Eastern Orthodox Church

This article is about the Eastern Orthodox Church as an institution. For its religion, doctrine and tradition, see Eastern Orthodoxy.

For other uses of "Orthodox Church", see Orthodox Church (disambiguation).

For other uses of "Greek Orthodox", see Greek Orthodox Church.

Not to be confused with Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Christianity, or Eastern Catholic Churches.

The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church,^[9][10][11] and also called the Greek Orthodox Church^[12] or simply the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church,^{[lower-alpha 1][13][14]} with approximately 230 million baptised members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods.^[15] The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the Catholic Church (the pope). Nevertheless, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by them as primus inter pares ("first among equals"),^{[16][17][18][19][20]} a title formerly given to the patriarch of Rome. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.^[21]

Eastern Orthodox Church
Saint George's Cathedral, Istanbul, Turkey
Classification	Eastern Orthodoxy
Orientation	Eastern Christianity
Scripture	Septuagint, New Testament
Theology	Eastern Orthodox theology
Polity	Episcopal
Governance	Autocephaly
Structure	Communion
Primus inter pares	Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
Region	Primarily Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Asia, Levant, Egypt, Northern America, Near East, Caucasia, Cyprus[1]
Language	Koine Greek, Church Slavonic, and other vernacular[2][3][4]
Liturgy	Byzantine Rite and Western Rite
Founder	Jesus Christ, according to sacred tradition
Origin	1st century Judaea, Roman Empire[5]
Members	230 million[6][7][8]
Other name(s)	Orthodox Church, Orthodox Christian Church, Orthodox Catholic Church

Christ Pantocrator, sixth century, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai; the oldest known icon of Christ, in one of the oldest monasteries in the world.

Eastern Orthodox theology is based on the Scriptures and holy tradition, which incorporates the dogmatic decrees of the seven ecumenical councils, and the teaching of the Church Fathers. The church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission,^[22] and that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles.