On the Question of the Properties of the Christian Community
In all centuries of the existence of Christianity, the Church, as the mystical Body of Christ, was conceived as the unifying principle of all Christians. This property had various terminological expressions in the dogmatic formulas of the Christian churches, and first of all, two similar terms in meaning - οικουμενικη and καθολικη, the second of which in the Russian tradition took the form of “sobornaya”. These terms reflect the different views on the nature of the Church, adopted in different Christian churches. This is where Orthodoxy’s special concept of the community, the pastoral vocation and the nature of the relationship between the priest and the parish originate. Thus, through the feeling of kinship between Christians, a church community is being created - one of the foundations of the social organization of people, opposing the flourishing individualism in the Western world, which has no foundations in the New Testament Revelation. However, at the same time as communality in the Byzantine and Russian traditions, great importance was attached to the monarchical power and its relation to the community. At the same time, the monarchist will, as it were, “breaks down” against the will of the conciliar communality, forcing each of the forces - communal conciliar and monarchist - to find forms of coexistence, which means that a priest or bishop is responsible for his actions rather than governing “as he wills”. In traditional Orthodox views, the priest is part of the community, its authorized representative, which determines the nature of the priest’s behavior towards the flock. One of the first goals of mission is to “plant the Church”, not only outside, but also inside the church fence. In the twentieth century, Orthodox theology made a significant step forward, placing the Eucharistic life at the center of community life. Such a “Eucharistic-centered” theology is alien to other Christian churches, probably due to the greater rationality in matters of the life of the Church.