“The Council of Crete (2016) after Ten Years”

Ten years removed from what had been called “The Great and Holy Council”—the large, pan-Orthodox council convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch and held in 2016 on the island of Crete—the significance of the council is still being examined and debated.

The Council of Crete’s legacy is the subject of the Orthodox Theological Society of America (OTSA)’s Florovsky Lecture for 2026, which will be hosted on the campus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary on Friday, June 12. The evening will feature a panel of speakers who were present at the council in 2016: His Grace Bishop Maxim (Vasiljević), Very Rev. Protopresbyter Dr. Nicolas Kazarian, Very Rev. Dr. Alexander Rentel, and Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou.

The Florovsky Lecture is open to the public and free to attend in person or online. A reception will follow.

Register to Attend

The Lecture is part of OTSA’s 2026 Annual Meeting being held at St. Vladimir’s Seminary from June 11–13. The sessions of the annual meeting are generally open to the public, unless the meeting planners decide to close a particular session. The business meeting of the society is for members only. For more information, please visit the OTSA website.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

His Grace Bishop Maxim (Vasiljević) of Los Angeles and Western America earned his doctorate in dogmatics and patristics from the University of Athens in 1999. He completed post-doctoral work in Byzantine History and Theology at the Sorbonne in Paris and enrolled in painting classes at the French Academy of Fine Arts. He teaches at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. He is also an accomplished painter with exhibitions and iconography classes worldwide. His notable works include, among others, History, Truth, Holiness (2011), Theology as a Surprise (2018), Wonder as the Beginning of Faith (2022), Saved by Beauty: Dostoevsky and America (2022), Illumination and Surprise (2024), and Nicaea 325: A Council for History and Eternity—Conciliarity from Nicaea to the Modern Church (2025).

Protopresbyter Nicolas Kazarian, Ph.D., serves as the Ecumenical Officer and Director of the Department of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical, and Interfaith Relations for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He also teaches Ecumenical Relations at Hellenic College-Holy Cross. He is a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches as well as co-moderator of Religions for Peace USA, and he serves as the parish priest of St. Eleftherios Greek Orthodox Church in Manhattan.

Elizabeth H. Prodromou, Ph.D., is Professor of the Practice in the International Studies Program at Boston College and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. A current member of the Global Academic Council of the International Religious Freedom Secretariat, she served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group. Her academic and policy research concentrates on the intersection of geopolitics, religion, and human rights, with particular focus on the linkages between religious pluralism and democracy. An internationally recognized expert on global Orthodox Christianity and on the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean; she was a delegate consultant of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Holy and Great Council at Crete in 2016.

Archpriest Alexander Rentel, S.E.O.D., is Fr. Alexander Schmemann Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology and Canon Law at St. Vladimir's Seminary and rector of the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel. He has taught at St. Vladimir's Seminary since 2002. From 2019 until 2025 he also served as Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America. He was an External Correspondent for the Press Team of the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Holy and Great Council in Chania, Crete, June 2016.