Moscow Theological Academy dissertation challenges Constantinople’s primacy
Hegumen Dionysius (Shlyonov) unanimously received the degree of Doctor of Theology for a work on the incompatibility of the Phanar's claims to power with the conciliar structure of the Church.
A doctoral dissertation defense by Hegumen Dionysius (Shlyonov) — abbot of the Andreevsky stavropegial monastery in Moscow and head of the postgraduate program at the Moscow Theological Academy — took place at the Moscow Theological Academy.
The topic of the work is "In Defense of the Conciliar Structure of the Orthodox Church: The Theory of the Primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople and Its Critique."
In his work, Hegumen Dionysius argues that the contemporary "theory of primacy" of the Patriarch of Constantinople — the doctrine of his special supra-jurisdictional authority over the entire Orthodox diaspora and the right to receive appeals from clergy of other Churches — has neither canonical, nor theological, nor historical foundations, and directly contradicts the conciliar ecclesiology traditional to Orthodoxy.
Among the key conclusions of the dissertation:
The theory of the primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople enters into deep contradiction with the conciliar ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church: the sole Head of the Church is Christ, and the Local Churches are equal to one another as members of one body; therefore, no primate can possess authority greater than that of others.
The theory is founded upon arbitrary interpretations of canons, theological terms, and isolated historical precedents, which the Phanar presents as universally binding norms. In particular, the author demonstrates that Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon concerning authority "among the barbarians" originally pertained only to three Byzantine dioceses and not to the entire world diaspora, and that the title "Ecumenical" was historically merely honorific and conferred no governing powers.
The "economy" extended by the Phanar to members of the UOC-KP and the UAOC in 2018, without repentance on their part, did not lead to the healing of the schism, but laid the foundation for open persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church — including a law effectively banning the UOC, criminal prosecutions of hierarchs, and forcible seizures of churches.
The implementation of the theory of primacy is the primary cause of today's ecclesiastical division, comparable in scale to the schism of 1054, and the upholding of the principles of conciliarity is vitally necessary for world Orthodoxy as a whole.
The author emphasizes that the dissertation does not claim to be exhaustive on the subject and outlines directions for further research — a detailed analysis of precedents of autocephaly, an in-depth study of Slavic church history, and the continuation of scholarly-theological dialogue in defense of the conciliar structure of the Church.
As a reminder, the Archbishop of Albania previously stated in an interview with the UOJ that the first among equals does not mean one who dominates over the second and third. In his words, all Churches are equal, and without this understanding, Orthodox unity will be under threat. "Unity always requires humility, truth, and love," the Archbishop concluded.
