Greek Orthodox Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία Hellēnorthódoxē Ekklēsía) is formed by several autocephalous churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity whose liturgy is traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and whose clergy is completely or predominantly ethnically Greek or was for a large part of its history, such as in the case of Antioch, which was fully placed under local Arab control only in 1899.
Included are four ancient Eastern Orthodox patriarchates:
- the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople [1], headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who is also the "first among equals" of the Eastern Orthodox Communion,
- the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria [2],
- the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch [3],
- the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem [4] (in Greek and Arabic);
two national autocephalous churches:
- the Orthodox Church of Greece [5],
- the Orthodox Church of Cyprus [6] (in Greek);
as well as
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America [[8]] and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia [9] are both eparchies of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America should not be confused with the autocephalous Russian Orthodox Church in America whose autocephaly – granted by the Patriarchate of Moscow – is not recognised by Constatinople and many other churches of the Eastern Communion due to political reasons.
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