How are the Orthodox Churches organized throughout the world? What is the difference between „Greek Orthodox” and „Russian Orthodox”? Is there a single head of the Orthodox Church, as the bishop of Rome is for Roman Catholics? These questions are common, and the answers are simpler than they first appear, provided we begin in the right place.
The church in each place
In the language of the New Testament, the church is first of all the gathering of Christ’s people in a particular place: „the Church of God which is at Corinth” (1Co 1:2), „the Church of the Thessalonians” (1Th 1:1), the seven Churches of Asia (Rev 1–3). This church is gathered around her bishop, with the presbyters, the deacons and the whole people, in the celebration of the Eucharist. As St Ignatius of Antioch wrote at the beginning of the second century, „where the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”1 The words of the Lord, „This is my Body,” apply both to the Eucharist and to the church that celebrates it.
For this reason, Orthodox theology does not regard the local church as a branch office or a fragment of a worldwide organization. Each church, presided over by a bishop of the Orthodox faith in apostolic succession and in communion with the other Churches, is the whole catholic church made manifest in that place. The Churches of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria or Sofia are not parts of the one Church, but complete and undivided expressions of it.2 St Cyprian of Carthage described this unity with the image of the sun: „many rays of the sun, but one light.”3
From the local church to the region
Because neighboring bishops consecrate one another, meet in synod and address common concerns, the Churches of a region have always been organized under a first bishop, usually the bishop of the chief city (the metropolis). The foundational text is the thirty-fourth Apostolic Canon: „The bishops of every nation must acknowledge him who is first among them, and account him as their head, and do nothing of consequence without his consent… But neither let him who is first do anything without the consent of all.”4 Primacy and conciliarity are therefore not rivals; they are the two hands of the same canonical order.
Depending on history and rank, the first bishop of a region is called archbishop, metropolitan or patriarch, and the grouping he presides over is called an archdiocese, a metropolia or a patriarchate. The Patriarch of Bulgaria, for instance, is the bishop of Sofia, and the Archbishop of Athens presides over the Church of Greece. A regional body that elects its own primate and bishops without external confirmation is called autocephalous („self-headed”); one that governs its internal life but whose primate is confirmed by a mother Church is called autonomous.5
Strictly speaking, as Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) observed, a metropolis or a patriarchate is called a „Church” only by extension, because it is made up of local Churches, which alone are properly called Churches on account of the episcopal Eucharist.6 „The Church of Russia” or „the Church of Greece” are convenient expressions of common speech, whereas the Scriptures, when they speak of a region, use the plural: „the Churches of Galatia” (Gal 1:2), „the Churches of Macedonia” (2Co 8:1).7
The worldwide communion and its first bishop
The same pattern of a first among equals, acting with the consent of all, was applied in ancient times to the communion of all the Churches. During the first millennium, the first place belonged to the bishop of Rome, the church of the imperial capital and of the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, which St Ignatius saluted as the church „which presides in love.” This primacy was real, with defined prerogatives such as hearing appeals, but it was a primacy of honor and service, not a universal jurisdiction over the other Churches.8
After the schism of 1054, which the councils of Lyons (1274) and Ferrara–Florence (1438–1439) failed to heal, the first place in the Orthodox communion passed, according to the established order of the sees, to the bishop of Constantinople. The Ecumenical Patriarch is first named in the diptychs, presides in honor, and convenes and coordinates common Orthodox action. He is not an „Eastern pope”: he has no universal jurisdiction and cannot intervene in the internal life of the other autocephalous Churches.9
The visible sign of this communion is simple and audible. When the primate of an autocephalous Church celebrates the Divine Liturgy, he commemorates by name every other primate, in the order of the list called the diptychs. An Orthodox Christian in good standing may also receive Holy Communion in any canonical Orthodox parish in the world, after introducing himself or herself to the presiding priest. In this way, the many Churches show that they are one common union, sharing the one Bread.10
The Churches today
In their traditional order, the autocephalous Churches are the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem; the Patriarchates of Moscow, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia; the Churches of Cyprus and of Greece; and the Churches of Poland, Albania, and the Czech Lands and Slovakia. To these are added the autocephalies of recent times, which are not all recognized by every Church: the Orthodox Church in America (1970), the Macedonian Orthodox Church (Archbishopric of Ohrid) (2022), and, in a disputed situation, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (2019). The Churches of Sinai, Finland, Estonia, Japan and China are autonomous.11 The article The Orthodox Patriarchates presents each of the patriarchates in more detail.
„Greek Orthodox” and „Russian Orthodox”
There is no difference of faith between „Greek Orthodox,” „Russian Orthodox,” „Antiochian Orthodox” or „Serbian Orthodox.” These names describe the history, language and pastoral oversight of particular Churches, all of which confess the same Creed, celebrate the same Mysteries and commemorate one another in the diptychs. In older usage, „Greek” often designated all Orthodox Christians, because the Greek language was the common language of the Eastern Churches; the 1867 treaty by which the United States purchased Alaska, for instance, speaks of the „Greek Oriental Church.” In most of the Middle East, Orthodox Christians still speak simply of „the Church.”
We may summarize the whole matter with the words of the Catechism: many churches, one Church; many bishops, one episcopate; „one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5).12
Notes
- Ignatius of Antioch, To the Smyrnaeans 8.
- Laurent Cleenewerck de Kiev, The Catechism of the Orthodox Christian Faith: A Revised and Expanded Catechism of the Orthodox Faith, pre-release ed. (2026), Q261; Laurent Cleenewerck, His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, 3rd ed. (Washington, DC: Euclid University Press, 2026), chap. 2–3.
- Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Catholic Church 5.
- Apostolic Canon 34; Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Study: The Structure of the Orthodox Communion.
- Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Study: The Structure of the Orthodox Communion.
- John Zizioulas, Being as Communion (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985), 252–53n7, cited in Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Q279.
- Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Q261.
- Ignatius of Antioch, To the Romans, prologue; Council of Sardica (343), canons 3–5; Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Study: The Universal Primacy.
- Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Study: The Structure of the Orthodox Communion.
- Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Q280a.
- Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Study: The Structure of the Orthodox Communion.
- Ibid.
