of the human race, reflects by grace the life and communion of the Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Greek Church asked for the deletion of the phrase "being as a specific bearer of the image of a personal God and member of a community of persons, which, through the unity of the human race, reflects by grace the life and communion of the Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity" and keep the phrase: "About freedom and responsibility. 1. Freedom is one of God's greatest gifts to the human being".

This proposal became acceptable as well.

Thirdly, as for the terms "human" and "human person" it was proposed by the Greek Church, for brevity's sake, that the term "human" be written everywhere, since the term "human" is referred to 70 times, while the term "human person" is referred to 7 times". At this point, it was decided to leave the text as it is and proceed with the theological discussion about these terms, namely the Holy and Great Synod did not end the issue of these terms.