How can we speak of the unity and oneness of the Church, if we also speak of many separate and independent Churches, as those of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, or Russia?
In discussing the relationship between “Church” (singular) and “Churches” (plural), it is important to remember that the word can be used in its theologically accurate sense, as in the divine Scriptures, or in the practical way of contemporary speech, which is convenient but not strictly accurate.
In a list such as “Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, or Russia,” we notice that Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople are cities, whereas Russia (or Greece) is a country containing many cities, and therefore many Churches. “The Church of Jerusalem” is thus a precise and theological expression, because the whole church is indeed made manifest in the Eucharist presided over by the bishop of Jerusalem; whereas “the Church of Russia” or “the Church of Greece” are practical expressions of common speech. The Scriptures themselves, when regions are in view, always use the plural: “the Churches of Galatia” (1Co 16:1; Gal 1:2), “the Churches of Asia” (1Co 16:19), “the Churches of Macedonia” (2Co 8:1).
In every city, the whole church (the ‘catholic church’) is made manifest, because the Body of Christ can be ‘distributed but never divided.’ Each church, presided over by a bishop of the Orthodox faith in apostolic succession and in communion with the other Churches, manifests the same fullness of the means of salvation.
The source of the unity of each church is her bishop and Eucharist; and the unity of the common union of the Churches is ensured by the solidarity of the bishops, who share the same Orthodox faith and the same one chair of Peter. As St Cyprian explains:
This unity we ought firmly to hold and defend, especially we bishops who preside in the church, that we may prove the episcopate itself to be one and undivided… The episcopate is one, of which a part is held by each bishop for the whole. The Church likewise is one, though she is spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by her fruitful increase: as there are many rays of the sun, but one light; and many branches of a tree, but one trunk grounded in its tenacious root; and as from one spring flow many streams… yet the unity is preserved in the source. (St Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Catholic Church, 5)
Therefore, every church (sometimes called a ‘particular church’) is a full and complete manifestation of the catholic church, and each is properly called “the whole church” in the Scriptures (Rom 16:23; Act 15:22). The Churches of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, or Sofia, taken as examples, are not parts or portions of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, but complete and undivided expressions of the whole. Their geographical separateness does not hinder them from being together the one Body within the common union of all the Churches, having one Head, Christ, and one spirit of faith and grace.
This unity is expressed as the local Churches organize themselves into larger geographical groupings called archdioceses or metropolises, under the presidency of a bishop titled metropolitan or archbishop, who presides over the assembly (synod) of the bishops of the region. Such groupings may in turn form a still larger body, commonly called a patriarchate, under a bishop bearing the title of patriarch. All the patriarchs and primates of these larger ecclesial bodies commemorate one another by name (according to the lists called the diptychs8) when they celebrate the Divine Liturgy, the audible sign of the Orthodox communion.
The unity of the holy Churches is expressed outwardly by the unity of Creed, the Orthodox faith, and by communion in prayer and in the Mysteries. The bond of the Orthodox communion is the common spiritual life which comes from “the Lord, the Spirit” (2Co 3:17–18; see Q107, Q162).
In the Orthodox Church, the Diptychs (from the Greek diptycha, meaning “two-fold tablet”) are the official liturgical list of the primates (heads) of the autocephalous (self-governing) Orthodox Churches. During the Divine Liturgy, the presiding bishop or priest commemorates these primates by name, usually after the consecration of the Gifts. The order of the Diptychs reflects both ancient precedence and the recognition of autocephaly.
The word “economics” comes from the ancient Greek word oikonomia, a combination of oikos (meaning “house”) and nemein (meaning “to manage” or “distribute”).
