Canonical Corpus and its Significance in the Modern Life of the Orthodox Church

Abstract

Distortion in the understanding of the nature of the Church inevitably leads to the violation of canons, as well as the systematic violation of canons leads to the distortion of the image of the Church, to the loss of the vivid connection with the “Body of Christ” (Col. 1, 24). There is a close connection between aberration in ecclesiology and the anti-canonical actions taken by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine in 2018–2019. The concept describing the primate of the Church of Constantinople as “primus sine paribus” appeared many years ago, and the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew in Ukraine are a logical consequence and actualization of this idea. The absence of an active intellectual dialogue between the expert communities of the Local Churches inevitably leads to a loss of mutual understanding and to the lack of the possibility of timely prevention of dangerous trends, including in the interpretation of canons. The article concludes that there is a need for a wide discussion on the topic of the understanding and implementation in the Ancient Church of canonical norms contained in rules 9, 17 and 28 of the IV Ecumenical Council, in the form of conferences, round tables, high-quality and quick translations of publications into European languages, primarily English and Greek. This discussion over time may lead to an adequate understanding of the key canonical norms of the Council of Chalcedon and to the corresponding formalization of a canonical assessment of the actions of the Constantinople Primate by the Synods of the Local Orthodox Churches.