Russian Orthodox Church - Structure and Organization

Structure and Organization

See also: Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarchate of Moscow and all the Rus'

Administratively, the ROC is organized in a hierarchical structure. The lowest level of organization, which normally would be a single ROC building and its attendees, headed by a priest who acts as Father superior (Russian: настоятель, nastoyatel), constitute a parish (Russian: приход, prihod). All parishes in a geographical region belong to an eparchy (Russian: епархия — equivalent to a Western diocese). Eparchies are governed by bishops (Russian: епископ, episcop or архиерей, archiereus). There are 261 Russian Orthodox eparchies worldwide (June 2012).

Further, some eparchies are organized into exarchates, or autonomous churches. Currently these include the Orthodox of the Belarusian exarchate; the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia; the Latvian, the Moldovan, the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate. The Chinese Orthodox Church and the Japanese Orthodox Churches were granted full autonomy by the Moscow Patriarchate, but this autonomy is not universally recognized.

Smaller eparchies are usually governed by a single bishop. Larger eparchies, exarchates, and autonomous Churches are governed by a Metropolitan archbishop and sometimes also have one or more bishops assigned to them.

The highest level of authority in the ROC is vested in the Local Council (Pomestny Sobor), which comprises all the bishops as well as representatives from the clergy and laypersons. Another organ of power is the Bishops' Council (Архиерейский Собор). In the periods between the Councils the highest administrative powers are exercised by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which includes seven permanent members and is chaired by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Primate of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Although the Patriarch of Moscow has extensive powers, unlike the Pope he does not have direct authority over matters pertaining to faith. Some of the more fundamental issues (such as the ones responsible for the Catholic-Orthodox split) can not be adequately and definitively addressed by a meeting of the Local Council and have to be dealt with by an council of representatives from all Eastern Orthodox Churches. The last time such a council was held was in 787. The split into Western and Eastern parts occurred with the Great Schism in the 11th century.