The tools that we have used are fully available to western Christians because they stem mostly from pre-schism canons:
1) Each “local church” (national church) is governed by a synod of bishops headed by a primate who is “first among equals”. This is why a patriarch is not equivalent to the pope.
2) According to ancient canons, the synod cannot act without the primate BUT the primate cannot act without the synod, either. This institutionalizes collegiality.
3) The voice of the laity can override the hierarchy. Rather than the centralized hierarchy keeping the laity in line, the laity (including monastics) rebels if the bishops are heretical or uncanonical.
In my own jurisdiction (OCA - Orthodox Church in America) there was a corruption scandal in the past decade. Laymen started a web site which documented the ongoing scandal in detail which forced the synod to deal with it.
In the Greek Archdiocese, intense lay pressure forced Constantinople to remove a “bad” Archbishop and appoint a new leader.
The real problem, my Roman Catholic friends, is how to get there from here. Please know that with all our differences, some of us are rooting for you out here.
Newberger
“Please know that with all our differences, some of us are rooting for you out here.”
And I root for the OCA to get the recognition so far denied it by the Byzantines:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_response_to_Orthodox_Church_in_America_autocephaly
One day. One day.