Did the Orthodox ever have a synod similar to Vatican II?

[notredame_999]

Did the orthodox ever have a synod similar to Vatican II where they changed the rules on fasting, the mass (although I know eastern christians don’t call it a mass), religious liberty, and ecumenism? Do the Orthodox believe that the holy spirit is present in other christian religions like Catholicism and Lutheranism? There are some traditional catholics, like the SSPX, who believe in Fr. Feeney who says if you are not a baptized catholic you will go to hell. Are there any orthodox who hold this view for their faith?

 

[Nine_Two]

Did the orthodox ever have a synod similar to Vatican II where they changed the rules on fasting, the mass (although I know eastern christians don’t call it a mass), religious liberty, and ecumenism? Do the Orthodox believe that the holy spirit is present in other christian religions like Catholicism and Lutheranism? There are some traditional catholics, like the SSPX, who believe in Fr. Feeney who says if you are not a baptized catholic you will go to hell. Are there any orthodox who hold this view for their faith?

Depends on what you mean by Synod. The Nikonian reforms, which I suppose were on the same scale, were undertaken by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church, however there has been no pan-Orthodox meeting which changed discipline. Discipline for the most part is seen as an internal matter for a Church to sort out for itself.

The Orthodox Church has no official position on whether the Holy Spirit is present in Western denominations. I personally believe it does, as they many have the truth to varying degrees, The official stance of the Church, I suppose, can be summed up as “We know where the Church is, we don’t know where it isn’t.” Meaning that the Church has the Holy Spirit but we can’t know if any other churches have it.

In all likelyhood there are people who are Orthodox who believe if you aren’t baptized Orthodox you automatically go to hell when you die however I’ve never heard anyone make such a statement. Perhaps among the Old Calendarists it is a more common belief.

 

[Alexander_Roman]

There’s a humorous anecdote about the definition of “change” in the Orthodox Church:

Change, CHANGE, change . . . what do you MEAN - CHANGE?!

The Orthodox do talk about a future Council but when this will occur is anyone’s guess.

Alex

 

[Bluegoat]

There’s a humorous anecdote about the definition of “change” in the Orthodox Church:

Change, CHANGE, change . . . what do you MEAN - CHANGE?!

The Orthodox do talk about a future Council but when this will occur is anyone’s guess.

Alex

I believe the question this is a response to is “How many Orthodox does it take to change a light-bulb”.

 

[josephdaniel29]

Depends on what you mean by Synod. The Nikonian reforms, which I suppose were on the same scale, were undertaken by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church, however there has been no pan-Orthodox meeting which changed discipline. Discipline for the most part is seen as an internal matter for a Church to sort out for itself.

And I might point out that the Nikonian reforms were done not in an attempt to “modernize” the liturgy, or make it more “relevant”; but rather were an attempt to conform the Russian typicon of the time to the Greek typicon. It was assumed that the Greek typicon in use reflected older, more traditional practices.

In Christ
Joe