"Russian Orthodox," and "Greek Orthodox" Are Strictly Informal Distinctions In The Same Faith
Definition of the Greek Orthodox Church. There is no theological or liturgical difference between "Russian Orthodoxy" and "Greek Orthodoxy."
An Orthodox Church in the village Oia on Santorini, Greece.
Eastern Orthodoxy:
”The Eastern Orthodox church numbers around 250 million members throughout the world, but especially in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and along the coasts of the Mediterranean. It constitutes a family of local, self-governing churches, each of which follows identical doctrine, discipline, and spiritual practices. The Orthodox church is an Eastern church in the sense that it is the product of Middle Eastern, Hellenic, and Slavic history and culture. The term “Eastern” extends beyond geographical or cultural conditions, signifying rather the identity of the Orthodox church with the tradition and centers of the early church. The term “Orthodox” is a qualification that describes much more than the form of this church, implying rather its integrity in terms of both doctrine and liturgy. Constantine, the first Roman emperor to put an end to the age of persecution and martyrdom, espoused the Christian faith in the early part of the 4th century and rendered Christianity a state religion. He founded a new capital for the empire, Constantinople, which was to rival and replace the “Old Rome” in splendor and significance. This empire played a dominant role in the history of the Eastern Orthodox church for more than a thousand years.”-John Chryssavgis, Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, “Eastern Orthodoxy”, Vol. 1, p. 334
“Orthodox Churches, Eastern: Greek Orthodox Church and Its Theology. The expression “Greek Orthodox Church” has two meanings. In the broad sense, it refers to the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also called “Eastern Orthodox,” “Greek Catholic,” or generally “the Greek Church,” because the mother communities of Orthodoxy were all located in the Greek speaking portion of the ancient Roman Empire.
The Orthodox Church as a whole is aptly described as Greek in its common preference for the Byzantine∗ rites of worship and its adherence to the ethos of Christianized Hellenism developed by the Greek-speaking fathers of the early church. Despite its name, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch is, ethnically and linguistically, mostly Arabic.
In a narrow sense, the expression “Greek Orthodox Church” refers to any of several independent churches within the worldwide communion of Orthodox Christianity that retain the use of the Greek language in formal ecclesiastical settings. In this sense, “Greek Orthodox” can be distinguished from “Russian Orthodox” or “Serbian Orthodox,” the difference between churches being linguistic only, not theological or liturgical.
In the latter sense, the following Orthodox churches are properly called Greek Orthodox: the Ecumenical∗ Patriarchate of Constantinople and its dependencies in Europe, Asia, North, Central, and South America, and Australia and on Mount Athos∗ in Greece; the Patriarchate of Alexandria; the Patriarchate of Jerusalem∗; the Church of Greece∗; and the Church of Cyprus∗. In both the broad and narrow senses of the term, the Greek Orthodox Church has always been ethnically diverse; phyletism∗ and nationalism are anathema to Orthodox ecclesiology. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, with headquarters in New York City, comprises the largest Orthodox ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the USA.
The theology of the Greek Orthodox Church is identical to that of all Eastern Orthodox∗ churches, which taken together are understood in Orthodox ecclesiology to constitute the one undivided body of Christ. Among the Orthodox churches, there are minor variations in liturgical expression, clerical dress, and ecclesiastical custom.
Greek Orthodox Christianity is characterized by great joyfulness in the presence of God, who is ever philanthropos, “who ever loves humankind,” and who inspires a spontaneous, exuberant love∗ among people. The eucharistic service, called the Divine∗ Liturgy, is conducted by clergy and laity in a majestic and celebratory manner, as are baptisms and weddings. Even occasions of mourning, such as services of Christian burial, Lenten contrition, or Good∗ Friday, are conducted with a characteristic “joyous sadness,” or charmolupe, to use the coinage of St. John∗ Climacus. This sense of joy∗ among the Greek Orthodox pervades their daily life and culture as well as their liturgical expressions: the customary street greeting in the Paschal season is Christós Anésti! – “Christ is risen!”
In the modern era, Greek Orthodoxy has been significantly affected by its subjugation to Muslim rule in many places. Under the Tourkokrateia, the period of Ottoman domination, Orthodox bishops were forced to become not only spiritual leaders but also ethnarchs, leaders of the ethnic community and advocates of Hellenic culture in the face of official repression (see Millet). Religious persecution in this era resulted in the recognition of many neomartyres (new martyrs∗). The repressions of the Tourkokrateia sparked several waves of emigration to the New World, Africa, and Australia, giving rise to large communities in what is often referred to as the diaspora. Most of Greek Orthodoxy in the diaspora follows the Gregorian calendar∗ for liturgical purposes; however, the date of Pascha∗ (Orthodox Easter) is always calculated to ensure a common celebration among all the Orthodox, including those who follow the Julian calendar∗.
Greek Orthodox Christianity is especially conscious of the influence of Hellenistic thought and culture in the development of early Christianity. In the diaspora, the Church has made special efforts to support the study of Greek language and Hellenic culture among its people. While all Orthodox churches follow the same festal calendar, emphasis is given by Greek Orthodoxy to the Annunciation∗ on March 25, celebrated simultaneously with the day of Greek independence from Turkish rule. Likewise, the Feast of the Holy Protection on October 28 is celebrated as OCHI day, commemorating Greece’s refusal in 1940 to accede to Fascist demands for capitulation. The Feast of the Three Hierarchs (Basil∗ the Great, John∗ Chrysostom, Gregory∗ Nazianzen the Theologian) on January 30 is also a celebration of Greek literacy and learning.
