The Church at the Crossroads

Georges N. Nahas's article examines the contemporary situation of the Orthodox Church as it faces a growing gap between its inherited institutional concerns and the expectations of today's world. Drawing on critical ecclesiological reflection, the study questions the relevance of the Church's internal debates — primacy, autocephaly, jurisdiction, calendar — in light of the challenges facing contemporary society. The central idea is that the Church, by confining itself to these canonical and organizational questions, paradoxically reveals its entrenchment in a worldly logic, thereby betraying its properly evangelical vocation. On the theological level, the article calls for a profound renewal of Orthodox ecclesiological discourse, both in its themes and its orientations, so that the Church may respond credibly to the spiritual and human challenges of the present time.