by (Dr) Philip Kariatlis
Academic Director, Senior Lecturer in Theology
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sydney, Australia
Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office
In Orthodox ecclesiology, the nature and mission of the church is almost always presented from within the framework of koinonia.
As such, not only is the church preeminently seen as a fellowship of believers - or, indeed, more broadly, a fellowship of the entire created realm with God - but the claim is also made that all ministries within the church - including how the church is administered - need to be communally conditioned. Indeed, a fundamental criterion judging the justifiability of any activity taking place within the life of the church is the extent to which it reveals and upholds koinonia. It is from within this communal context that the indispensability of synodality for ecclesiology is underscored since it is rightly believed that it is by this means that the communion between local churches - or as is often presented, the koinonia of local churches ‘in space’ - is actualised and preserved. In this way, synodality or conciliarity is seen to be coterminous with the communal being of the church and therefore needs to permeate the entire life of the church. It is from within this doctrinal perspective that the convocation of the Holy and Great Council constitutes and absolute necessity.
As such, not only is the church preeminently seen as a fellowship of believers - or, indeed, more broadly, a fellowship of the entire created realm with God - but the claim is also made that all ministries within the church - including how the church is administered - need to be communally conditioned. Indeed, a fundamental criterion judging the justifiability of any activity taking place within the life of the church is the extent to which it reveals and upholds koinonia. It is from within this communal context that the indispensability of synodality for ecclesiology is underscored since it is rightly believed that it is by this means that the communion between local churches - or as is often presented, the koinonia of local churches ‘in space’ - is actualised and preserved. In this way, synodality or conciliarity is seen to be coterminous with the communal being of the church and therefore needs to permeate the entire life of the church. It is from within this doctrinal perspective that the convocation of the Holy and Great Council constitutes and absolute necessity.
The Orthodox teaching on the
indissoluble relationship between synod and church is clearly seen in
the Scriptures. The practise of synodality, for example, is already
apparent in the New Testament, in which an Apostolic Council is recorded
to have taken place in Jerusalem to decide upon how the New Testament
church would receive newly converted Gentiles into its fold (cf. Acts
15: 6-29). In line with this basic axiom, modern Orthodox scholarship in
ecclesiology highlights the inextricable link between church and
synodality. As early as 1965, for example, Archbishop Stylianos
(Harkianakis) of Australia had already observed: “if at any time the
church were to reject, from its life, even for a moment, the idea of the
synodal system, it would cease automatically to be church.”[1]
These very same sentiments were expressed more recently in January of
this year at a preconciliar meeting of the Primates of the Orthodox
Churches by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew which
referred to synodality “as an essential dimension of church life, as a
central function of the ecclesiastical body and as a principle of unity
in the church… that vitalises the communion of our churches in time and
space.”[2]
Beyond the exercise of synodality on a local and regional level,
Orthodox Churches need to retrieve again a way of upholding synodality
on a universal level as well - as was the case in the ancient church. It
is from within this latter exercise of synodality that the convocation
of the forthcoming Holy and Great Council in June, 2016, needs to be
understood.[3]
If accepted that church and synodality
are intimately connected - indeed, to the point where the latter is seen
to be absolutely necessary for the well-being of the former - then the
gathering of the fourteen universally recognised autocephalous Orthodox
Churches in Crete[4]
at the feast of Pentecost during the month of June, 2016 for two weeks
cannot be seen as an added luxury within the life of the church but, on
the contrary, an absolutely necessary feature of its life. Not only will
this institution enable the Orthodox Churches together to give witness
to - and even celebrate - their unity, but also to express themselves
with a united and single voice to the modern world on issues pertaining
to the whole of Orthodoxy, and in a language which resonates with
twenty-first century sensibilities. Indeed, their gathering ‘in one
place’ is especially important today since Orthodoxy is often seen by
the outside world - and perhaps justifiably so - to be fragmented,
cocooned, competitive and more concerned with preserving its nationalist
origins (whether these be Hellenist, Slavic or Arabic) - all tendencies
which are totally alien to basic principles of Orthodox ecclesiology.
