Page 147 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E C A N O N I C A L S T R U C T U R E
The Canonical Structure
The core of the organization of the Orthodox Church is the
community of baptized Christians, led by the bishop, sur-
rounded by the college of presbyters, and assisted by deacons.
According to Ignatius of Antioch, only this structure in its full
expression deserves the name Church (ἐκκλησία), primarily
because this is the structure required for the celebration of the
Eucharist, in which the Church of God is most fully revealed
and realized.
For the Orthodox, although it is not the only image, the
image of the Eucharist is certainly the key to ecclesiology. If
we ask what is the nature of the Church in the Orthodox un-
derstanding—what expresses the nature of the Church in its
fullness—the answer, if anything, is certainly the Eucharist.
This has several immediate implications. The structure of
the Eucharist becomes the structure of the Church, and the
ministries that the Eucharist involves become the key minis-
tries of the Church. If we ask what the structure of the Church
is according to the Orthodox understanding, we must seek the
answer in the structure of the Eucharist itself.
Here, however, a difficulty arises. The actual structure of
the Eucharist today, even in the Orthodox Church, is not iden-
tical with what it was in the early Church, when the relation-
ship between the Eucharist and the nature of the Church was
first clearly articulated. Therefore, we cannot simply look at
the present situation without discernment; we must view it
critically, judging what exists today in the light of what was
given in the beginning.
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