In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the bishop of each local Church [1] is the authoritative organ charged with the responsibility to maintain the Church's identity and continuity with that of the apostolic Church.
Accordingly, the bishop is not only the authorized teacher but also the guarantor and witness to the apostolic faith held by all within the worshipping community. Indeed, by virtue of that special gift of the Holy Spirit — specifically known as the charisma veritatis [the gift of truth] [2] — bestowed upon him at his ordination, the bishop acts as the discernible link to the authentic faith of the apostles thereby safeguarding the continuity of the entire Church's life with that of the apostolic Ekklesia.
Now, if throughout the history of the Church, communion with the bishop has been considered to be that concrete reality which manifests the intimate koinonia of each local Church today with that of the apostolic one — since the bishop is the direct connection between the apostles and the local Church over which he presides — then the communion across all the different local Churches in a particular point in time has been preserved by all bishops coming together to meet in synod or council.
Before examining the biblical evidence for such a synodical mode of existence in the New Testament Church — especially as it is most clearly seen in the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem — a few remarks on synodality in general are fitting. Historically, synodality in the Church concretely emerged as an extension of the koinonia within the local worshipping gathering so that there could be a means for eucharistic hospitality between faithful of different local Churches.
In this way, communion across these different ecclesial gatherings could be safeguarded since faithful members of one local Church travelling to another in a different city could indeed partake of Holy Communion whilst on their journeys away from home. Together with this, a further task for the synodical gathering of bishops, which emerged very quickly in the early Church, was their coming together to reach and express a 'common mind' in matters of faith.