In this way, the convocation of the Holy and Great Council will prove to
be a highly significant event on at least two fronts: for the Orthodox
Churches themselves, this gathering will manifest a more intentional
commitment to live out the Holy Spirit’s life-giving gift of koinonia
amongst themselves thereby advancing the unity of the Orthodox Church.
The resulting communion of the autocephalous Churches, however, will
then allow for a more credible witness of Orthodoxy in the world today.
Having preoccupied the Orthodox Churches
since at least the 1960s, the proposed agenda for the Holy and Great
Council has undergone many revisions - as one would have expected in
light of the significance of the forthcoming gathering. At the First
Preconciliar Pan-Orthodox Consultation in 1976[5]
the agenda, as it stands today, was abbreviated to the following ten
items These included: 1. the Orthodox diaspora; 2 and 3 deal with
autocephaly and autonomy respectively and their manner of proclamation;
4. the diptychs (the list and order of names used by the Orthodox Church
in its commemoration of the fourteen autocephalous Churches); 5. the
matter of a common calendar; 6. impediments of marriage; 7. adaptation
of church regulations on fasting; 8. relations of the Orthodox Churches
with the rest of the Christian world; 9. Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical
Movement (topics 8 and 9 were subsumed into one at a Special
Inter-Orthodox Committee meeting which met in April, 2015)[6]
and lastly 10. the contribution of local Churches to Christian ideals
relating to peace, justice, freedom and discrimination. Essentially,
these ten items can be divided into three more general areas of concern:
namely, into topics dealing with inter-Orthodox relations, responses to
some contemporary pastoral issues and thirdly, the engagement of the
Orthodox Church with other Christian Churches and the world at large. It
was agreed that a text would be prepared for each of these issues which
would ultimately be submitted to the Holy and Great Council for
approval. Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Committees were responsible for
arriving at a unanimous formulation for the 10 respective texts which
could be agreed to by all Churches. These draft texts would then be
submitted to the Preconciliar Pan-Orthodox Consultations (of which there
have been six to date) for approval. The latter will then refer the
agreed statements to the Holy and Great Council.
Not surprisingly, the Orthodox Churches
have not been able to agree on a common text for some of the topics
under discussion. They have not, for example, agreed on the manner of
proclaiming a church autocephalous, nor have they agreed on a the list
of diptychs. Rather unfortunately, the Orthodox Churches have also
decided not to raise the issue of reviewing the calendar - as originally
proposed at the 2nd Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Consultation (Geneva,
1982) so that it may be more in line with the scientific data available
to us today - as intended and prescribed by the First Ecumenical Council
in 325. Beyond the lack of agreement on some of the topics, it is also
said that the agreed texts, the result of many decades of work, do not
forcefully speak to today’s issues - indeed, some texts are incomplete -
and therefore, will prove to be disappointing. Furthermore, it has
been pointed out that these texts lack a breadth of vision opting
instead for rigidity and repetition of old tropes. On a positive note,
however, the fact that the Orthodox Churches will gather to deliberate
on some of the issues is a step in the right direction towards regaining
a more communal or conciliar consciousness. Indeed, the importance of
this cannot be overstated especially in light of the continuing tensions
between the Ecumenical Patriarchate, first amongst equals within
Orthodoxy, and the Patriarchate of Moscow, whose numerical dominance has
consistently wanted to cast aspersions to the primacy of
Constantinople. Coming together in council and “look[ing] at each other
in the eyes” as the late Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras would say,[7]
will surely go a long way in overcoming suspicions and beginning to
restore a more genuine expression of the church’s communion. Indeed,
even though some of the texts may prove to lack lustre, and despite the
fact that heated debates may follow which may seem to be totally
irrelevant to the needs of today, the council, at the very least, will
be an opportunity to offer itself, even as a “defective prosphoro”[8]
to God, who alone will be able to transform it into his very presence,
and thus into life-giving words speaking compellingly to the world
today.
