The Unity of the Orthodox Church – The Archives of Orthodox America

by Priest Andrew Phillips

Who is the head of the Orthodox Church? This is a question often asked, especially by Roman Catholics. No doubt they expect to find in the Orthodox Church an equivalent to the papacy. For Orthodox, however, the very existence of a visible head of the Roman Catholic Church indicates that, whatever its merits, the Roman Catholic Church is structurally a secular insti-tution. Visible heads are the symbols of secular corporations, companies or governments. Orthodox would argue that, ultimately, the Pope is the descendent of the pagan Roman Emperors: historically, when the Imperial Power disappeared from Rome, its authority and prestige were transferred, mainly by the Carolingians and their descendents, to the Papacy. In Roman Catholic ideology the Pope of Rome has been known as the “Vicar of Christ” ever since the Hildebrandine Reform of the late eleventh century. (Until that time, he had been known in Orthodox fashion as “the Vicar of St. Peter”.) And since according to the “filioque” the Holy Spirit proceeds from Christ as from the Father, so the Holy Spirit must proceed from the “Vicar of Christ,” i.e., the Pope. Is this not precisely the affirmation of the dogma of papal infallibility?

And there are others who assume the Orthodox Church must have a “head.” Journalists quite often appoint a “head”-usually the Patriarch of Constantinople, which is rather ironic since he has one of the smallest flocks in the Orthodox world. But the truth is that the Orthodox Church has no visible head.

It is true that in history various figures have played an important role in the Orthodox Church, certain Emperors of Constantinople, for example; or, after the fall of that city in 1453, certain Russian Tsars. They worked to protect the Church from heathen invasions or heretics, gave generous donations to monasteries and church-building programs, sponsored missions, and issued laws in defense of the Church. But they were never “heads” of the Church, and those who tried to meddle in church affairs were always fiercely opposed by the faithful.

In church history other great and universal figures have stood up to defend the Church at critical times. For example:

St. Anthony the Great, founder of monasticism;
St. Basil the Great, defender of the Orthodox teaching on the Holy Trinity;
St. Athanasius the Great, defender of the teaching about Christ;
St. Ambrose of Milan, defender of the Church against a wicked emperor;
St. John Chrysostom, pastor, preacher and confessor of the Faith;
St. John Cassian, father of Western monasticism and theologian;
St. Leo the Great, defender of the Orthodox teaching on Christ’s two natures;
St. Gregory the Great, pastor, missionary and theologian;
St. Martin the Confessor, defender of the Person of Christ with St. Maximus the Confessor;
St. Theodore the Studite, defender of the teaching on the Incarnation and, so, of icons;
St. Photius the Great, defender of the Orthodox teaching on the Holy Spirit and the Holy Trinity;
St. Simeon the New Theologian, defender of the spirituality of the Church;
St. Gregory Palamas, defender of Orthodox spirituality against humanist and atheist rationalism;
St. Mark of Ephesus, defender of the Church from scholastic rationalism;
St. Paisius (Velichkovsky), defender of monasticism and prayer from impious rulers and the decadence of the Enlightenment;
St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, canonist, pastor and theologian; Blessed John of Shanghai and San Francisco, preacher of repentance and return to Orthodoxy on five continents (to be canonized in 1994);
Blessed Justin Popovich, confessor and defender of the theology of the Church (reposed 1979; his canonization is being prepared).

None of these figures ever claimed to be “head” of the Church. Indeed, several denounced the concept of the Church having a visible head, especially St. Gregory the Great, himself Pope of Rome!

For the Orthodox, there can only be one Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, as is affirmed constantly in the Epistles (cf, 1:22, 5:23, or 1:18 Col. and Psalms).

Some may object to this: “You must,” they say, “have a visible head; what about bishops?” Of course, a bishop is a visible head (or, in Orthodox language, an icon of Christ), but only of his own diocese, not of the Church as a whole. Local Churches are “headed” by a patriarch, pope (as in Alexandria), metropolitan or archbishop, but these are likewise heads of local churches, not of the entire Church of Christ. Moreover, any bishop is only “head” in an administrative and liturgical sense; he is an “icon” of Christ, no more.

How, then, is the Church governed if it has no visible head? A company would dissolve into chaos without a chairman, the Roman Church would vanish without a pope. How is it that the Orthodox Church can continue without a visible Head and does not break up? Where is the principle of unity and authority?

The answer is given by the Saviour in the Gospels. Knowing that He would ascend to His Father, He promised to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 14:26). The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth (John 16:13), for, in the words of Christ, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.

In this way, although the Church has no visible head, and has no need of one, she has an invisible Head, which is Christ our God and King, present through the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ from the Father (John15:26). This inner sense of Christ’s presence as Head of the Church has always prevented Orthodoxy from elevating a human being to this position. True, it would be more convenient to have a human Head: decisions could be taken more quickly, the Church would have a more efficient organization, cooperation and coordination would be easier. Jurisdictions, i.e., dioceses of different local Orthodox churches on the same territory, could be organized into branches of the Church, just as the Roman Church in Great Britain absorbed Polish, Italian and other national groups into one Roman Catholic Church. A visible head would be able to centralize a global Church. Local states would think twice before meddling in local church matters. In general, administration, communications and management would be enormously facilitated. And yet, for Orthodox such an arrangement is unacceptable. The purpose of the Church is not efficiency, it is holiness.

