The Doctrine of the Orthodox Church: The Structure of the Church
THE CANONS
The permanent criteria of church structure for the Orthodox Church
today, outside of the New Testament writings, are found in the canons
(regulations and decrees) of the first seven ecumenical councils; the
canons of several local or provincial councils, whose authority was
recognized by the whole church; the so-called Apostolic Canons (actually
some regulations of the church in Syria, dating from the 4th century); and
the "canons of the Fathers," or selected extracts from prominent church
leaders having canonical importance.
A collection of these texts was made in the Byzantine nomocanon,
attributed, in its final form, to the patriarch Photius (9th century). The
Byzantine Church, as well as the modern Orthodox Churches, has adapted the
general principles of this collection to its particular situation, and the
local autocephalous churches govern themselves according to their own
particular statutes, although all accept the ancient canons as their
common canonical reference.
The canons themselves do not represent a system or a code.
They do, however, reflect a consistent view of the church, of its mission,
and of its various ministries; they also reflect an evolution of
ecclesiastical structure—i.e., the growth of centralization in the framework of the
Christian Roman Empire. For the Orthodox Church today, only the original
self-understanding of the church has a theologically normative value.
Thus, those canons that reflect the nature of the church as the body of
Christ have an unchanging validity today; other canons, if they can be
recognized as conditioned by the historical situation in which they were
issued, are subject to change by conciliar authority; others have simply
fallen out of practice. The use and interpretation of the canons is
therefore possible only in the light of some understanding of the church's
nature. This theological dimension is the ultimate criterion through which
it is possible to distinguish what is permanent in the canons from that
which represents no more than a historical value.
THE EPISCOPATE
The Orthodox understanding of the church is based on the principle,
attested to in the canons and in early Christian tradition, that each
local community of Christians, gathered around its bishop and celebrating
the Eucharist, is the local realization of the whole body of Christ.
"Where Christ is, there is the Catholic church," wrote Ignatius of Antioch
(c. AD 100). Modern Orthodox theology also emphasizes that the office of
the bishop is the highest among the sacramental ministries and that there
is therefore no divinely established authority over that of the bishop in
his own community, or diocese. Neither the local churches nor the bishops,
however, can or should live in isolation. The wholeness of church life,
realized in each local community, is regarded as identical with that of
the other local churches in the present and in the past. This identity and
continuity is manifested in the act of the ordination of bishops, an act
that requires the presence of several other bishops in order to constitute
a conciliar act and to witness to the continuity of apostolic succession
and tradition.
The bishop is primarily the guardian of the faith and, as such, the
centre of the sacramental life of the community. The Orthodox Church
maintains the doctrine of apostolic succession—i.e., the idea that the
ministry of the bishop must be in direct continuity with that of the
Apostles of Jesus. Orthodox tradition—as expressed especially in its
medieval opposition to the Roman papacy—distinguishes the office of the
"Apostle" from that of the bishop, however, in that the first is viewed as
a universal witness to the historic Jesus and his Resurrection, while the
latter is understood in terms of the pastoral and sacramental
responsibility for a local community, or church. The continuity between
the two is, therefore, a continuity in faith rather than in function. This
Orthodox concept of the doctrine of apostolic succession has received
wider exposure in Western churches recently because of increased
encounters and consultations between Orthodox and Anglican churchmen, the
Orthodox always emphasizing unity of faith as a prerequisite for
recognition, on their part, of the "validity" of Anglican orders.
No bishop can be consecrated or exercise his ministry
without being in unity with his colleagues—i.e., be a member of an episcopal council, or "
synod." After the Council of Nicaea (325), whose canons are still
effective in the Orthodox Church, each province of the Roman Empire had
its own synod of bishops that acted as a fully independent unit for the
consecration of new bishops and also as a high ecclesiastical tribunal. In
the contemporary Orthodox Church these functions are fulfilled by the
synod of each autocephalous church. In the early church the bishop of the
provincial capital acted as chairman of the synod and was generally called
"metropolitan." Today this function is fulfilled by the local primate who
is sometimes called "patriarch" (in the autocephalous churches of
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Georgia, Serbia,
Romania, and Bulgaria), but he may also carry the title of archbishop
(Cyprus, Greece) or metropolitan (Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics,
America). The titles of archbishop and metropolitan are also widely used
as honorific distinctions.
