In this paper, which is a university course addressed to fourth year Pastoral students at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Craiova, the author aims to address the synodal-hierarchical foundation of the Church on its leadership and functioning, and the evolution of dialogue inter-Orthodox, starting with the difficulties of the beginning of the twentieth century, all the Commissions, Pan-Orthodox and Pan-Orthodox Presinodal Conferences, the proposed theme, respectively the sinuous evolution of the themes kept on the agenda of the Holy and Great Synod.

The beginning of the interotodox dialogue at the beginning of the last century, in the perspective of the preparation of the Holy and Great Synod, was made at the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, through the well-known Patriarchal Encyclicals of the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III (1902-1904), to strengthen fraternal ties in order to give a unanimously accepted answer in the midst of ecumenical Orthodoxy to the church problems of the time. Although the immediate convening of a Pan-Orthodox synod failed, these Patriarchal Encyclicals, as well as the discussions at the Inter-Orthodox level, strengthened the synodal consciousness of the Autocephalous Churches.

At the end of this paper, the author also addressed some general issues regarding the issue of the Pan-Orthodox Synod in Crete.