The modern structure of the Orthodox Church developed from apostolic foundations. It took shape within the borders of the Roman Empire in the early years of Christianity. Like the basic family unit, the Church operated then and now on hierarchy and structure. There were differences that developed early between the Greek east and Latin west on how that structure was understood theologically and how canonical territory was to be viewed and governed. The eastern church fathers, after having met in councils, developed the pentarchy, which was based on several important cities in the Roman Empire: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople in Asia Minor, and Rome in Italy. The city of Rome, however, did not always agree to such an ordering of churches; instead, the Church of Rome gradually began to view canonical territory as emanating from their central location, not necessarily due to political importance, and mainly because St. Peter left his apostolic succession uniquely there.
The city of Jerusalem, where there is written record from Scripture and oral tradition of the first apostolic meeting of the Church to settle issues, became the mother of all churches. Much of the content of the letters sent to churches that we read in Scripture often focus on helping to establish order in church life with love and authority. There are several important terms and phrases included by Metropolitan Hilarion: monarchic episcopate, primacy of honor, autocephaly, dioceses and patriarchate. Although in the east there were more fluid relations between church and state, the west seemed to favor making a distinction between them. These terms can be misleading if they are understood narrowly in secular terms. Monarchy implies absolute and sometimes arbitrary rule. Primacy can lead to thinking of honor as wielding superiority over others. But that isn’t so in the Church. Patriarchate might seem to carry the baggage that comes with the word “patriarchy” in modern western cultures. Like the Orthodox Symbol of Faith and Our Father, we use terms that refer to family and hierarchical structure such as mother and father, and bishop, which in Greek can be traced to its root meaning of guardian or someone who is looking over people in a city. But none of that is so in the Orthodox structure of the Church.
It was important to give cities a higher status of patriarchate for being founded by apostles directly, like Rome, Jerusalem and Antioch. The city of Constantinople, though it was not directly founded by any one apostle, still was given patriarchal status by the eastern church fathers in ecumenical councils. Rome may have disagreed with this decision at times, but a similar principle can be found between St. Paul’s indirect contact with Jesus’ earthly ministry and all of the apostles and Paul’s own identification as an apostle like the rest of the twelve disciples. But this idea isn’t an example used by Metropolitan Hilarion. This chapter shows us that often times political borders and centers are given more weight because Scripture calls for the apostles to go out into every city. To understand the modern structure of the Orthodox Church, we have to understand the roles of apostles, bishops, presbyter (priests), and deacons. Like Titus 1:5 says, the Church must continue to go into every city as long as there are cities, dwellings and territories to enter. So, two major sources that help to explain the canonical structure of the Orthodox Church are the apostolic foundations laid in cities and the Roman Empire that encompassed both Rome and Constantinople as well as Eastern Mediterranean cities like Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch.