Church, Orthodox
Church, Orthodox
(Greek: orthodoxos, right believer)
Name appropriated, some time before the 9th century, by the Christians of the largest group of the Non-Uniat or schismatical churches, to distinguish themselves from heretics. Originally comprising the four Eastern patriarchates, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, they were separated from the West in the schism of the 9th and 11th centuries. The Orthodox Church is subdivided into the following independent Churches, which, however, all recognize each other, and no other Christian Church, as Orthodox.
Church of Cyprus
Church of Greece (Modern)
Church of Mount Sinai
Greek Church in Australia
Greek Church in Western Europe (headquarters in London)
Greek Orthodox Church in the United States
Independent Greek Orthodox Church in America
Patriarchate of Alexandria (Egypt)
Patriarchate of Antioch (Syria)
Patriarchate of Constantinople
Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Patriarchate of Moscow (Russia; largest of all Eastern Churches)
Patriarchate of Poland
Patriarchate of Rumania
Patriarchate of Serbia
Russian Church (Czarist: headquarters in Serbia)
The Living Church (Russia; new)
The majority of them have become national churches, governed by a Holy Directing Synod and absolutely independent upon the state.