Under the presidency of His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumencial Patriarch of Constantinople, the Primates of the Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches decided in March 2014 that, after a long process of preparation, the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church will be convened in 2016. The organization of this Synod requires a deep and serious preparation of the whole Church, a reciprocal consultation in order to discern the real and urgent needs of the Church and the challenges of the proclamation of the Gospel for the contemporary world. It is to this end that the book of Father Prof. Dr. Viorel Ionita is very useful. It presents the history of the preparation of the Pan-Orthodox Synod and the Decisions of the Pan-Orthodox Meetings since 1923 until 2009. The Author: Viorel Ionita, priest and theologian of the Romanian Orthodox Church, was Study Secretary of the Conference of European Churches, Geneva, from 1994 to 2010; he is member fo the Scientific Board of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the University of Fribourg; member of the Standing Committee of the Commission “Faith and Order”; Consultant of the Joint Working Group between the Ecumenical Council of Churches and the Catholic Church; Honorary Councilor of the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.weiterlesen