Has anyone ever heard of the Eastern Orthodox Church?
The Eastern Orthodox Church is the "sister of the Catholic Church.
The East?West Schism, sometimes known as the Great Schism, divided medieval Christianity into Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively.
Relations between East and West had long been embittered by political and ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes.
The orthodox countries are: Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, F.Y.R Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Georgia, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova.
However there are Orthodox Churches and Orthodox followers in almost every country around the world.
So, has anyone ever heard of the Eastern Orthodox Church?
Oriental Orthodox churches are not the same with the Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church believes itself to be the only way to salvation because it is the ONLY church which keeps unchanged the decisions of the First Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils:
First Council of Nicaea (325)
First Council of Constantinople (381)
Council of Ephesus (431)
Council of Chalcedon (451)
Second Council of Constantinople (553)
Third Council of Constantinople (680)
Second Council of Nicaea (787)
Of course! I believe there are have been talks between the two largest groups of Orthodox Churches, Russia, and I think Greek, to rejoin with their Catholic brothers and sisters under the Pope in Rome.
There are several different Eastern Orthodox Churches. Back when Theodosius I declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, the church was organized into five great patriarchies, based on five cities: Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Jerusalem. There were five Patriarchs, and the Patriarch of Rome was honored as first-amount-equals. Rome was already the center of what you called the 'Latin' church; the other four, all Greek. When the East-West split occurred, the four Eastern branches split off together, but soon divided among themselves as well. Then the Latin church, from Rome, expanded into Western Europe, while the Greek ones battled for survival with Manichaeists, Mithraists, Gnostics, and Islam.
Today there are several versions of the "Antioch" branch (often called Syrian but sometimes Antiochian); the Constantinople branch split into Greek and Russian; the Alexandrian became various forms of 'Coptic' Orthodox; and the Jerusalem branch sort of disappeared ... except that the head of the Greek Orthodox Church has the title 'Patriarch of Jerusalem' to this day.