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Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox (also termed Chalcedonian-Orthodox) churches are a family of self-governing churches that follow the doctrines of the seven Ecumenical councils, and acknowledge the honorary primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Historically, these churches developed from the four ancient patriarchates of the East: Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Jerusalem.

The Orthodox Church is also known (especially in the contemporary West) as the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church. It may also be called the Orthodox Catholic Church, the Orthodox Christian Church, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, or simply the Church. The Eastern Orthodox Churches, known historically as the "Eastern Church," and in modern times as the the "Eastern Catholic Church," the "Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Eastern Church," and popularly as the "Greek Church," are the modern representatives of the Church of the Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Rite	195,000,000
Russia	100,000,000
Ukraine	34,800,000
Romania	18,700,000
Greece	10,000,000
Serbia	6,600,000
United States	5,200,000
Belarus	5,900,000
Bulgaria	6,200,000
Kazakhstan	4,200,000
Georgia	3,800,000
Moldova	3,300,000
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,400,000
Macedonia, Republic of	1,300,000
Germany	1,100,000
Other Rites	65,000,000
Ethiopia	45,000,000
Egypt	7,600,000
India	3,800,000
Armenia	3,200,000
Eritrea	2,500,000
Syria	1,800,000

As a distinction between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires developed, there also grew up a distinction between the Eastern and Western Churches, appearing both in their ritual and in their doctrinal position. Toward the ninth century this became still more evident, and culminated in 1054 in complete separation between the patriarch or bishop of Rome and the four Eastern patriarchs. The Great Schism in 1054 split the Christian world into two parts, one of which looked to Constantinople as its head, the other to Rome, hence the terms Eastern church and Western Church; or from the language of the liturgy at that time, the Greek rite and the Latin rite. As a matter of usage, the term Orthodox has come to be applied to the Eastern church, Catholic to the Western.

The Eastern Church at that time included four ecclesiastical divisions, the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, coordinate in authority, though honorary precedence was accorded to the patriarch of Constantinople. But by the 19th Century these three patriarchs had very slender and poor dominions. For the Monophysites had long occupied the sees of Alexandria and Antioch ; and left very few members of the Greek church in the countries where they have dominion. And Jerusalem was the resort of Christians of every sect and doctrine. With the development of different nationalities and metropolitan sees there has been the establishment of independent organizations bearing national names. These different organizations, although independent of each other ecclesiastically, agree in doctrine and, essentially, in form of worship, and together constitute what are called the "Eastern Orthodox Churches."

By the year 1914 the Orthodox Church consisted of 16 Orthodox Churches of which 5 were Greek: those of Constantinople, Hellas, Cyprus, Alexandria, and Sinai (in all 7,200,000 souls); 7 Slavic, viz. those of Russia (116 millions in 1911), Bulgaria, Servia, Carlowitz, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bukovina with Dalmatia, and Montenegro (9,920,000); 2 Rumanian, that of the Kingdom of Rumania and that of Hermannstadt in Austria (about 6 millions); and 2 Arabic, Antioch and Jerusalem (some 380,000). The ancient Church of Georgia (1,300,000 souls) was officially part of the Russian Church.

The five divisions of the Byzantine Rite:-

1. The Greek-Byzantine Rite, which includes the pure Greeks subject (a) to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, (b) to the Holy Synod of Athens, and (c) to the Archbishopric of Cyprus.
2. The Arabic-Byzantine Rite, which includes the Christians under the Patriarchates of (a) Antioch, (b) Jerusalem, and (c) Alexandria, and (d) the Archbishopric of Sinai.
3. The Georgian-Byzantine Rite, which, up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, included the Churches of the Caucasus Range now absorbed by the Russian Church and obliged to use the Slavonic Liturgy instead of their own native Georgian.
4. The Slavonic-Byzantine Rite, comprising (a) the Russian, (b) the Servian, and (c) the Bulgarian Churches.
5. The Rumanian-Byzantine Rite used by the Rumanian Churches.

All these Churches were autocephalous, i.e. independent of each other as regards internal administration, but made up one Orthodox Church, as they have one Head in Christ, and possess one doctrine and communion in sacraments and services.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople signed a decree granting autocephaly, or independence, to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, ending more than 330 years of Russian religious control in Ukraine. The ceremony on 05 January 2019 in Istanbul, which is considered the spiritual headquarters of Orthodox Christianity, was attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

According to the results of the Minsk meeting of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church [ROC] it was decided 15 October 2018 to completely break the Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Belarusian Orthodox Church as a part of the ROC is attached to the decision. BOC was represented by a citizen of Russia, Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Paul. According to Hilarion, it was a forced decision - after all the recent actions with respect to Ukrainian Constantinople "schismatics" were "unlawful". Solutions Constantinople "canonically void", decided ROC, and the decision was such a "extorted church canons" Russian Orthodox Church said, hoping that Constantinople will change its "divisive" decision on Ukraine.

These decisions Metropolitan of Minsk called "criminal" - and the more severe "crime" for granting autocephalous status of the Estonian Orthodox Church in 1996. The Russian Church announced that the Constantinople Patriarchate had "excluded itself from the canonical field of the Orthodoxy" with "lawless and canonically void moves" on Ukraine. With about 110,000,000 adherents [including those in Belarus and Kazakhstan], the Russian constitutes over 55% of adherents to the Byzantine Rite nominally headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch.

During a speech in Minsk 14 October 2018, Moscow Patriarch Kirill called Belarus part of the "our land", recalled the days when church life was not easy here, praised the Belarusian authorities and criticized the Ukrainian. "Belaya Rus - a special part of the history of Russia. Here since antiquity warm fire of the Orthodox Faith. Therefore Belaya Rus is associated with the origins of the Orthodox faith in our land, "- said the Patriarch of Moscow.

According to the decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church priests are now impossible to conduct the service, together with the clergy of Constantinople, and the laity can not participate in the rituals in the temples of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The question now is what Churches would support the Russian Orthodox Church in the conflict with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which in Orthodoxy is considered "first among equals". Orthodox patriarchates in the Balkans and around the world must now decide whether to continue honoring the leadership of the Constantinople Patriarchate or follow the Russian Church's lead and cut ties with the 1,600-year-old institution.

The US and Canada were the two countries that congratulated the new Orthodox Church in Ukraine, established on December 15, there has not been any immediate reaction from the Orthodox world. Six out of the 14 Orthodox churches had voiced their concerns and unease about the Ecumenical Patriarch’s decision to grant autocephaly (independence) to Ukraine’s new church.

Deep concerns emerged within the Serbian Orthodox Church over the move by the Ecumenical Patriarch toward recognizing the Ukrainian church's independence from Moscow. The reasons for concern go beyond the Serbian Patriarchate's historical and political ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Serbian Patriarchate had its own decades-old disputes with unrecognized breakaway churches in Macedonia and Montenegro -- territory long considered by the Constantinople Patriarchate as the domain of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Serbian Church officials feared the Constantinople Patriarchate's decree on Ukraine will be followed by recognition of the breakaway Macedonian Orthodox Church.

Bishop Irinej Bulovic, a spokesman for the Serbian Church, predicted the split would be "even bigger and harder" than the East-West Schism of 1054 that institutionally separated Christianity into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Constantinople Patriarchate has been examining a request to recognize the breakaway Macedonian Orthodox Church since May 2018. The split goes back a half century to 1967, when the autonomous Macedonian Orthodox Church proclaimed independence from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

"Moscow diplomats, both those in religious robes and secular ones, will impose pressure on other churches to support Moscow. None of them will be ready to jump from a window if Moscow asks them to do so," Protodeacon Andrei Kurayev, a prominent Russian Orthodox theologian said. "None of them will break their ties with Constantinople".

Ecumenical Councils
1	Council of Nicaea I	325 A.D.	Arianism
2	Council of Constantinople I	381	Semi-Arian / Macedonian Apollinarist
3	Council of Ephesus	431	Nestorian Pelagian
	Council of Ephesus	449	Monophysite
4	Council of Chalcedon	451	Monophysite Eutychian
5	Council of Constantinople II	553	Nestorian
6	Council of Constantinople III	680	Monotheletic
7	Nicene Council II	787	Iconoclasts
Pan-Orthodox Holy and Great Council
1	Holy and Great Council	2016 AD

The communion between them also found expression in Councils, the decisions of which were obligatory for the Churches that take part in them, or in the interchange of epistles. Both the Councils and the exchange of epistles took place rather seldom, and not regularly, mainly owing to political circumstances.

The Eastern and Western churches were united only in the first seven - the Eastern Church participated in but did not accept the decisions of the Fourth Council of Constantinople. Here, for the first time, Rome recognized the ancient claim of Constantinople to the second place among the five great patriarchates. Greek pride, however, was offended by the compulsory signature of the aforesaid Roman formulary of reconciliation, and in a subsequent conference of Greek ecclesiastical and civil authorities the newly-converted Bulgarians were declared subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and not to Rome.