Crete
Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean. Acts brings Paul’s ship along its coast, the letter to Titus speaks of a mission there, and in 2016 the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church met on the island.
Crete lies south of the Aegean Sea. Cretans are among those who hear the apostles at Pentecost in Acts (Acts 2:11), and the ship carrying Paul as a prisoner to Rome sails under the lee of the island and shelters at Fair Havens on its coast (Acts 27:1–13). The letter to Titus says that Titus was left in Crete to set things in order and appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5).
The primates of the Orthodox churches chose the Orthodox Academy of Crete as the meeting place of the Holy and Great Council in June 2016 (Holy and Great Council, Towards the Council), and the council’s encyclical recalls the island’s link with Paul and Titus (Holy and Great Council, Encyclical preamble).
What happened here
- June 2016, firm dateThe Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church
After decades of preparation a council of the Orthodox churches meets on Crete under the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Ten of the fourteen autocephalous churches take part; Antioch, Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia stay away, having asked for it to be postponed.