Eastern Orthodox Church organization

The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, is a communion comprising the seventeen separate autocephalous (self-governing) hierarchical churches that recognise each other as canonical (regular) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.

Each constituent church is self-governing; its highest-ranking bishop called the primate (a patriarch, a metropolitan or an archbishop) reports to no higher earthly authority. Each regional church is composed of constituent eparchies (or dioceses) ruled by bishops. Some autocephalous churches have given an eparchy or group of eparchies varying degrees of autonomy (limited self-government). Such autonomous churches maintain varying levels of dependence on their mother church, usually defined in a ''tomos'' or other document of autonomy. In many cases, autonomous churches are almost completely self-governing, with the mother church retaining only the right to appoint the highest-ranking bishop (often an archbishop or metropolitan) of the autonomous church.

Normal governance is enacted through a synod of bishops within each church.

Church governance

The Eastern Orthodox Church is decentralised, having no central authority, earthly head or a single bishop in a leadership role. Thus, the Eastern Orthodox use a synodical system canonically, which is significantly different from the hierarchical organisation of the Catholic Church that follows the doctrine of papal supremacy. References to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as a sole authoritative leader are an erroneous interpretation of his title “first among equals". His title is of honor rather than authority and in fact the Ecumenical Patriarch has no real authority over churches other than the Constantinopolitan. His unique role often sees the Ecumenical Patriarch referred to as the "spiritual leader" of the Eastern Orthodox Church in some sources.

The autocephalous churches are normally 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. However, there have been varying instances in the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church where communion has been broken between member churches, particularly over autocephaly issues and ecumenism with the Roman Catholic Church.

In the early Middle Ages, the early Christian church was ruled by five patriarchs as the state church of Rome: the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, collectively referred to as the Pentarchy. Each patriarch had jurisdiction over bishops in a specified geographic region. This continued until 927, when the Bulgarian Patriarchate became the first newly promoted patriarchate to join the original 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 state-recognised Church into the Catholic Church in the West, headed by the Bishop of Rome, and the Orthodox Church, led by the four eastern patriarchs (Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria). After the schism, this honorary primacy shifted to the Patriarch of Constantinople, who had previously been accorded second-place rank at the First Council of Constantinople.

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

Jurisdictions

Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches

Ranked in order of seniority, with the year of independence (autocephaly) given in parentheses, where applicable. There are a total of 17 autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches which are recognised at varying levels among the communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Four ancient patriarchates

# Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (independence in 330 AD, elevated to the rank of autocephalous Patriarchate in 381)
# Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria
# Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch
# Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (independence in 451 AD, elevated to the rank of autocephalous Patriarchate in 451)

Those four ancient Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates are of the five episcopal sees forming the historical Pentarchy, the fifth one being the See of Rome. Those four Eastern Orthodox patriarchates remained in communion with each other after the 1054 schism with Rome. Of note, the title of "Patriarch" was created in 531 by Justinian.

Junior patriarchates

# Bulgarian Orthodox Church (870, Patriarchate since 918/919, recognised by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 927)
# Georgian Orthodox Church (Patriarchate since 1010)
# Serbian Orthodox Church (1219, Patriarchate since 1346)
# Russian Orthodox Church (1448, recognised in 1589)
# Romanian Orthodox Church (1872, recognised in 1885, Patriarchate since 1925)

Autocephalous archbishoprics

Note:
# Church of Cyprus (recognised in 431)
# Church of Greece (1833, recognised in 1850)
# Albanian Orthodox Church (1922, recognised in 1937)
# Macedonian Orthodox Church (1967, recognised in 2022)

Autocephalous metropolises

Note:
# Polish Orthodox Church (1924)
# Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia (1951)
# Orthodox Church in America (1970, not recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but recognised by the Russian Orthodox Church and 5 other churches)
# Orthodox Church of Ukraine (autocephaly from 15 December 2018, recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 5 January 2019 and 3 other churches)

The four ancient patriarchates are the most senior, followed by the five junior patriarchates. Autocephalous archbishoprics follow the patriarchates in seniority, with the Church of Cyprus being the only ancient one ( AD 431). In the diptychs of the Russian Orthodox Church and some of its daughter churches (e.g., the Orthodox Church in America), the ranking of the five junior patriarchal churches is different. Following the Russian Church in rank is Georgian, followed by Serbian, Romanian, and then Bulgarian Church. The ranking of the archbishoprics is the same.

