The autocephalous church is ... Autocephalous Orthodox Church

In this article, we will discuss the question: "Is the autocephalous church what is it, what is its difference from the ordinary?" We will also consider recognized and unrecognized churches, as well as those that are part of the autocephalous and are called autonomous.

Definition of the autocephalous church

The Autocephalous Church is a completely independent organization that does not depend on the Ecumenical Council and can independently make decisions that relate to its routine, as well as work. In the Ecumenical Council, by the way, the leadership consists of representatives of all autocephalous churches.

If we consider the difference between the autocephalous church, then we can say that each is headed by a bishop who has the rank of metropolitan, patriarch or archbishop. His choice is carried out inside the organization. Another difference is that the autocephalous church performs a mirage without the help of others.

The emergence of Russian autocephaly

The year when the Russian autocephalous church was formed, we can consider the 1448th. Separation from the Church of Constantinople occurred for many reasons. One of the main was too distant a distance between the two states, as well as their complete independence from each other. The Russian church had a large number of bishops, even exceeding the number required by the canons for separation.

At the time of the acquisition by the Russian Church of the status of autocephalous, already two of its kind were disconnected. This is Serbian and Bulgarian. In Russia, too, this need was ripe, and the impetus was the following event. The last Greek Metropolitan Isidore took the union with the Roman Church. In addition, at a meeting to elect a new metropolitan, the Russian bishop was not once again elected.

Of course, Isidore was deposed, but all the clergy of Constantinople accepted the obligations of the Florence Cathedral. This led to the fact that in 1448 for the first time the Russian successor of Ion Ryazansky was elected metropolitan. This event is the beginning of the emergence of Russian autocephaly.

Of course, the Russian and Greek churches have not lost touch with each other. This manifested itself in letters, regular visits to Moscow. Such a relationship was to the liking of both parties.

Other Orthodox autocephalous churches

In addition to the fact that there is a Russian Orthodox autocephalous church, there are others that are considered recognized. There are only fifteen of them:

• Constantinople;
• The Alexandrian;
• Antiochian;
• Georgian;
• Jerusalem;
• Serbian;
• Romanian;
• Cyprus;
• Bulgarian;
• The Hellenic;
• Polish;
• Albanian;
• Church in America;
• In the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Despite the fact that there are a lot of churches, the most numerous is the Russian one. It has about a hundred million parishioners. However, the oldest is considered to be Constantinople, since it was from it that all the other autocephaly, and later autonomy, broke off. This patriarchy still bears the name "ecumenical," since in ancient times the Roman Empire was so called, to which Constantinople was at that time.

Unrecognized independent churches

So, it is now clear that the autocephalous church is an independent organization. However, this status still had to recognize the already functioning similar churches. To date, in addition to recognized, there are those whose status is not entirely unambiguous (some are not accepted at all). Several of them will be listed below:

• The Macedonian Church;
• Montenegrin;
• Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.

In addition to the existing Orthodox and unrecognized churches, there are others who do not obey the accepted charters of Orthodoxy. These are, for example, the Old Believer currents, such as Fedoseevsky, Netovtsy, Spasovtsy, the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church and others.

We should also mention those sects that were formed under the influence of a misunderstanding of the Holy Scriptures. Wrong interpretation of the Bible and other treatises led to the fact that in due time some formations were formed that later were called sects. The essence of each of them is that they, finding in the Holy Scripture what seems to them very important and right, follow this instruction, forgetting about everything else. And most often, and the allocated indication is misunderstood.

In conclusion, it must be said that each direction has its differences, its reason not to obey the charter, the authority of the Orthodox Church, but this does not mean that it is true.

The concept of an autonomous church

So, above, we figured out that the autocephalous church is a completely independent organization. However, there are also dependent (local) autonomous churches. They also have independence, but not so wide.

Unlike autocephalous, the bishop is appointed to the autonomous church from the kiriarchal church. Also, the charter of autonomy corresponds to it, and the world is also sent from it. The expenses of such churches are built in such a way that some share is referred to the content of the top management.

It is believed that autonomy can be:

• The metropolitan district;
• diocese;
• monastery;
• coming.

For example, it often happened on Mount Athos that some monasteries enjoyed almost complete independence, being part of the central Athos administration.

Let's enumerate what autonomy exists in the Orthodox Church:

• Japanese;
• Chinese;
• The Latvian;
• Moldavian;
• Estonian;
• Ukrainian;
• Sinai;
• Finnish;
• Foreign Russian.

The status of the Uniate churches

Also it should be said about the existence of Uniate churches. The autocephalous Orthodox Church considers their presence a problem, since, according to some theologians, they rather divide the churches of the East and West than unite them. This is because in their parishes the services are held according to the Orthodox form of worship, but the teaching is Catholic. As well as the submission of Uniate churches is also Catholic.

These include the following churches:

• Czechoslovakia.
• Polish.
• Western-Ukrainian.

Conclusion

So, we figured out what the autocephalous church means, what are its differences from other similar ones. Also considered are other directions that are present in Orthodoxy, various unrecognized churches, Old Believers and some sects. From all this we can conclude that in fact there are many directions of Orthodox belief, which were formed from the unwillingness to obey or through theological disagreements. Be that as it may, all this has led to the fact that many believers are not in the bosom of the original Orthodox Church.