Eastern Orthodox Church

All today's autocephalous national Orthodox churches in the Balkans, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria and Russia originated in the Hellenistic cultural area or were founded from there and were under the administration of the Byzantine imperial church until the Muslim conquest of Constantinople in 1453. To be distinguished from them are on the one hand the churches of Eastern rites united with the Roman Catholic Church, and on the other hand the so-called ancient Oriental churches. In summary, Orthodox, Uniate and Ancient Oriental churches are often referred to as the Eastern Church. The term Eastern Church is merely a geographical collective term and does not designate a group of churches understood as a unit, since, for example, the Orthodox churches are not in communion with the united churches.

In the Orthodox Churches, various terms are used to express the Orthodox identity: Orthodox Church, Orthodox Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Church, Greek Orthodox Church (the latter in this case does not refer to Greece, but to the Greek cultural area in which the Church originated).

Other designations in German-speaking countries

Greek-Oriental is a legal collective term in Austria for the Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Greek communities (which are ecclesiastically dependent on the respective patriarchate). In the Principality of Liechtenstein the corresponding legal collective term is "Christian Orthodox".

Self-designation

The actual designation from the point of view of the Orthodox Church itself is given in the Creed: (in Greek) η μία, Ἁγία, Καθολικὴ καὶ Ἀποστολικὴ Ἐκκλησία, literally: the one, holy, all-inclusive and apostolic Church. Often the word "all-inclusive" is rendered "catholic."

The term denomination is rather foreign to Orthodoxy. According to the opinion of some authors terms like Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox should not be used for the denomination, since Orthodox Christians do not see themselves as "Russian Orthodox" or "Bulgarian Orthodox", also not as "part of the one church" (since Jesus Christ is also not the sum of individual parts, but an indivisible unity), but as direct expression of the "whole one church". But that does not prevent the faithful from being bound by place, national affiliation, language and tradition, e.g. to the Russian Orthodox Church or the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The terms Greek Catholic or Greek Church for Orthodoxy are historical (18th, 19th century). Today, "Greek Catholic" refers to the Byzantine rites that have been Romanized again.

Origins

The ecclesiastical traditions and teachings of the Orthodox Churches go back to Jesus Christ and found their full expression in the Byzantine Empire with its center Byzantium or Constantinople. That is why one also speaks of the "Greek Church" in contrast to the Latin Church or Roman Church. The collective term Eastern Churches is also in use, especially in Western Europe, but it also includes other churches in the Eastern Mediterranean region that differ theologically or liturgically from the Orthodoxy of the Byzantine tradition - namely the "Catholic Eastern Churches", which mostly came into being in modern times, the ancient Oriental churches that have been separated from the imperial church since the Council of Chalcedon (which are also called Oriental Orthodox or monophysite or miaphysite churches). miaphysite churches, in the case of the Syrian Orthodox Church also as "Jacobites") as well as the Apostolic Church of the East (which is also called the Nestorian Church).

The Orthodox churches are a group of churches that largely agree in church understanding, doctrine and worship and have a strong sense of belonging together. They do not regard themselves as part of a single church, but as a direct expression of the one church. In contrast to the Western churches, they claim to be dogmatically oriented exclusively to the decisions of the seven ecumenical councils between 325 and 787. Bible and liturgical language of Orthodoxy is the respective national language or an older form of it, as for instance ancient Greek or Church Slavonic, an old Slavonic language form. Apart from the Greek tradition, the Slavonic tradition is especially significant in the Orthodox churches of the Byzantine rite, since Slavic regions adopted Christianity especially from Byzantium in the early Middle Ages and also later referred to Constantinople rather than Rome. Another important cultural group in Orthodoxy are the Aramaic Christians.

Modern

The Orthodox churches are the second largest Christian denomination after the Roman Catholic Church, followed by the churches of the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Lutheran World Federation. Only Pentecostalism would be larger, with 271 million people belonging to it in 2011, according to the U.S. International Bulletin of Missionary Research.

By 1830 the Orthodox (at that time "Greek [Catholic] Churches") had about 34 million adherents, the "Oriental heretics," as they were called on the Catholic side, about 10 million believers (i.e., a combined 45 million "Orientals"); the "Occidentals" were 175 million, of whom 120 million were Catholics with the Uniate Greeks. Thus Orthodoxy at that time represented ^1⁄6 of the approximately 200 million Christians and 3% of the world population (at that time estimated at 1 billion).

The great migratory movements since the second half of the 20th century gave rise to Orthodox diaspora communities of the various national churches in most countries of the world. This development strengthened the preparatory process for an All-Orthodox Council, which had already been initiated in 1902. In March 2014, this council was announced for 2016 in Istanbul. As a result of tensions between Russia and Turkey, an All-Orthodox Assembly convened the Pan-Orthodox Council in January 2016 for 18-26 June 2016 in Heraklion, Crete, with 156 delegates from ten autocephalous churches and cancellations from four churches: the Patriarchates of Antioch, Georgia, Bulgaria and Russia.