Episcopal Polity - Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The conciliar idea of episcopal government continues in the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the sixteen or so autocephalous primates are seen as collectively gathering around Christ, with other archbishops and bishops gathering around them, and so forth, in a model called "conciliar hierarchy". This is based in part on the vision in the book of Revelation of the 24 elders gathered around the throne of Christ, who are believed to represent the 12 patriarchs of Israel and the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. There is no single patriarch with exclusive authority comparable to the Pope in Rome.

Read more about this topic:  Episcopal Polity

Famous quotes containing the words eastern, orthodox and/or church:

    Your Beauty, ripe, and calm, and fresh,
    As Eastern Summers are,
    Must now, forsaking Time and Flesh,
    Add light to some small Star.
    Sir William Davenant (1606–1668)

    If the jests that you crack have an orthodox smack,
    You may get a bland smile from these sages;
    But should it, by chance, be imported from France,
    Half-a-crown is stopped out of your wages!
    Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)

    The Church seems to totter to its fall, almost all life extinct. On this occasion, any complaisance would be criminal which told you, whose hope and commission it is to preach the faith of Christ, that the faith of Christ is preached.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)