Primacy and the Papal Claims

Orthodoxy holds a primacy of honour: the first see presides, convenes, and is appealed to, and it does not govern the other churches. Every bishop is fully a bishop and the Church is whole in each local eucharistic assembly, so authority is conciliar, and the Ecumenical Councils were received by the whole Church rather than ratified by one bishop. What Orthodoxy does not accept is universal immediate jurisdiction and personal infallibility, defined at the First Vatican Council in 1870. The Fathers read the rock of Matthew 16:18 as Peter's confession, an Ecumenical Council condemned a pope for heresy, and the canons that give Rome its rank give it for the honour of the city, which is an argument about order and not about office.