There is much talk regarding the status
of the Holy and Great Council, namely the extent to which it can
possibly be considered as ‘ecumenical’. A proper understanding of the
status of the forthcoming Council becomes all the more important when
one recalls that the last Council to have taken place, which all
Orthodox Churches today recognise as ‘ecumenical’, was in 787, namely,
more than 1,200 years ago.[9]
It must be remembered that, in the history of the Church, councils were
only ever recognised to be ecumenical retrospectively. The reason for
this is that the principle of koinonia, guiding Orthodox
ecclesiology, highlights a correlative and organic relationship between
the authority of the episcopate and the faithful as a whole in the
proclamation of truth and always under the communal guidance of the Holy
Spirit. However, the gathering of Orthodox leaders for the Holy and
Great Council will definitely mark a momentous occasion in continuity
with the “later ‘great’ or ‘greater’ councils of the second Christian
millennium”[10]
which convened in order to deliberate on issues which had to do with
doctrine, canon law or administration. The preeminence of the Holy and
Great Council is further attested to when it is realised that a council,
which will bring together fourteen recognised autocephalous Orthodox
Churches, is unprecedented, to the extent that ancient councils
gathered, at best, five churches - namely, the five ancient
Patriarchates (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem).
Ultimately, the significance of this gathering will not necessarily lie
in its authority to ratify the agreed texts that will be submitted to
it, but rather that it will have initiated a process out of a
prevailing isolationist and self-sufficient predilection - which in the
end will be its death - towards a restoration of koinonia - an
expression of the Church’s communion, more precisely its communion with
the Holy Spirit, leading its people, through Jesus Christ, to an
encounter with the living God!
For this reason, it is highly
significant that the faithful purposefully pray for the Council: pray
that it might prove to be a ‘theophany’ namely a genuine sign of the
continued presence of Christ within the life of the church, and thus a
compelling voice for the life of the world today.
[1] (Archbishop) Stylianos (Harkianakis) of Australia, The Infallibility of the Church in Orthodox Theology, trans. Philip Kariatlis (Adelaide: ATF Press & Sydney: St Andrew’s Orthodox Press, 2008), 129.
[2]
Homily delivered by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,
Homily during the Divine Liturgy at the Church of St Paul
(Chambésy-Geneva, January 24, 2016).
[3]
There is a penetrating lecture delivered on the Holy and Great Council
by the Revd Dr John Chryssavgis titled, “Towards the Great and Holy
Council: Retrieving a Culture of Conciliarity and Consensus” at the 33rd
Annual Schmemann Lecture, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, February, 1,
2016. This can be accessed at: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/svsvoices/the_33rd_annual_schmemann_lecture.
[4]
At this stage, the Holy and Great Council has been scheduled for June
16-27, 2016. It also needs to be pointed out that the original plan was
to hold this Council at the Church of St Irene in Istanbul, the place
where the 2nd Ecumenical Council in 381 had taken place. However, due to
political tensions between Turkey and Russia, the venue was changed so
as not to hinder the presence of the Orthodox Church in Russia at this
Holy and Great Council.
[5] At the First Pan-Orthodox conference at Rhodes in 1961, there were over 100 items on the agenda.
[6] This was done at the insistence of the Orthodox Churches of Russia, Bulgaria and Georgia.
[7]
Cited in an address given by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew to the Scholars’ Meeting at the Planar (January, 5, 2016).
[8]
This phrase belongs to Archbishop Anastasios of Albania cited by by the
Revd Dr John Chryssavgis titled, “Towards the Great and Holy Council:
Retrieving a Culture of Conciliarity and Consensus” at the 33rd Annual
Schmemann Lecture, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, February, 1, 2016.
This can be accessed at: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/svsvoices/the_33rd_annual_schmemann_lecture.
[9]
For a more extensive analysis on how different Orthodox Churches view
the authority of the Council, see the insightful article by Dr Paul
Gavrilyuk, “The Future Pan-Orthodox Council: To Be Or Not To Be?”, First Things (January 22, 2016). This can be accessed at firstthings.com.