Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the primary religious confession in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Greece, Belarus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Cyprus, and Montenegro.

It is also the sense within the phrase "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church", found in the Nicene Creed, and referred to in Orthodox worship, e.g. in the litany of the catechumens in the Divine Liturgy.

[86] Eastern Christian culture reached its golden age during the high point of the Byzantine Empire and continued to flourish in Ukraine and Russia, after the fall of Constantinople.

The church in Egypt (Patriarchate of Alexandria) split into two groups following the Council of Chalcedon (451), over a dispute about the relation between the divine and human natures of Jesus.

This work was made possible by Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki, two brothers chosen by Byzantine emperor Michael III to fulfil the request of Rastislav of Moravia for teachers who could minister to the Moravians in their own language.

[112] There were doctrinal issues like the filioque clause and the authority of the Roman Pope involved in the split, but these were greatly exacerbated by political factors of both Church and state, and by cultural and linguistic differences between Latins and Greeks.

It had previously been the case that the emperor would have a say when a new Pope was elected, but towards the high Middle Ages, the Christians in Rome were slowly consolidating power and removing Byzantine influence.

In 1547, his grandson Ivan IV, a devout Orthodox Christian, cemented the title as "Tsar of All Rus", establishing Russia's first centralised state with divinely appointed rulers.

[124] After Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to intensify patriotic support for the war effort.

[125] In some other Communist states such as Romania, the Romanian Orthodox Church as an organisation enjoyed relative freedom and even prospered, albeit under strict secret police control.

As an example of the latter, Romania stands out as a country which ran a specialised institution where many Orthodox (along with people of other faiths) were subjected to psychological punishment or torture and mind control experimentation in order to force them give up their religious convictions.

However, after the start of the Nazi Invasion of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin transformed the Russian Church into a propaganda tool to intensify patriotic support for the war effort.

While bishops and their autocephalous synods have the ability to administer guidance in individual cases, their actions do not usually set precedents that affect the entire Eastern Orthodox Church.

The pope of Rome at that time held the position of primus inter pares ("first among equals") and, while he was not present at any of the councils, he continued to hold this title until the East–West Schism of 1054.

[183] The 28th canon of the fourth ecumenical council clarified this point by stating: "For the Fathers rightly granted privileges to the throne of Old Rome because it was the royal city.

[188] A 2017 report by the Pew Research Center reached similar figures, noting that Eastern Orthodoxy has seen slower growth and less geographic spread than Catholicism and Protestantism, which were driven by colonialism and missionary activity across the world.

However, Eastern Orthodoxy has become more globalised over the last century, seeing greater growth in Western Europe, the Americas, and parts of Africa; churches are present in the major cities of most countries.

Significant Eastern Orthodox minorities exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina,[e][194] Latvia,[197] Estonia,[198] Kazakhstan,[199] Kyrgyzstan,[200] Lebanon,[201] Albania, Syria,[194] and many other countries.

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Christ Jesus was both God and Man absolutely and completely, having two natures indivisibly: eternally begotten of the Father in his divinity, he was born in his humanity of a woman, Mary, by her consent, through descent of the Holy Spirit.

[220] Through Christ's destruction of Hades' power to hold humanity hostage, he made the path to salvation effective for all the righteous who had died from the beginning of time—saving many, including Adam and Eve, who are remembered in the church as saints.

"In general," Eastern Orthodox Christianity sees the Church "as a purely mystical body, the understanding of which cannot be attained through the development of a rational or natural theology.

"[175] The church includes the Christian saints from all times, and also judges, prophets and righteous Jews of the first covenant, Adam and Eve, even the angels and heavenly hosts.

[229] Several Benedictine monastic houses, sketes and hermitages fit within the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia, all of which are stavropegial directly under the Metropolitan.

According to church teaching and tradition, God himself bears witness to this holiness of saints' relics through the many miracles connected with them that have been reported throughout history since biblical times, often including healing from disease and injury.

[248] Scriptures are understood to contain historical fact, poetry, idiom, metaphor, simile, moral fable, parable, prophecy and wisdom literature, and each bears its own consideration in its interpretation.

