Pondering “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World” A Protestant Missiological Reflection 1 Pavol Bargar Pavol Bargar is a researcher at the Protestant Faculty of Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. His research interests lie in theology and culture, missiology, and inter-religious relations. Abstract The article explores “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World” (MOCT), one of the six official documents issued by the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church that took place on the island of Crete in 2016. It is the first official Orthodox statement on mission ever published. The aim of the present article is to offer a reflection of MOCT from a Protestant missiological perspective. The article argues that MOCT interprets mission as the service of the church to the world, motivated by love. It goes on to discuss six major thematic areas of the statement, namely, the dignity of the human person; freedom and responsibility; peace and justice; peace and the aversion of war; the attitude of the church toward discrimination; and the mission of the Orthodox Church as a witness of love through service. The article seeks to provide a constructive critique of MOCT, assessing both its weaknesses and its assets. It concludes by saying that despite certain theological question marks, the new Orthodox mission document represents an invaluable contribution to the ecumenical discussion on mission and evangelism. Keywords Mission, Church, World, Secularization, Peace, Justice, Love, Responsibility, Freedom, Orthodoxy, The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church On 19–26 June 2016, the Greek island of Crete hosted a Pan-Orthodox Council, a long-awaited gathering of representatives of Eastern Orthodox churches. With its 1 This study is a result of the research project no. 17-00987S, “Transformations of Tradition: Implications for Contemporary Ecumenical Theology,” funded by the Czech Science Foundation. Copyright VC (2017) World Council of Churches 389