Page 195 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E E C U M E N I C A L PAT R I A R C H AT E
The Ecumenical Patriarchate
If primacy belongs intrinsically to the life of the Church as
an expression of the unity of the one and the many, it must
also find its concrete historical form in the East—not as a
primacy of jurisdiction, but as a primacy of communion, root-
ed in the experience and canonical consciousness of the first
millennium.
The fall of the communist world has affected the Orthodox
Church more than any other part of Christendom in a most
direct way. The great majority of the Orthodox lived in this
century in communist dominated countries, and the collapse
of the system has meant that these Orthodox had to readjust
their lives and their ecclesiastical activities in a radical way.
The demand for inter-Orthodox co-operation and deeper
unity has therefore become much stronger because of these
new circumstances, and the role of the Ecumenical Patriarch-
ate in fulfilling this demand could hardly be overlooked or
neglected.
It is precisely at this point that the crucial questions arise:
how does the Ecumenical Patriarchate understand its role in
the unity of Orthodoxy today? How do the rest of the Ortho-
dox Churches understand and appreciate this role? And how
can the relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the
other Orthodox Churches be adjusted to meet the new de-
mands and responsibilities placed upon the Orthodox Church
in this new era?
The basic structure of the Orthodox Church consists of its
autocephalous and autonomous Churches, all of which are
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