This explains why, to the outsider, Orthodoxy presents a paradoxical, even chaotic face. The human face of the Orthodox Church is indeed chaotic-because it is living in the world. Internally, however, the unity and authority of the Church is maintained by the Holy Spirit. The Church is the Body of Christ. The unity of the Church is apparent to the extent that we are partakers of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4), to the extent that we participate in the Holy Spirit. This is why the outsider fails to see the unity and authority of the Church but only human drama, because, being outside the Church, he cannot be a partaker of this divine life, of the actions and movements of the Spirit of Truth. The unity of the Orthodox Church is a spiritual unity, not a secular one.

The unity of the Church is apparent wherever there are those who are striving to live in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Unity becomes visible and tangible to the degree that the invisible Head of the Church, the Saviour Jesus Christ, becomes visible and tangible in our lives by the Holy Spirit. Where there are those who refuse the Church, where there are schisms and heresies-for whatever doctrinal, political or nationalistic reasons-penetrating Church life from the world, there unity no longer exists. It is for this reason that the unity of the Church is most apparent in the Lives of the Saints, where there is no difference between “Greek” or Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian or Scythian, bond or free (Col. 3:11); for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…and have all been made to drink into one Spirit (I Cor. 12:13). This spiritual unity, which is provided by Christ as the Head of the Orthodox Church, is stronger than time or space, for the saints are united regardless of century and nationality, education or background, and those in prayerful communion with the saints are similarly united. This unity in the Holy Spirit, in the Person of Christ, this unity of the Church is its Orthodoxy and its Catholicity. It is Orthodox for it confesses the Orthodox teachings, but it is also Catholic since it is universal, beyond time and space. Indeed, the two are inseparable, for Orthodoxy which is not Catholic would be but a local opinion or custom, and Catholicity which is not Orthodox would be a form of monolithic totalitarianism. This is why the term “Roman Catholic” is contradictory: one cannot be “Catholic” and “Roman” at the same time.

The Catholicity and Orthodoxy of the Church is best witnessed at the councils, whether local or ecumenical. It is here, at gatherings of bishops-and often saints-that the Holy Spirit inspires understanding of God and reveals spiritual realities that are then expressed in dogmas and canons. Here the authority and teaching of the Church is expounded by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In this divine-human action, spiritual truths are often revealed which strengthen the bonds of unity, Orthodoxy, and Catholicity in the Church. In the case of local councils, truths have been expressed which sometimes become universally accepted by the Church. A good example is the First Council of Jerusalem, when St. James, who presided at the Council, said, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us… (Acts 15:28),” when speaking of the decision of this Council concerning the question of circumcision. So too, there have been meetings of bishops and others which were prematurely termed “councils” and whose decisions were later rejected by the Church as not being inspired by the Holy Spirit but rather by human passions; for example, the Council of Florence in the fifteenth century. Characteristically, such “councils” bring not unity but disunity; they weaken the Church’s authority. At various periods in her history, centrifugal forces, schismatic or nationalistic, have threatened to undermine the unity of the Church. Such is the case today with the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church which, with Communist and Vatican aid, was separated from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In the past whole local Churches have left the Orthodox Church. Such was the case with the Nestorians, the Monophysites and later the Western Church (whose leaders envisioned the reestablishment of a Western Roman Empire). At other times the Church has been menaced by centripetal (centralizing) forces which threatened to enforce unity at the cost of diversity. Such was the case with certain emperors who wished to Hellenize or Russify local populations. For example, the Bulgarian Church under the jurisdiction of Constantinople was not allowed to celebrate in Church Slavonic. Similarly, the Volga Germans in Russia were denied permission by the Moscow Patriarchate to celebrate services in their native German (they have since been received into the Free Russian Church where, under the omophorion of Archbishop Mark, they now serve in German). In spite of these two anti-ecclesial tendencies, the Church remains undivided, for even the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.

The Orthodox Church, then, is a commonwealth of local churches, a community of unity in diversity, which is founded on the Orthodox Christian theology of the Holy Trinity. The unity of the Church is the expression of the common Orthodox Faith, which is itself an expression of the experience of the Holy Spirit common to her members. The principle of unity and authority is the Son of God, the Head of the Church, the Body of Christ, expressed in the Holy Spirit. This can best be seen among her saints, those who, having acquired the Holy Spirit, are partakers of the divine nature, especially when they are gathered together, as, for example, in a council-for, as Christ promised, where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20).

The nature of the Church’s unity is spiritual, not secular, not organizational, but ascetic. The unity of the Church is manifest when each one of us, individually and collectively, roots out from within us all that is contrary to the free and untramelled working and movement of the Holy Spirit. If we fail to do this, our unity with the Body of Christ, the Church, is weakened.

The clearest sign that the Orthodox Church is not a secular but a divine-human institution is the fact that she has no visible Head, but the invisible Head of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, present in the Church through the Holy Spirit, Who is “everywhere present and fillest all things, the Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life.”