The Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church is one of the three major branches

of Christianity, which 'stands in today's society as one of the

communities created by the apostles of Jesus in the region of the

eastern Mediterranean, and which spread by missionary activity

throughout Eastern Europe' (Meyendorff 5).The word orthodox comes

from Greek, meaning right-believing. currently the orthodox religion

has more than 174 million followers throughout the world.

The Greek Orthodox church is autocephalous, that is, governed

by its own head bishop. The head bishops of this autocephalous

church may be called patriarch, metropolitan, or archbishop. These

clergymen are much like the Pope in that they decide church doctrine

and generally make the important decision on controversial topics.

In its doctrinal statements, "the Greek Orthodox church strongly

affirms that it holds the original Christian faith, which was common to

East and West during the first millennium of Christian history'

(Meyendorff 18).

The Church of the Holy Wisdom, commonly known as H...

English: The inside of an Orthodox church. Greek O...

English: St. Gabriel's Greek Orthodox Church in Na...

More particularly, it recognizes the authority of the ecumenical

councils at which East and West were represented together. These were the

councils of Nicaea I (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus(431),

Chalcedon(451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680), and Nicaea

II (787) (Encarta 1996). The power of teaching and

guiding the community is bestowed on certain ministries, particularly

that of the bishop of each diocese or is directed through certain

institutions, such as councils. Because the church is composed not

only of bishops, or of clergy, but of the whole laity as well, 'the

Orthodox church strongly affirms that the guardian of truth is the entire

people of God' (Encarta 96).

The doctrine of seven sacraments is accepted in the Greek

Orthodox church, although no supreme authority has ever limited the

sacraments to that number. The central sacrament is the Eucharist;

the others are baptism, normally by immersion;...