Nature and significance
Eastern Orthodoxy is the large body of
Christians
who follow the
faith
and practices that were defined by the first seven
ecumenical
councils. The word
orthodox
(“right believing”) has traditionally been used in the Greek-speaking Christian world to designate
communities
or individuals who preserved the true faith (as defined by those councils), as opposed to those who were declared heretical. The official
designation
of the church in Eastern Orthodox liturgical or
canonical
texts is “the Orthodox Catholic Church.” Because of the historical links of Eastern Orthodoxy with the
Eastern Roman Empire
and Byzantium (Constantinople), however, in English usage it is referred to as the “Eastern” or “Greek Orthodox” Church. These terms are sometimes misleading, especially when applied to Russian or Slavic churches and to the Orthodox communities in western
Europe
and America.
It should also be noted that the Eastern Orthodox Church
constitutes
a separate tradition from the churches of the so-called Oriental Orthodox Communion, now including the
Armenian Apostolic Church
, the
Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church
, the Eritrean Tewahedo Orthodox Church, the
Coptic Orthodox Church
, the
Syriac Orthodox Partriarchate of Antioch and All the East
, and the Malankara Orthodox Church of India. From the time of the
Council of Chalcedon
in 451 to the late 20th century, the Oriental Orthodox churches were out of communion with the
Roman Catholic Church
and later the Eastern Orthodox Church because of a perceived difference in doctrine regarding the divine and human natures of
Jesus
. This changed in the 1950s, when both churches independently began
dialogue
with the Oriental Orthodox churches and resolved many of the ancient
Christological
disputes.
The cultural context
The
Schism of 1054
between the churches of the East and the West was the culmination of a gradual process of estrangement that began in the first centuries of the Christian era and continued through the
Middle Ages
. Linguistic and cultural differences, as well as political events, contributed to the estrangement. From the 4th to the 11th century,
Constantinople
(now
Istanbul
), the centre of Eastern Christianity, was also the capital of the Eastern Roman, or
Byzantine, Empire
, while
Rome
, after the
barbarian invasions
, fell under the influence of the
Holy Roman Empire
of the West, a political
rival
. In the West
theology
remained under the influence of
St. Augustine of Hippo
(354?430), while in the East doctrinal thought was shaped by the Greek Fathers. Theological differences could have been settled if the two areas had not simultaneously developed different concepts of church authority. The growth of Roman primacy, based on the concept of the
apostolic origin
of the
church of Rome
, was incompatible with the Eastern idea that the importance of certain local churches?Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and, later, Constantinople?could be determined only by their numerical and political significance. For the East, the highest authority in settling doctrinal disputes was the
ecumenical council
.
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At the time of the Schism of 1054 between Rome and Constantinople, the membership of the Eastern Orthodox Church was spread throughout the Middle East, the Balkans, and Russia, with its centre in Constantinople, which was also called “New Rome.” The
vicissitudes
of history have greatly modified the internal structures of the Eastern Orthodox Church, but even today the bulk of its members live in the same geographic areas. Missionary expansion toward
Asia
and emigration toward the West, however, have helped to maintain the importance of Orthodoxy worldwide.
The norm of church organization
Baranavichy
Orthodox church in Baranavichy, Brest province, Belarus.
The Orthodox church is a fellowship of
“autocephalous” churches
(canonically and administratively independent), with the
ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople
holding titular or honorary primacy. The number of autocephalous churches has varied in history. In the early 21st century there were many: the
Church of Constantinople
(Istanbul), the
Church of Alexandria
(Africa), the
Church of Antioch
(with headquarters in Damascus, Syria), and the churches of
Jerusalem
,
Russia
,
Ukraine
,
Georgia
,
Serbia
,
Romania
,
Bulgaria
,
Cyprus
,
Greece
,
Albania
,
Poland
, the
Czech
and Slovak republics, and
America
.
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There are also
“autonomous” churches (retaining a token canonical dependence upon a mother see) in Crete,
Finland
, and Japan. The first nine autocephalous churches are headed by “
patriarchs
,” the others by
archbishops
or
metropolitans
. These titles are strictly honorary.
The order of
precedence
in which the autocephalous churches are listed does not reflect their actual influence or numerical importance. The patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, for example, present only shadows of their past glory. Yet there remains a
consensus
that Constantinople’s primacy of honour, recognized by the ancient canons because it was the capital of the ancient empire, should remain as a symbol and tool of church unity and cooperation. The modern pan-Orthodox conferences were thus convoked by the ecumenical
patriarch
of Constantinople. Several of the autocephalous churches are
de facto
national churches, the Russian church being by far the largest. However, it is not the
criterion
of nationality but rather the territorial principle that is the norm of organization in the Orthodox church.
Since the
Russian Revolution
there has been much turmoil and administrative conflict within the Orthodox church. In western Europe and in the Americas, in particular, overlapping jurisdictions have been set up, and political passions have led to the formation of
ecclesiastical
organizations without clear canonical status. Although it has provoked controversy, the establishment of the autocephalous
Orthodox Church in America
(1970) by the patriarch of
Moscow
has as its stated goal the resumption of normal territorial unity in the
Western Hemisphere
. In October 2018 the
Russian Orthodox Church
severed its ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after the latter approved the independence of an
autocephalous church
of Ukraine;
Bartholomew I
, the ecumenical patriarch, formally recognized the independence of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine
from the Russian Orthodox Church in January 2019.