Eastern Orthodox Church organization

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This article treats the manner in which the Eastern Orthodox Churches are organized, rather than the doctrines, traditions, practices, or other aspects of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox church claims to be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The term Western Orthodoxy is sometimes used to denominate what is technically a Vicariate within the Antiochian Orthodox Church and thus a part of the Eastern Orthodox Church as that term is defined here. The term "Western Orthodox Church" is disfavored by members of that Vicariate.

In the 5th century, Oriental Orthodoxy separated from Chalcedonian Christianity (and is therefore separate from both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches), well before the 11th century Great Schism. It should not be confused with Eastern Orthodoxy.

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[edit] Eastern Orthodoxy

The Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion comprising the fourteen or fifteen separate autocephalous hierarchical churches that recognize each other as "canonical" Orthodox Christian churches. There is a disagreement over the status of one of the churches that is essentially political in nature.

There is no single earthly head of all the Orthodox Churches comparable to the Pope of Rome. The highest-ranking bishop of the communion is the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is also primate of one of the autocephalous churches. These organizations are in full communion with each other, so any priest of any of those churches may lawfully minister to any member of any of them, and no member of any is excluded from any form of worship in any of the others, including reception of the Eucharist. Each local or national Orthodox Church is a portion of the Orthodox Church as a whole.

In the early Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was ruled by five patriarchs: the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem; these were collectively referred to as the Pentarchy. Each patriarch had jurisdiction over bishops in a specified geographic region. This continued until 927, when the autonomous Bulgarian Archbishopric became the first newly-promoted patriarchate to join the additional five.

The patriarch of Rome was "first in place of honor" among the five patriarchs. Disagreement about the limits of his authority was one of the causes of the Great Schism, conventionally dated to the year 1054, which split the church into the Roman Catholic Church in the West, headed by the Pope of Rome, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, led by the four eastern patriarchs. After the schism this honorary primacy devolved onto the Patriarch of Constantinople, who had previously been accorded the second place rank at the First Council of Constantinople.

[edit] Jurisdictions

[edit] Autocephalous churches *

  1. Church of Constantinople, under the Ecumenical Patriarch
  2. Church of Alexandria
  3. Church of Antioch
  4. Church of Jerusalem
  5. Church of Russia (est. 1589)
  6. Church of Serbia (est. 1219)
  7. Church of Romania (est. 1925)
  8. Church of Bulgaria (est. 927)
  9. Church of Georgia (est. 466)
  10. Church of Cyprus (est. 434)
  11. Church of Greece
  12. Church of Poland
  13. Church of Albania
  14. Church of Czech and Slovak lands
  15. Orthodox Church in America (est. 1972. Autocephaly not universally recognized)

* Ranked in order of seniority.

The four ancient patriarchates are most senior, followed by the five younger patriarchates. Autocephalous churches whose leaders are archbishops follow the patriarchates in seniority, with the Church of Cyprus being the only ancient one (434 AD).

[edit] Autonomous churches

†Autonomy not universally recognized

[edit] Churches with ambiguous status

  • Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (In communion with some but not all of the above; as of September 2006, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia approved canonical unity and communion with the Church of Russia. When the document is signed by both sides, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia will become an autonomous church under the Moscow Patriarchate).

[edit] Churches in resistance

These Churches are resistant to what they perceive as the errors of Modernism and Ecumenism in mainstream Orthodoxy, but they do not consider themselves schismatic; they do refrain from concelebration of the Divine Liturgy with the mainline Orthodox Churches while they remain fully within the canonical boundaries of the Church, i.e. maintaining Orthodox belief, legitimate episcopal succession, and communities with historical continuity. They will commune the faithful from all the canonical jurisdictions and are recognized by and in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

[edit] Churches that have voluntarily "walled themselves off"

These Churches do not practice Communion with any other Orthodox jurisdictions nor do they tend to recognize each other.

[edit] Churches that are unrecognized by others

The following Churches recognize all other mainstream Orthodox Churches, but are not recognized by (m)any of them due to various disputes:

[edit] Churches self-styled as Orthodox yet unrecognized as such

[edit] Sources and external links

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