§ 83. The Significance of Concordant Episcopal Decisions Promulgated Without a Council

II. The Agreement of Bishops Not Gathered in Council.

Besides ecumenical councils, the Church can also, in its ordinary state, assert itself when the need arises through a general legislative authority. This occurs when all the archpastors of the Church, even though they may not be gathered in council but each remains in his own place, put forward unanimously and in concord a teaching on a matter concerning which the need has arisen to hear the voice of the ecumenical Church regarding it. It is the Orthodox teaching on the unity of the Church that makes this manner of general church legislation possible even when an ecumenical council is not in session. “The Catholic Church is one,” writes Cyprian, “undivided and indivisible, and for that reason it must also be united into one whole by the mutual bond of its hierarchs.”[1] In the earliest times of the Church, when an ecumenical council could not even be thought of, the Church nevertheless made itself manifest through its general legislation, and this through the joint and mutually agreed action of all the regional churches and archpastors (§ 51). The Church proceeded in this same way later as well, when circumstances prevented the convening of an ecumenical council, yet its general voice needed to be heard.

Given the great difficulties attendant upon the convening of ecumenical councils, the fathers and teachers of the Church do not insist on the unconditional necessity of such councils. On the occasion of the Pelagian heresy Augustine wrote, in his time, as follows: “Is it really necessary to convene a council in order to expose so manifest an evil? As though no heresy had ever been condemned without the convening of a council; whereas it is known that such a need arose for very few heresies, while most heresies, wherever they arose, were exposed and condemned there, and from there it was made known to the other churches, so that they might know to be on their guard.”[2] The Church has in all ages proceeded according to this principle. Some important question of significance for the whole Church is raised, and the hierarchs in whose region it was raised submit it for deliberation to their own regional council, and then communicate their decision to the other regional churches, which receive and adopt it for their own governance; or else, if the regional council in question does not consider itself competent to decide alone, it turns for an opinion to the other regional (autocephalous) churches, and when all agree in the resulting decision, they then proclaim it in the name of the whole Church, and that decision carries the very same significance and force as if it had been proclaimed at an ecumenical council.