The relationship between local Churches and the "universal" Church according to the vision of Metropolitan John Zizioulas

This article examines the relationship between local Churches and the universal Church through the ecclesiology of Metropolitan John Zizioulas, a leading contemporary Orthodox theologian. Written as a theological study, it draws primarily on three major texts by Zizioulas devoted to catholicity, locality, and ecclesial ministries. The central idea is that the catholicity of the Church does not denote an abstract structural universality, but the eschatological fullness of the Body of Christ realized in each local eucharistic assembly presided over by the bishop. The article shows that the universal communion of Churches flows organically from this local catholicity, expressed through episcopal conciliarity, and not from an authority superior to the particular Churches. From a theological and ecumenical standpoint, this synthesis offers a valuable Orthodox perspective on debates concerning authority, territoriality, and synodality, particularly in the wake of the Ravenna document (2007).