The Symphronountas Aute

When Pope John Paul II made his appeal for Christian unity in Ut Unum Sint, he quoted from the second Vatican Council in stressing that the Catholic Church finds inspiration for full communion in the “structures of unity which existed before the separation”. This study takes as its premise that by the end of the first millennium the patriarchs of the five sees of the Pentarchy were regarded as the guarantors of Christian unity precisely because, as heads of the divisions of the oikoumenē, they held the positions of highest prestige among the leaders of the Church. The study goes on to establish that not only has the presence of the patriarchs at the ecumenical councils – the supreme expression of the Church’s unity – been essentially consistent throughout the last two millennia, but that the collegial consensus of the patriarchs (the symphronountas aute of the title) is integral to the Church’s own self-understanding. This study will be of interest to all those who look forward to the future unity of the Church.