Despite coming to a conclusion just a month ago, the Synod on Synodality of the Roman Catholic church continues to make headlines. Recently, Bishop Robert Barron expressed his “frank disagreement” with the synod’s report, which asserts that advances in the sciences require an evolution in the church’s moral teaching on human sexuality.

Although the concept of a synod is new within the Roman Catholic church, it has a long-standing tradition in Orthodox Christianity. Metropolitan Job of Pisidia was invited to participate in the synod in Rome. On Oct. 9, he delivered a reflection on the experience of synodality in the Orthodox church. 

Metropolitan Job of Pisidia is an Orthodox bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He is the Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches and co-President of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic church and the Orthodox church. These significant posts make him a top diplomat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. 

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Metropolitan Job is an expert on the dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as issues related to Ukraine. His busy schedule and diplomatic nature of his activities don’t leave a lot of room for media interviews. The most recent extensive conversation with Metropolitan Job was published by the BBC Russian Service in 2018. 

Despite this, Metropolitan Job spoke to Jovan Tripkovic, an editorial fellow at ReligionUnplugged.com about his experience at the Synod on Synodality, Orthodox idea of synodality and historical parallels between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox concepts of synodality. Metropolitan Job also discussed the dialogue between Constantinople and Rome, recent developments in Ukraine (calendar change) and the Orthodox rift. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. The interview took place in October during the Synod on Synodality in Rome.

Jovan Tripkovic: You have been an active participant in the Synod on Synodality in Rome. As an Orthodox Christian, what are your general impressions of the Synod?

Metropolitan Job of Pisidia: For the Roman Catholic church, it is a new experience to try to involve the clergy, the laity, the religious people into the process of management of the church. This is something that our Roman Catholic brothers are still not very well familiar with. There are some reserves. Some are a little bit cautious, others have doubts about this way of doing things. There are movements for more influence on the governing body of the church. This is something new.

There is a lot of mutual respect and active listening, which is commendable. Overall, the spirit is very positive. It is done in a spirit of prayer. Every 15-20 minutes, there is a brief interruption for three, four minutes of silence for prayer. This is a very positive experience for the Roman Catholic church. The definition of synodality as it has been defined by this synod, comes from the vision of Pope Francis, it’s the vision of walking all together towards the kingdom of God.

This is the whole understanding of synodality at this meeting. How can we walk all together? This implies that we have to walk at the same rhythm, caring about not leaving people behind us, to have them with us and how we can work together to give a testimony to the world. The mission of the Church, our common mission is to evangelize the world. There is a very close connection to synodality with mission, as it is understood at this meeting. There are three key themes: listening to one another, the communion of the church — church being a communion — and the mission of our common witness to the world.

Jovan Tripkovic: Is the concept of synodality in Rome similar to the Eastern Orthodox idea of synodality? 

Metropolitan Job: There is a first difference, which is a major difference! The Catholic Synod on Synodality is a consultative body, while in Orthodoxy we have a decision-making body. Currently in Rome, we have a gathering of bishops, clergy, religious people, and laity, in order to discuss and produce reports. They will be presented to Pope Francis. He will decide what to do with all of this. This is not a decision-making assembly. 

Orthodox synods gather to make a decision. In the Orthodox church, we do not have a Pope above the synod. We have a primate, a protos — a first bishop — who presides over the synod and who is within the synod. The synod as a body takes decisions about governance of the church.

Second, in the Orthodox church the decision-making body which is known as the synod is exclusively comprised of bishops. The bishops are in the Orthodox synod representing their local church, their dioceses. In order to represent their dioceses in the synod, bishops listen to their local church, all people of God, by making pastoral visits to parishes, having clergy hold meetings, where they discuss their issues and the pastoral problems of their diocese. 

In some dioceses we have clergy-laity conferences, assemblies to discuss these matters related to their diocese. What is now happening in the Roman Catholic church, with Synodality corresponds more with what we call in the Orthodox church, clergy-laity assemblies, which are consultative bodies, from which the Synod takes into consideration the issues discussed in order to make a decision.

Jovan Tripkovic: Do you see any historical parallel between the Synod in Rome and Orthodox concept of synodality? 

Metropolitan Job: We also had a similar movement in Russia at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, with the idea of sobornost. The idea of sobornost (developed by the Slavophiles) is pretty similar to the idea of synodality which is being presented right now in the Roman Catholic church, that tries to incorporate different constituencies of the church (clergy, laity, religious people, episcopate) into the administration of the church.

However, sobornost wanted to include these constituencies into the decision making process, while the Synod on Synodality has a more consultative structure. One of the differences goes back to the Constitution of the church by the Second Vatican Council. Lumen gentium has spoken about the collegiality of bishops and created episcopal assemblies. These assemblies do not have the authority to take major decisions, they are rather consultative. In the Orthodox church the synods are the actual governance body of the church.

Jovan Tripkovic: What can we learn from each other?

Metropolitan Job: It’s very interesting to attend this Synod and see that we are facing exactly the same questions.All the questions being raised in the Synod are very similar to the questions that the Orthodoxy is confronted with. We have different ways of dealing with these questions. We can learn from each other’s experience and how each church faces these questions. This can inspire both churches.

Jovan Tripkovic: What direction is the Synod moving to? Where do you think Pope Francis and Cardinal Hollerich are headed?

Metropolitan Job: This is only the first part of the Synod on Synodality. Round two will be next year. My impression is that we are conducting a scan of the state of the church, to identify questions that truly matter among the people of God, the entire church. What are the preoccupations? This is a first step to assess where we stand now and what the expectations are. There will likely be one year of reflection, not only in the Vatican but also in the dioceses. During round two next year, some recommendations will be made. 

Jovan Tripkovic: The Instrumentum Laboris covers some hot-button topics, including women deacons, priestly celibacy and LGBTQ outreach. Some Catholics fear this may sow confusion on these moral matters. What are your thoughts on this?

Metropolitan Job: The Synod is in the process of listening to these global issues. In my opinion, these are questions that come from outside the church. These are questions with which the church is being confronted while dealing with society. The church exists within society and is confronted with various questions.. There are various positions, various opinions on these issues, sometimes even opposite directions and opinions. At the moment the Synod is engaged in an exercise of listening. Listening to the various opinions, but it is not in a position at the moment to make any decisions.