); Tuesday is dedicated to the prophets and especially the greatest of the prophets, John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord; Wednesday is consecrated to the Cross and recalls Judas' betrayal; Thursday honours the holy apostles and hierarchs, especially Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia; Friday is also consecrated to the Cross and recalls the day of the Crucifixion; Saturday is dedicated to All Saints, especially the Mother of God, and to the memory of all those who have departed this life in the hope of resurrection and eternal life.The church has developed eight modes or tones (see Octoechos) within which a chant may be set, depending on the time of year, feast day, or other considerations of the Typikon.

For the Eastern Orthodox, to say that marriage is indissoluble means that it should not be broken, the violation of such a union, perceived as holy, being an offence resulting from either adultery or the prolonged absence of one of the partners.

[270] In 2016, the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria voted to reinstate the female diaconate; in the following year, it ordained six sub-deaconesses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[282] During his visit to Georgia in October 2016, Pope Francis was snubbed by most Orthodox Christians as he led mass before a practically empty Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi.

[289] The various autocephalous and autonomous synods of the Eastern Orthodox Church are distinct in terms of administration and local culture, but for the most part exist in full communion with one another.

Christ Pantocrator , sixth century, Saint Catherine's Monastery , Sinai ; the oldest known icon of Christ, in one of the oldest monasteries in the world.
Emperor Constantine presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and baby Jesus in this church mosaic ( Hagia Sophia , c. 1000 ).
Eastern Orthodox icon of St. John the Baptist , 14th century, North Macedonia
An early Christian " Ichthys " ( fish ) inscription from ancient Ephesus
An icon depicting the Emperor Constantine and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381
The Hagia Sophia , the largest church in the world and patriarchal basilica of Constantinople for nearly a thousand years, later converted into a mosque , then a museum, then back to a mosque
The baptism of Princess Olga in Constantinople , a miniature from the Radziwiłł Chronicle
Latin Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople , the capital of the Eastern Orthodox controlled Byzantine Empire , in 1204
Greek Orthodox massacred during the Greek genocide in Smyrna in 1922
Uspenski Cathedral , a main cathedral of the Finnish Orthodox Church in Helsinki, Finland , was built under Imperial Russia .
A timeline showing the main autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, from an Eastern Orthodox point of view, up to 2022
The Canonical territories of the main autocephalous and autonomous Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions as of 2022
Orthodox church in A Coruña , Galicia , Spain .
Oldest extant manuscript of the Nicene Creed , dated to the fifth Century
Percentage distribution of Eastern Orthodox Christians by country
John of Damascus
A 17th-century Russian Orthodox icon of the Resurrection
Our Lady of Tinos is the major Marian shrine in Greece.
The Theotokos of Vladimir , one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of the Virgin Mary
Last Judgment : 12th-century Byzantine mosaic from Torcello Cathedral
David glorified by the women of Israel from the Paris Psalter , example of the Macedonian art (Byzantine) (sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance )
Fresco of Basil the Great , in the church of Saint Sophia , Ohrid . The saint is shown consecrating the Gifts during the Divine Liturgy which bears his name.
Chanters singing on the kliros at the Church of St. George , Patriarchate of Constantinople
An illustration of the traditional interior of an Orthodox church
Shards of pottery vases on the street, after being thrown from the windows of nearby houses. A Holy Saturday tradition in Corfu .
An Eastern Orthodox baptism
Eucharistic elements prepared for the Divine Liturgy
The wedding of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Greek Orthodox wedding
Eastern Orthodox subdeacon being ordained to the diaconate . The bishop has placed his omophorion and right hand on the head of the candidate and is reading the Prayer of Cheirotonia .
The consecration of Reginald Heber Weller as an Anglican bishop at the Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac , with Anthony Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church and Tikhon, then Bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska (along with his chaplains John Kochurov and Sebastian Dabovich ) of the Russian Orthodox Church present
Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , Jerusalem, 2014
The Constantinople Massacre of April 1821 : a religious persecution of the Greek population of Constantinople under the Ottomans. Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople was executed.
The Pan-Orthodox Council , Kolymvari, Crete, Greece, June 2016
Cathedral of Evangelismos , Alexandria
Patriarchate of Peć in Kosovo , the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century, when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate
Traditional Paschal procession by Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church