Phyletism

Phyletism or ethnophyletism (from ethnos and φυλετισμός, , 'tribalism') is the principle of nationalities applied in the ecclesiastical domain: in other words, the conflation between church and nation. The term ethnophyletism designates the idea that a local autocephalous church should be based not on a local (ecclesial) criterion, but on an ethnophyletist, national or linguistic one. It was used at the local council held in Constantinople on 10 September 1872 to qualify "phyletist (religious) nationalism", which was condemned as a modern ecclesial heresy: the church should not be confused with the destiny of a single nation or a single race. Decline and modernization of the Ottoman EmpireTomos dated 29 June 1850 and Autocephaly#Modern-era historical precedents The term phyletism was used for the first time by a synod convened by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire, in 1872 to define and condemn an alleged heretical teaching espoused by the Bulgarian Exarchate in response to the latter′s establishment as a de facto autocephaly on , in the Bulgarian church in Constantinople in pursuance of the firman of Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire. The unilateral promulgation of the Bulgarian exarchate followed the protracted struggle of the Bulgarians against the domination of the Greek hierarchy. In September 1872, the synod, chaired by Patriarch Anthimus VI of Constantinople, with Sophronius IV of Alexandria, Hierotheos of Antioch, Sophronios III of Cyprus, and representatives of the Church of Greece participating, issued an official condemnation (excommunication) of what it deemed to be ethnic nationalism within the church, or "ethno-phyletism", as well as its theological argumentation. In condemning "phyletism", the synod in Constantinople had, in fact, defined a basic problem of modern Eastern Orthodoxy. The conditions behind latter-day phyletism are different from those surrounding the 1872 decision of the synod in Constantinople.