The Orthodox understanding of sinodality/conciliarity of the Church

Cilj je ovoga rada što preciznije i konciznije iznijeti pravoslavno poimanje sinodalnosti Crkve, kao i to što se podrazumijeva pod tim pojmom i kako ga Pravoslavna crkva razumije, kako bismo vidjeli na koji se način sinodalnost/sabornost očituje u povijesti i živi u Crkvi i u čemu je doprinos njezina sinodalnog ustrojstva. Dobro je poznato da je u Pravoslavnoj crkvi institucija sabora od ključnog značaja za njezino jedinstvo i stoga sabornost predstavlja bitan element svijesti Pravoslavne crkve o sebi i svojoj povijesnoj funkciji. Kroz saborni/sinodalni sistem Pravoslavna crkva na najbolji način izražava svoju svijest o organskom jedinstvu tijela Crkve. Upravo stoga jedan od najvažnijih elemenata ekleziološkog sadržaja saborske institucije sastoji se u tome što je ta institucija pozvana sačuvati ravnotežu između mjesne Crkve kao cijele, katolične (καθολικῆς) Crkve i »širom svijeta katolične Crkve«, koju jedinstvo mjesnih Crkava ustrojava u jedno tijelo. Sabornost Crkve nije količinski ni geografski pojam jer ne ovisi o broju vjernih širom svijeta. Univerzalnost Crkve je posljedica i manifestacija, a ne uzrok i osnova njezine sabornosti.The aim of this article is to present, as precisely and concisely as possible, the Orthodox understanding of sinodality of the Church, as well as what the Orthodox Church means by this term, in order to point out how is sinodality/conciliarity manifested and lived out in the Church and what is the contribution of its synodal structure. It is well known that for the Orthodox Church the institution of council is of key importance for its unity and, therefore, conciliarity is an important element of the consciousness of the Orthodox Church of itself and its historical function. Through conciliar/synodal system the Orthodox Church expresses its consciousness on organic unity of the body of the Church in the best possible way. This is why one of the most important ecclesiological elements of the conciliar institution consists in the fact that the institution is called to preserve the balance between the particular Church, as the whole, Catholic Church, and the »universal Catholic Church« that is structured into one body by the unity of particular Churches. The conciliarity of the Church is not a quantitative or a geographic term, because it does not depend on the number of the faithful all over the world. The universality of the Church is a consequence and a manifestation, and not the cause and the basis, of its conciliarity