Generally, but not always, the jurisdiction of each autocephalous synod
coincides with national borders—the exceptions are numerous in the Middle
East (e.g., jurisdiction of Constantinople over the Greek islands,
jurisdiction of Antioch over several Arab states, etc.)—and concerns also
the national dioceses of the Orthodox diaspora (e.g., western Europe,
Australia, America), which frequently remain under the authority of their
mother churches. The latter situation led to an uncanonical overlapping of
Orthodox jurisdictions, all based on ethnic origins. Several factors,
going back to the Middle Ages, have contributed to modern ecclesiastical
nationalism in the Orthodox Church. These factors include the use of the
vernacular in the liturgy and the subsequent identification of religion
with national culture; this identification sometimes helps the survival of
the church under adverse political conditions, but it also hampers
missionary expansion and the sense of a specifically Christian identity of
the faithful.
CLERGY AND LAITY
The emphasis on communion and fellowship, as the basic principle of
church life, inhibited the development of clericalism. The early Christian
practice of having the laity participate in episcopal elections never
disappeared completely in the East. In modern times, it has been restored
in several churches. The Moscow Council of 1917-1918 introduced it in
Russia, even if the events of the Revolution prevented its full
implementation. Bishops are also elected by clergy-laity conventions in
America and in other areas of the Orthodox world.
The lower orders of the clergy—i.e., priests and deacons—are
generally married men. The present canonical legislation allows the
ordination of married men to the diaconate and the priesthood, provided
that they were married only once and that their wives are neither widows
nor divorcees. These stipulations reflect the general principle of
absolute monogamy, which the Eastern Church considered as a Christian norm
to which candidates for the priesthood are to comply strictly. Deacons and
priests cannot marry after their ordination.
Bishops, however, are selected from among the unmarried clergy or
widowed priests. The rule defining the requirement for an unmarried
episcopate was issued at a time (6th century) when monks represented the
elite of the clergy. The contemporary decrease in the number of monks in
the Orthodox Church has created a serious problem in some territorial
churches, in that new candidates for the episcopacy are difficult to
find.
Besides being admitted, at least in some areas, to participation in
episcopal elections, Orthodox laymen often occupy positions in church
administration and in theological education. In Greece almost all
professional theologians are laymen. Laymen also frequently serve as
preachers.
MONASTICISM
The tradition of Eastern Christian monasticism goes back to the 3rd and
4th centuries of the Christian Era. From its beginning it was essentially
a contemplative movement seeking the experience of God in a life of
permanent prayer. This contemplative character has remained its essential
feature throughout the centuries. Eastern Christianity never experienced
the development of religious orders, pursuing particular missionary or
educational goals and organized on a universal scale, as did Western
Christianity.
Concern for prayer, as the central and principal function of
monasticism, does not mean that the Eastern Christian monastic movement
was of a single uniform character. Eremitic (solitary) monasticism,
favouring the personal and individual practice of prayer and asceticism,
often competed with "cenobitic" (communal) monastic life, in which prayer
was mainly liturgical and corporate. The two forms of monasticism
originated in Egypt and coexisted in Byzantium, as well as throughout
eastern Europe.
In Byzantium the great monastery of Studion became the model of
numerous cenobitic communities (see above under History: The church of
imperial Byzantium). It is in the framework of the eremitic, or Hesychast,
tradition, however, that the most noted Byzantine mystical theologians
(e.g., Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, etc.) received their
training. One of the major characteristics of the Hesychast tradition is
the practice of the "Jesus prayer," or constant invocation of the name of
Jesus, sometimes in connection with breathing. This practice won wide
acceptance in medieval and modern Russia.
Cenobitic traditions of Byzantium also were important in Slavic lands.
The colonization of the Russian north was largely accomplished by monks
who acted as pioneers of civilization and as missionaries.
In Byzantium, as well as in other areas of the Orthodox world, the
monks were often the only upholders of the moral and spiritual integrity
of Christianity, and thus they gained the respect of the masses, as well
as that of the intellectuals. The famous Russian startsy ("elders") of the
19th century became the spiritual leaders of Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and
Tolstoy and inspired many religious philosophers in their quest for
religious experience.
Today the most famous, though declining, centre of Orthodox monasticism
is Mt. Athos (Greece), where over a thousand monks of different national
backgrounds form a variety of communities, grouped into a monastic
republic.
Webmaster Note: This page was retrieved from www.archive.org after
decani.yunet.com went defunct following the Kosovo conflict. This page was
originally created by monks at Decani Monastery in Kosovo. It has been
slightly edited for inclusion on this site. Abridged, from Callistos Ware,
The Orthodox Church, p. 12-16.
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