II. The Church in the Public Sphere

This article examines the position of the Orthodox Church in the public and political sphere. Drawing on a doctrinal document of a theological and ecclesiological nature, it addresses the relationship between the Church, political regimes, and civil society. The central idea is that the Church, whose true dwelling is the Eucharist, cannot identify with any particular political order, while being called to bear witness within it to the Kingdom of God. The article explicitly condemns phyletism, nationalism, and racism as incompatible with the Gospel, and upholds the value of democratic institutions, cultural pluralism, and the language of human rights. On the theological and historical level, it reinterprets the Byzantine principle of "symphony" to make it a framework for cooperation in pursuit of the common good, distinct from any confusion between ecclesiastical power and political power.