Fewer than half the Orthodox world’s 14 main churches are due to attend a late February summit on Ukraine’s new independent Orthodox Church, convened in Jordan with backing from Russia’s Moscow Patriarchate. “As we have all recognised, dialogue and reconciliation between brothers is the only way forward,” the summit’s organiser, Patriarch Theophilos Giannopoulos of Jerusalem, told church leaders.

“This will not be an official Synod, but rather a fraternal meeting to inaugurate dialogue on challenges facing the Orthodox community at this critical time, as we continue to use every means of communication with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in order to reach a consensus.”

The 67-year-old patriarch sent the open letter ahead of the 25-27 February summit in Amman, called to debate ways of settling disputes over the new church.