This book proposes the enduring value of traditional structures in the church. The patriarchal structure of the Eastern churches provides an example of what could remedy a long-standing problem of excessive centralization in the Latin church, a problem acknowledged, among others, by Joseph Ratzinger and Yves Congars. "Communion in the Church is not simply a feeling or an abstraction. It is a manifestation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity revealed in Christ Jesus Our Lord and accomplished through the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Yet as an earthly and visible reality, communion requires a structure. In this book I deal with the fact that the Church from its very beginning thought of itself as a communion and then I treat of the development of the great historic structures of communion: synods, patriarchates, and councils. My point is that these collegial structures of communion open a path today for the Latin Church to remedy what Joseph Ratzinger once called 'extreme centralization.'" From the Introduction †