Eparchy

Depending on the administrative structure of a specific Eastern Church, an eparchy can belong to an ecclesiastical province (usually a metropolis), but it can also be exempt.

The term had various meanings and multiple uses throughout history, mainly in politics and administration, starting from the Hellenistic period, and continuing throughout the Roman era.

[3][4] In the Greco-Roman world, it was used as a Greek equivalent for the Latin term provincia, denoting province, the main administrative unit of the Roman Empire.

The same use was employed in the early Byzantine Empire until major administrative reforms that were undertaken between the 7th and 9th centuries, abolishing the old provincial system.

The process of title-inflation that was affecting Byzantine bureaucracy and aristocracy also gained momentum in ecclesiastical circles.

[10] Since the fragmentation of the original metropolitan provinces into several titular metropolises that were also referred to as eparchies, the Patriarchate of Constantinople became more centralized, and such structure has remained up to the present day.

[11] Similar ecclesiastical terminology is also employed by other autocephalous and autonomous churches within Eastern Orthodox community.