Unitate de credință, disciplină canonică și identitate etnică în diaspora ortodoxă. O analiză din punct de vedere canonic
Unity of faith, canonical discipline and ethnic identity in the orthodox diaspora. An analysis from a canonical standpoint

Summary/Abstract: The orthodox diaspora of today includes Arabic, Greek, Slavic, Bulgarian, Serbian or Romanian orthodox eparchies or metropolinates that, very often, overlap one another in the same place (territory) of a region or country. So, in the same place, there are simultaneously several hierarchs belonging to different autocephalous Churches, through this is strictly forbidden by the 8th Canon of the First Ecumenical Synod, that decided that ''there must not coexist two hierarchs in the same city". Sometimes, in the same territory of diaspora, there are even eparchies and/or metropolinates, ethnically organized, which overlap one another, in spite of their being under the authority of the same autocephalous Church. Which contravenes the 34th apostolic Canon that enforces the ethnic principle as fundamental in the Church organization and working. This recent practice in which more than one hierarch co-exist in a single place was unanimously recognized by the autocephalous Orthodox Churches as being non-canonical, and was identified by the term of co-territoriality. In order to solve this problem, the Orthodox Church accepted the provisional setting-up, within the orthodox diaspora, of Episcopal Meetings for certain regions. In 2018, the Patriarchate of Moscow broke the communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and these Episcopal Meetings became unrepresentative for all the orthodox people of diaspora, and cannot ensure any more the co-operation between all the orthodox people, so as they should be unitarily represented in front of the state authorities of a region. As a result, it is necessary that the synodality should be reinvigorated in the Orthodox Church, which implies yearly meetings of the Synaxis of the Head of the autocephalous Churches, and also meetings of five years of the Pan Orthodox Synod, which is to analyze all these problems and identify suitable pastoral solutions.

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