"NEW" AUTOCEPHALIES AND THEIR PLACE IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the transformational processes of the ancient institution of autocephaly and its modern significance in the church. The ecclesiological conditionality of the autocephalous principle of systematization of the Ecumenical Church stems from the very nature of the Church. "New" autocephalous churches in the historical aspect appear significantly later than the ancient Eastern patriarchates. Therefore, an important task of the article is to study the reality of equality between all the Local Churches. In relations between independent church administrations, one can feel the " supremacy" of the ancient autocephalies over the new ones. Therefore, the study focuses on the very phenomenon of the Church in its historical retrospective, and on the ecclesiological understanding of church equality. The methodological foundations of the study were historical methods, comparative approach, traditionalism, hermeneutics, religious anthropology, philosophical symbolism, methods of analysis and synthesis. The scientific novelty is to highlight the causes of the current crisis of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church. It is noted that this is primarily due to geopolitical and financial factors. The existence of ancient and "new" autocephaly creates a certain inferiority of the latter, despite the principle of church equality and the powerful financial and human factor of the new national churches. It is highlighted that from the point of view of Orthodox ecclesiology, it is obvious that by its very structure, each church must necessarily be autocephalous. However, in practice, a number of national churches have been waiting for All-Orthodox recognition for a long time. Conclusions. It is proved that the formation of two approaches (Greek and Slavic) to the understanding of the structure of the system of Universal Orthodoxy was the cause of the crisis in the church. It is noted that "church misunderstandings" became apparent after the Great Council of Crete and the granting of the Tomos to the Ukrainian Church. The study found that during the Ecumenical Councils, the understanding of autocephaly was transformed from a natural state to a church-political phenomenon. It is proved that in the XIX-XX centuries, when the "parade of autocephaly" took place in the Balkans, the issue of autocephaly again came to the forefront of general theological discussions. A key role was played by the national factor, which underpins the independence of each of the Local Churches. Autocephaly becomes a purely political stratum. However, it has been proven that the ecclesiological conditionality of the autocephalous principle stems from the very nature of the church. The article argues that in the Orthodox tradition there is no generally accepted interpretation of the interdependence of the principle of locality and autocephalous status of churches. It is noted that further scientific research on autocephalous issues will complement the study, because the formation of the church is a dynamic process.