Greek Orthodoxy is characterized by a deep devotion to the saints∗ of the early church, especially the Virgin Mary∗. Great affection is also shown for ancient martyrs like St. George and St. Demetrios, beloved hierarchs like St. Nicholas and St. Spyridon, and St. Constantine∗ and St. Helen∗. Particular devotion is shown for St. Nektarios of Pentapolis (1846–1920), the “saint of our time,” a monastic who served as a hierarch and teacher in Alexandria, Athens, and the Greek island of Aegina, and whose life epitomizes the love, joy, humility, and miraculous existence of Greek Orthodox Christianity.
ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS [TRAKATELLIS]”
-O. (2010). In D. Patte (Ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (pp. 895-896). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
“Scholars often assert that the printed editions were a major force behind the standardization of the Byzantine liturgical rite,51 similar to the phenomenon of Roman Catholic liturgical standardization in the aftermath of Pope St Pius V’s 1570 Missal and Pope Paul V’s 1614 Ritual.62 The early Greek printed liturgical books in many instances radically changed the diversity that had previously characterized.
Late Byzantine liturgy as recorded in manuscripts of the euchologion. The rite of marriage is a particularly illuminating case. While Greek manuscripts copied around the time of the first printed editions reveal great variety in the ritual forms and texts employed for this rite,73 today, Eastern Orthodox dioceses as diverse and distant from one another as Athens and Krasnoyarsk celebrate rites for marriage that are virtually identical to one another and which conform to the version of the rite found in the sixteenth-century Venetian printed books. A similar phenomenon can also be found with respect to other liturgical services.84”
-Gabriel Radle, The Standardization of Liturgy in the Late Byzantine Period: The Case of the Rite of Marriage in South-Slavic Manuscripts and Early Printed Editions
“Because there is no one “head” of the Orthodox Church save for Jesus himself, it is not always easy to flowchart the organizational structure of worldwide Orthodoxy. Instead of an institutional head like the pope in Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy has fourteen (sixteen if one counts the Orthodox Church of America [OCA] and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church) self-governing (“autocephalous”) churches, each ruled by a patriarch or metropolitan bishop. Each is free to take decisions regarding their internal affairs, but no one bishop can act on behalf of all. These churches include the following:
Patriarchate of Constantinople;
Patriarchate of Alexandria;
Patriarchate of Antioch;
Patriarchate of Jerusalem;
Patriarchate of Moscow;
Patriarchate of Serbia;
Patriarchate of Romania;
Patriarchate of Bulgaria;
Patriarchate of Georgia;
Church of Cyprus;
Church of Greece;
Church of Poland;
Church of Albania;
Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia;
Orthodox Church of America, whose autocephaly was granted by Moscow in 1970, but never recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch; and
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, controversially given autocephaly in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate but whose status is contested by Moscow.
The heads of these churches are all in communion with one another and recognize each other as “Orthodox,” even if there are sometimes temporary disagreements because of jurisdictional disputes or disciplinary issues. The Ecumenical Patriarch remains de jure first among the bishops, although the Patriarch of Moscow has achieved a de facto primacy within Orthodoxy because of the size of his church—roughly 40 percent of the world’s Orthodox Christians live in Russia.”
-A. Edward Siecienski, Orthodox Christianity: A Very Short Introduction, pp. 74-75
See for example, T. Pott, Byzantine Liturgical Reform: A Study of Liturgical Change in the Byzantine Tradition (Crestwood, 2010), p. 230; S. Alexopoulos and D. B. Anatolikiotes, ‘Towards a History of Printed Liturgical Books in the Modern Greek State: A Survey’, Ecclesia Orans 34 (2017), pp. 421-460.
For the impact of the printing press on Western liturgy, see, for example, Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early-Modern Europe, I-II (Cambridge, 1979), p. 313; eadem, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 22005), p. 173.
Compare, for example, the texts given in P. Trempelas, Μικρὸν Εὐχολόγιον, Τ. Α´:Αἱ ἀκολουθίαι καὶ τάξεις Μνήστρων καὶ Γάμου, Εὐχελαίου, Χειροτονιῶν καὶ Βαπτίσματος (Athens, 1955), pp. 41-79. Compare also the printed editions to the structure of the Byzantine rite of marriage given in sixteenth-century Calabrian manuscripts discussed in Gabriel Radle, ‘The Byzantine Marriage Tradition in Calabria: Vatican Reginensis gr. 75 (an. 982/3)’, BBGG III s., 9 (2012), pp. 221-246, on pp. 241-42 and n. 60.
Some liturgical practices that were once isolated to Late Byzantine manuscripts of particular regions are today found in printed liturgical books across the Orthodox world by virtue of their inclusion in the early printed editions. For example, some of the rites associated with motherhood in the contemporary euchologion were attested only in manuscripts of some regions, but spread as a result of their inclusion in the early printed editions. See the abstract of the talk by Nina Glibetic at the 2014 conference of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America, available online at: http://www.bsana.net/conference/archives/2014/Abstracts_2014.pdf