Autonomous Eastern Orthodox churches

;under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
* Monastic community of Mount Athos
* Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (autonomy recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate but not by the Russian Orthodox Church)
* Orthodox Church of Finland

;under the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
* Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America

;under the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem
* Church of Sinai

;under the Russian Orthodox Church
* Belarusian Orthodox Church
* Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova
* Orthodox Church in Japan (autonomy recognised by the Russian Orthodox Church but not by the Ecumenical Patriarchate)
* Chinese Orthodox Church (autonomy recognised by the Russian Orthodox Church but not by the Ecumenical Patriarchate)

;under the Romanian Orthodox Church
* Metropolis of Bessarabia
* Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of the Americas

* Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Western and Southern Europe

;Independent
* Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)

Semi-autonomous churches

;under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
* Church of Crete
;under the Russian Orthodox Church
* Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate
* Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

Limited self-government (not autonomy)

;under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
* Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta
* Korean Orthodox Church
* Exarchate of the Philippines
* American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese
* Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
* Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA

;under the Russian Orthodox Church
* Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe

;under the Romanian Orthodox Church
* Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate Sighetu Marmației

Unrecognised churches

True Orthodox

True Orthodox Christians are groups of traditionalist Eastern Orthodox churches which have severed communion since the 1920s with the mainstream Eastern Orthodox churches for various reasons, such as calendar reform, the involvement of mainstream Eastern Orthodox in ecumenism, or the refusal to submit to the authority of mainstream Eastern Orthodox Church. The True Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union was also called the Catacomb Church; the True Orthodox in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus are also called Old Calendarists.

These groups refrain from concelebration of the Divine Liturgy with the mainstream Eastern Orthodox, while maintaining that they remain fully within the canonical boundaries of the Church: i.e., professing Eastern Orthodox belief, retaining legitimate apostolic succession, and existing in communities with historical continuity.

The churches which follow True Orthodoxy are:
* Old Calendarists (numerous groups)
* Serbian True Orthodox Church
* Russian True Orthodox Church (Lazar Zhurbenko)
* Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
* True Orthodox Metropolis of Germany and Europe
*

Old Believers

Old Believers are divided into various churches which do not recognize each others, nor the mainstream Eastern Orthodox Church.

Churches that are not recognised despite wanting to

The following churches recognize all other mainstream Eastern Orthodox churches, but are not recognised by any of them due to various disputes:
* Abkhazian Orthodox Church
* American Orthodox Catholic Church
* Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
* Latvian Orthodox Church
* Montenegrin Orthodox Church
* Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate
* Turkish Orthodox Church

Churches that are neither recognised nor fully Eastern Orthodox

The following churches use the term "Orthodox" in their name and carries belief or the traditions of Eastern Orthodox church, but blend beliefs and traditions from other denominations outside of Eastern Orthodoxy:
* Evangelical Orthodox Church ( blends with Protestant - Evangelical and Charismatic - elements)
* Orthodox-Catholic Church of America (blends with Catholic and Oriental Orthodox elements)
* Nordic Catholic Church in Italy (originally called the Orthodox Church in Italy, it had ties with the UOC-KP; now associates with the Nordic Catholic Church and the Union of Scranton)
* Lusitanian Catholic Orthodox Church (blends with Catholic elements)
* Communion of Western Orthodox Churches (blends with Oriental Orthodox elements)
** Celtic Orthodox Church
** French Orthodox Church
** Orthodox Church of the Gauls

See also

* Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
** Catholic Church by country
* List of Lutheran dioceses and archdioceses

Notes

References

External links

Territorial Jurisdiction According to Orthodox Canon Law. The Phenomenon of Ethnophyletism in Recent Years
a paper read at the International Congress of Canon Law, 2001 (Ecumenical Patriarchate website)

World Churches
at Orthodox Church in America website


at WorldStatesmen.org
*

{{Eastern Orthodox Church footer

Organisation
Ecclesiastical polities