Eastern Orthodox Church #2

The Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of self-governing (“autocephalous”) national and regional churches — including the Greek, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, and other Orthodox churches — that share full doctrinal and sacramental communion while operating under their own patriarchs or synods, together claiming roughly 220 million adherents worldwide, concentrated historically in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.

Origins and History

Orthodoxy traces an unbroken institutional and theological line to the churches founded by the apostles in the Greek-speaking eastern Roman Empire, centered historically on Constantinople. It shares the first thousand years of Christian history and the first seven ecumenical councils with what became the Catholic Church, but the two definitively split in the East-West Schism of 1054 over the pope’s claim to universal jurisdiction, a difference in the doctrine of the Trinity (the “Filioque” clause added to the Nicene Creed in the West, on whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from the Father “and the Son” — John 15:26), and diverging liturgical and cultural traditions.

Beliefs and Practices

Orthodox worship is built around the Divine Liturgy, a highly structured, chanted service rich in incense and icons, reflecting a theology in which worship itself is understood as participation in the life of heaven. Orthodoxy places heavy weight on the unbroken authority of the seven ecumenical councils and patristic tradition (2 Thessalonians 2:15) alongside Scripture, rejects the Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy in favor of conciliar governance among equal bishops, and emphasizes theosis — the transformative process of a believer becoming more like God — as central to salvation, alongside the sacramental life of the Church (1 Timothy 3:15).