According to the website Orthodoxie, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople will be releasing an official text by Patriarch Bartholomew saying that widowed priests and those who have been abandoned by their wives will be allowed to re-marry, with careful consideration on a case-by-case basis. Priests who leave their wives to contract a second marriage will not be allowed by the Church to remarry.
Does this apply only to the Church of Constantinople? It doesn’t appear that the patriarchs of other Orthodox Churches were involved.
I am sure that juridical decision by the Synod of Constantinople can and will only apply to this very patriarchate.
In a certain sense, though, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is essentially honoring an existing practice. There have been select cases of bishops permitting a second marriage for active priests, and not only under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.
This is good news for all those in a civil 2nd marriage in the churches of Russia and Ukraine. Bishops have allowed this for years, however, a church wedding has been out of the question. Patriarch Bartholomew would be allowing for his clergy in such circumstances to live honestly and openly, instead of in hiding.