Orthodox understanding of conciliarity and the realities of the modern world

The article is dedicated to examining the property of conciliarity as an image of humanity’s existence, determined by the Holy Trinity. Conciliarity is mysterious and hypostatic; as a property and image of the existence of the unique Persons in one nature, it cannot be fully analyzed outside of the coordinates of hypostatic-natural ontology. In a person’s life, conciliarity is realized as an inner «inclusiveness» in the life of the Church through «hypostatization» of Divine energies. The path to conciliarity includes overcoming individualism and egoism. As a means of acquiring the truth, conciliarity is also a means of cognition of this truth and a sign of a person’s belonging to the Church. Examined are violations of the principles of conciliarity by the Roman Catholic Church in a historical perspective and by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in contemporary life. Analyzed are some aspects of conciliarity in relation to contemporary realities such as cognition of the truth, understanding the meaning and principles of life, overcoming egoism, individualism, suffering, and loneliness. Humanity’s deviation from the Divine image of existence, which first took place in the fall of our first parents, continues to increase. As a rule, a human is viewed from the perspective of their «economic efficiency» as individual with a separate nature, whose life is based on the principle of self-interest, subjugation of others, and division of the indivisible field of the common nature. Each of us has a Divine vocation to reveal the eternal life within ourselves, to experience unity with every human being, and to embark on the path of returning to the ideals of conciliarity.