This is a good question.
The church is collegial. When issues arise the bishops can and do contact one another, and if it seems necessary to make a statement or establish a policy the synod can discuss it, either meeting in person or (these days) by picking up the phone. If it is a major crises affecting the wider church a pan Orthodox synod can meet.
Orthodox spiritual leaders are always speaking out on issues of the day. Patriarch Bartholomew is known as the ‘Green Patriarch’ due to his concerns over the ecology. Orthodox hierarchs are constantly exhorting their flocks on social issues and speaking out on geopolitical issues, which is just what one would expect from any religious leader from pastor-confessor to Metropolitan bishop. The eastern European churches in particular are dealing with the shipwreck of society left over from the communist decades, so there is a constant concern and admonition for a stronger and more stable marriage and family life. So this is not one voice, but it is many in concert under Christ.
Your question about birth control is a very common one coming from Roman Catholics, but it doesn’t represent a revolutionary modern issue. As has been noted above birth control is not new, it is just more convenient and effective, so the church east and west has been dealing with this pastorally for almost two thousand years already. One wonders if most Catholics think their church would not know what to do if Pope Paul’s Humanae Vitae (a document I have read twice and personally like) was not issued in 1968. *
The Orthodox church generally handles this issue as a pastoral matter, with ones priest involved. This keeps the family plugged in to their spiritual life and available for the best possible guidance.
Orthodox are firmly Right to Life, and have always condemned abortion, which is murder. Abortifactants in any form are always intrinsically evil and this has always been the position of the church since the beginning (long before our churches separated). For other issues emanating from the wish for devout parents to limit family size a discussion with ones priest has always been the best way to go. Selfishness or aggrandizement is not justification for limiting one’s family size. For more serious matters involving health and safety one might see the need for making an allowance of some sort, avoiding abortifactants, but ones spiritual director should know his people and can counsel the couple properly. Often the guidance given is just what a Roman Catholic priest would advise.
For more information on this particular topic in Orthodoxy, you may read
here*.
Thanks for being patience. I know it’s not always easy to keep one’s composure when faced with candid questions. Truth often hurts but then again what does our point prove? I did not particularly ask about birth control; it was just an example.
What I wanted to know was how Orthodox functions (for want of better word) to address important day to day issue which may not be explicitly addressed by the apostles. Your explanation helps somehow but I am still struggling to familiarize myself with those terms – patriarch, hierarch, metropolitan, etc.
I am not much exposed to Orthodox so these are new to me. When I ask question, I do not argue because it is not a debate. I may use the information you guys gave me should I want to debate with you on the subject - perhaps when I am more up to it.
As for the pills whether we like it or not, it is a major revolution since last century that affects family life and sexuality. Many Christians across the board succumb to this new phenomenon resulting in Christian families being broken and dysfunctional and faith destroyed. But this is not my question though I would not brush this issue as if it’s business as usual since 2000 years ago because it is not now.
You have more or less covered my queries regarding the standardization of Orthodox doctrine, liturgy and practices among the Orthodox. Being Roman Catholic the question is obvious – we do not have that scenario since there is only one Pope. Ongoing pastoral teachings are often in the form of encyclicals to address the Church’s stand on many practical controversial issues.
The fact that Orthodox of different patriarchs is able to streamline these issues among themselves is really commendable and thanks God that the passage of time did not obliterate this oneness. We know God is at work when consistency prevails.
God bless.
