Page 188 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
Church, lacking nothing. Synodality exists precisely to pre-
serve the balance between the fullness of each local Church
and the unity of all Churches together. This balance becomes
clearer in the nineteenth canon of Antioch, where episcopal
ordinations are placed under synodal confirmation with the
metropolitan presiding. Here conciliar authority is strength-
ened, yet always within the framework of communion, never
as domination. The council confirms unity, but does not re-
place the local Church.
The fullest expression of this balance is found in the thirty-
fourth Apostolic Canon, which stands at the heart of Ortho-
dox synodality. “The bishops of every nation must recognize
the first among them, and do nothing of consequence without
him; but neither may he do anything without them.” In this
canon the entire mystery of conciliarity and primacy is re-
vealed. The one and the many are inseparable. There is no
synod without a first, and no first without the synod. Primacy
without conciliarity becomes domination; conciliarity with-
out primacy becomes fragmentation. This relationship is not
administrative compromise: it reflects the very life of the Holy
Trinity, where unity and plurality coexist without confusion
or subordination. As Zizioulas insists, this is not a pyramidic
model of authority but an image of communion in the likeness
of God Himself.
Thus the first bishop is never a monarch standing above the
Church, but the one through whom the communion of the
Churches becomes visible. He convenes and presides, not by
isolated power, but because in him the unity of the many is
expressed. Likewise, the synod is never a parliament of com-
peting individuals, but the communion of local Churches
speaking “with one mouth and one heart.”
Even ecumenical councils must be understood in this light.
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