There's only one Orthodox Church. This Church has an administrative structure that is broken down into smaller churches. Each church is self ruled -- the proper term is autocephalous. There are around 15 autocephalous churches that make up the Orthodox Church. All this term means is that there is no administrative hierarchy over the bishop who oversees that church jurisdiction.
This is important -- there is no "rank" higher than bishop in the Orthodox Church. And really, there's no lower rank. All authority to do anything flows from the bishop. Priests can't ordain, deacons can't ordain. A priest can't found a church. A priest can only go to a church with the blessing of his bishop. No service can be served without the blessing of the bishop. So, in some way its really a one-level structure: bishop, those he appoints to the clergy, and his flock (laymen). Administratively bishops have a hierarchy, but there is no theological weight to these administrative duties. The head of an autocephalous church may be a patriarch or metropolitan, but he is "only" a bishop, same as any other.
I don't typically love the Orthodox Wiki, but I really really like their statement on bishops:
quote:
A bishop is the successor to the Apostles in the service and government of the Church. The bishop thus serves in place and as a type of Christ in the Church. No bishop in Orthodoxy is considered infallible. None has any authority over or apart from his priests, deacons, and people or the other bishops. They have the responsibility of maintaining the unity of the Church throughout the world by insuring the truth and unity of the faith and practice of their diocese. The bishop represent his particular diocese to the other churches or dioceses, and represents the Universal Church to his own particular priests, deacons, and people.
It is the belief of Orthodoxy that Christ is the only priest, pastor, and teacher of the Christian Church. He alone forgives sins and offers communion with God, his Father. Christ alone guides and rules his people. Christ remains with his Church as its living and unique head. Christ remains present and active in the Church through the Holy Spirit.
Through the sacrament of holy orders bishops give order to the Church. Bishops guarantee the continuity and unity of the Church from age to age and from place to place, that is, from the time of Christ and the apostles until the establishment of God's Kingdom in eternity. Bishops receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to manifest Christ in the Spirit to men. Bishops are neither vicars, substitutes, nor representatives of Christ. It is Christ, through his chosen ministers, who acts as teacher, good shepherd, forgiver, and healer. It is Christ remitting sins, and curing the physical, mental, and spiritual ills of mankind. This is a mystery of the Church.
I said all that to say, while there are administrative and jurisdictions within the Orthodox Church, it is still one Church.
I am not Greek, or Greek Orthodox. I am a Texan native, and I go to an Antiochian Orthodox Church. But, I would feel just as much at home theologically in a Greek or Russian or Bulgarian etc. church. My church is a blend of Americans (a majority are probably converts or second generation Orthodox who are WASP types), Lebanese, Arabic, Greek, and other first- and second-generation Orthodox. We say our services in English and use the occasional Arabic, Greek or Russian words Liturgically.
The US is a weird place for Orthodoxy because Orthodoxy came here with immigrants. The churches here were founded by immigrants and supported from the native countries remotely. Now there are more Antiochian Orthodox in the US than in Syria. There are about 250 million Orthodox in the world, and there are about 5-6 million in the US. But, the US Orthodox are split between the Orthodox Church of America (OCA - of Russian lineage), Antiochian, Greek, etc. I hope one day that the administrative and other challenges caused by the history of Orthodoxy in this country are sorted out so there's just one church here, with clean jurisdictional lines. It's a bit of a confusing mess here.
Part of the problem is that to some extent immigrants wanted their church as a sense of home, and among these communities there's a hard cultural aspect, particularly around the language. This is understandable, to me, but it contributes to the image of a closed church and makes administrative union more difficult.
Sorry that was so long-winded.
