Elementy teologii metropolii i synodu prowincjalnego w świetle rozwoju struktur Kościoła starożytnego

Abstract

In the Apostolic Church, as described in the New Testament, contacts and cooperation existed among the several local communities. The existence of local Churches and the awareness of their comm unity have lasted to this day but consciousness that cooperation is necessary has faded away. Vaticanum Secundum recom m ends brotherly help between neighbouring Churches according to the reverend example of antiquity (LG 23) and the post-conciliar ecclesiology sees theological foundations for this cooperation in the teaching about the Church as community and in the doctrine of collegiality acknowledging this example as normative for our time too. The metropolis and the provincial synod belong to the oldest structures of the Church which, in some periods of ecclesiastical history, had immense influence on the life of the Church. These structures are historical and canonical facts and as such form a theological reality. We can find the first groups of local Churches, showing their community spirit in acting at synods, already in the second century. The synods came into being out of the necessity in m aking decisions in problems touching several comm unities when unity of faith and discipline were at stake. The synods appear at the same time as the conception of the apostolic succession of the episcopate and the awareness of its collegiality. The Council of Nice (325) acknow ledges definitely the metropolis and the province synod as permanent structures in the Church (can. 4 and 5). The metropolis and the synod are theological and ecclesiological realities. The fundamantal categories defining this reality are the concept of the Church and the communal nature of its structure especially the theology of the episcopate and the concept of its collegiality. We can say in the light of St. Ignatius’ and St. Cyprian’s ecclesiology that the metropolis has, in the concept of the Ancient Church through analogy to transcendent structures, a certain vertical and horizontal dim ension expressed in the authority of the metropolite and in the bond linking the local Churches through their bishops. The particular Church is realized and shows its collegiality, unity and its „ecclesiastiveness” primarily in the common gathering at the synod. So the synod is manifestation of the Church itself which celebrates the said synod and is therefore som ething constituting an essential element of the particular Church being. The synod is also diacony, a defined service in the Church, a form of ecclesiastic service of governing and leading the People of God; as such, through bonds with the core of the Church reality and its collegiality the synod reaches a spiritual dimension. Basing on consciousness analysis in the Ancient Church it can be said that the particular Church (metropolis) exists as an institution, as a canon law being uniting local Churches in one community by many natural links; in a special way the metropolis is realized in the theological dimension and shows its theological reality in common activity realizing its collegiality and unity in faith and discipline; the fullest expression of these is the eucharistie community. Precisely in this common activity at the synod is the particular Church realized identifying itself in its outward manifestations.