Canons Regulating the Territorial Aspect of the Relationship between Church and State (in the Eastern Church)

Abstract

The article analyzes the rules of the Holy Apostles, the rules of the Ecumenical and Local Councils, which regulate the administrative and territorial structure of the Church. The administrative-territorial structure of the Church refers to such institutions as the national Church, the metropolis, and the patriarchate, that is, the forms of administrative organization of the Church in a particular historical period. The article examines the period from the third century to the end of the seventh century. The author comes to the conclusion that starting with the holy Emperor Constantine I the Great, the church structure begins to conform to the civil and administrative structure, consolidating these provisions with appropriate rules. The development of the church division developed as follows: at first, communities (παροικία) under the leadership of one presiding bishop formed a national Church. At the next stage, the metropolitan area (diocese) was correlated with the civil province. The civil provinces were part of the diocesan system, which was also the case in the church structure. The boundaries of the civil diocese of Egypt corresponded to the ecclesiastical district headed by the Bishop of Alexandria. The borders of the civil diocese of the East, with the exception of the civil provinces of the three Palestine, which constitute the ecclesiastical district headed by the Bishop of Jerusalem, corresponded to the ecclesiastical district headed by the Bishop of Antioch. The civil dioceses of Thrace, Pontus,and Asia formed an ecclesiastical district headed by the Bishop of Constantinople. Later, these ecclesiastical districts developed into patriarchates.