Your thoughts?

  First, I would like to know why you think strong administration unity is important? 
   
  For two thousand  years the system we have works just fine. It is the faith that is important, everything else is there to teach and preserve the faith.    If you are looking for a person to keep it all together, the person would be the bishop.  In the bishop and his flock is the complete Church.  The bishop is set apart for the task of rightly teaching the Gospel message.  All bishops have this task.  Today we call the flock and ruling bishop a “diocese”.
   
  Bishops meet from time to time with the bishops of other diocese of the region. This synod,  or council, picks a bishop among them to be the “first among equals”, the primate.  The primate is usually the bishop of the most important city of the region.  The regions were once specifically defined geographic territories, but today there is much overlapping. (Not a big problem, but an obstacle at times.)   The point is that the ruling bishop is primate for administration, not teaching the faith.  Although the process of correcting a bishop, done by the complete synod, is usually overseen by the primate. 
   
  Another task of the primate, is to represent his church, his group of bishops, to the other churches, the other primates and groups of bishops.  He is like the spokesman. He is also the spokesman to the non-orthodox of his region.
   
  Among the primates, there is an order of primacy, a primacy of honor.  At the top of this order was once the bishop of the city of Rome, but today it is the bishop of the city of that was once called Constantinople.  This primate not only is the spokesman of orthodoxy to the non-orthodox of the region of his diocese, and to the non-orthodox of the region of his church, but is also the spokesman for orthodoxy to the world. That is why you may hear his options a lot.  Remember that he may have the highest place of honor in the Church, but in the teaching of faith, and shepherding  his  diocese, he is the same as all other bishops.
   
  I say all this to point out the paradox that the universal Church is very local. The only thing that completely bonds of the people of the Church together, is the love of God.  It is the desire to be one with God in the same way that the three persons of the Trinity are one.  It is the desire to be one with all the people that are one with God.     
   
  This does not happen because the Church has a strong administration.  A look at history will show that times of strong administration was an obstacle to the teaching of the true faith.
   
  Just my thoughts.

Huson wrote:

I'd wonder, "You claim to remain united in the faith and yet you are unable to proceed to hold a general council of your church,

  And I replied:
 

WitnessNJ wrote:

What does one have to do with the other?

  The orthodox churches do hold councils of on a regular basses. The Church is made up of churches, and I thought your question was about the Church having a council of bishops from all the churches. While there are form time to time councils of bishops from many churches, I do not believe that there has been, in modern times, a council of bishops from all the churches.  But I believe it to be canon law that each church does hold councils of all their diocesan bishops.

I was trying to see how the EP's statement would sound if put in the mouth of a Baptist, or Evangelical. 

Also, what do you mean by a “single church in your mission area”,...

I probably should have substituted the word "group" for "church."  (Trying to make it sound Baptist.) 

When the EP said, "when we fail to constitute a single Orthodox Church in the so-called Diaspora in accor­dance with the ecclesiological and canoni­cal principles of our Church" I took him to mean, for example, the situation of the Church in the U.S.

I could point out the Western Christianity is much more fragmented than Eastern Christianity, I see no unity in faith in Western Christianity.

If there is a mirror broken in 9 pieces and another mirror broken in 20,000 pieces - the mirror is still broken.

... But please give me an example of where one orthodox church teaches a different doctrine than another orthodox church.[/QUOTE]

I cannot, but it is not because no differences exist.  SInce there is no Orthodox Catechism that has been approved by all of the Patriarchates, I cannot confirm this one way or the other.

Huson