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The Controversy over Primacy in the Orthodox Church

A Controversial Document of the Moscow Patriarchate Concerning Primacy in the Church

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article aims at presenting the essential contents of the document by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church on primacy in the Church, and the more important voices in the debate on the issue. The Russian text was written as an answer to the Ravenna document of the theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church (2007). The Moscow Patriarchate expressed their disaproval of the latter document where it touches upon conciliarity and primacy at the universal level. In their synodal document, the Moscow Patriarchate presents their own vision of primacy in the Church. They emphasize that primacy at the universal level – which belongs to the Constantinople capital today – by its nature, is exclusively ‘primacy of honour’ and not authority. It does not have its source in the person of the ‘prime hierach’, but in the consensus of local Orthodox Churches. The vision of primacy presented in the Russian document met with a sharp reaction of the representatives of the Constantinople Patriarchate. According to its critics, the Russian document presents a simplified version of primacy in the Church. While aiming at strenghthening her rank in the Orthodox Church, the Russian Church is questioning the competence of the Constantinople Patriarch. Thus, the presented document is part of the argument between Moscow and Constantinople about primacy in the Orthodox world.

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