LOCAL AND AUTOCEPHALOUS CHURCHES: CANONICAL JUSTIFICATION AND TRADITION

Abstract

The article considers the basic principles and mechanisms of functioning of the church-administrative system of government of the Ecumenical Church. It is established that two opposing ecclesiological traditions (Greek and Slavic) were gradually formed, which testify to the lack of Unity and Conciliarism. The formation of two approaches to understanding the structure of the system of universal Orthodoxy was the reason for only a partial presence at the Great All-Orthodox Council in 2016. The article argues that in the Orthodox tradition there is no generally accepted interpretation of the interdependence of the principle of locality and the autocephalous status of churches. It is proved that the autocephalous church is always local, but the modern ecclesiological interpretation of locality does not automatically lead to the acquisition of autocephalous status. It is proved that the apostles and their closest disciples did not know and did not foresee any other principle of the existence of the Ecumenical Church than autocephaly. It is emphasized that such a mechanism of church government was based on the territorial principle. It is pointed out that such a division underlies the concept of locality in the Ecumenical Church. It is established that the study of the problem of autocephaly today is a key task of world Orthodoxy. Since the founding of Christianity, autocephaly has been a basic principle of apostolic preaching, which took into account the national and ethnic characteristics of the population of the Roman Empire. Autocephaly is one of the oldest institutions of the Church, which is a defining feature of Orthodoxy today. For two thousand years, this phenomenon remained unchanged, but there were different, even radically opposite approaches to understanding it. Because the theory of autocephaly emerges with Christianity, it is not an imposed or borrowed institution, but the very essence of Orthodoxy, the way it exists. It is claimed that the Ecumenical Church, being united in essence, is divided into independent Local Churches on an administrative and national basis. On a universal scale, the Orthodox Church testifies to the unity of the churches through the Eucharist. Every Local Church is already self-sufficient, for it has the fullness of the grace of the Holy Spirit, but through the Eucharist and the Councils the unity of the Universal Scale is expressed. Key words: cathedral, church, autocephaly, ecclesiology, canon law, patriarch, parish, metropolitan.