What is The Eastern Orthodox Church?

What is The Eastern Orthodox Church?

Well, I Donni, but my family's in one :P It's just Orthodox Church in or dedicated to the Eastern side of Europe.

The Eastern Orthodox Church (encompassing national Orthodox jurisdictions such as Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc.?see Eastern Orthodox Church organization) is a body of Christians that claims origins extending directly back to Jesus and his Apostles through unbroken Apostolic Succession. Its doctrines were formalized through a series of church councils, the most authoritative being the Seven Ecumenical Councils held between the 4Th and 8Th centuries. These councils were convened out of the necessity to resolve conflicts that had developed concerning beliefs such as Arianism, Nestorianism, and Monothelitism. Toward the end of its first thousand years of existence, differences developed between the Church in the Eastern and Western Roman Empire that ultimately led to the Great Schism in 1054, dividing Chalcedonian Christianity into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Based on numbers of adherents, Eastern Orthodoxy is the second largest Christian communion in the world after the Roman Catholic Church, and the third largest grouping overall after Protestantism. There are approximately 215 million Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.[1]

The present-day influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church encompasses the territories associated with the former Byzantine and Russian empires: Eastern Europe, Asia (Russia/Siberia), and parts of the Middle East and Africa. Today, although Eastern Orthodoxy's strongest influence can be seen in Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia and Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, and Georgia, the Orthodox Church has a presence in a great many other countries largely because of the emigration of Eastern Orthodox peoples, with large communities in the USA, Canada and Australia.

I believe it was developed by St. Peter. They tend to be more mystical in their belief--such as you do things in three for the Trinity. Actions have deep meaning.

There are different than Catholics. They allow marriage for priests and they do not follow the pope--there is some one else but I do not remember what his name is.

Greeks, Russians, Serbians and other eastern block nations have a high concentration of Orthodox Christians. They are very traditional in their services and their calendar is different.

It's really very beautiful to watch a service.