Church of Greece

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The flag of the Greek Orthodox Church with the imperial-Byzantine double eagle of the palaeologists

The Church of Greece ( Greek Εκκλησία της Ελλάδος Ekklesia tes Ellados ) is a part of Orthodox Christianity in Greece . Their dioceses cover the greater southern part of the country; the rest of the country is directly subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , which also looks after communities outside Greece.

history

Territorial development of the state of Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries Century

The dioceses of today's Church of Greece were originally under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople . After Greece gained state independence from the Ottoman Empire, the Church of Greece declared itself autocephalous in 1833 . Their autocephaly was recognized in principle by the Constantinople Patriarchate in 1850.

Territory and structure

The Church of Greece is now divided into 77 dioceses with the Archdiocese of Athens at the top. Its territory includes the state of Greece, but with various exceptions and peculiarities: Crete , the Holy Mount Athos and the Dodecanese are still directly subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The so-called "New Lands", d. H. Northern Greece and the other Aegean islands, which were not incorporated into the Greek state until the 20th century, also belong nominally and spiritually to the Ecumenical Patriarchate; therefore in this area the patriarch (and not the archbishop of Athens) are commemorated in the liturgy and their own liturgical books are used. However, the administration of the northern Greek dioceses is now carried out by the Church of Greece .

Archbishop Jerome II of Athens

The head of the Church of Greece has called himself Archbishop of Athens and All Greece since 1923 . His rank corresponds to the major archbishop of the Eastern Catholic Churches . Ordinary diocesan bishops all hold the title of metropolitan . Episcopal Church is the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Athens. After the death of Archbishop Christodoulos , Jerome II was elected Archbishop of Athens and chairman of the Bishops' Conference of the Orthodox Churches in Greece on February 7, 2008 .

The Church of Greece has about 9 million Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Church is the largest landowner in Greece. The salary of the priests is paid by the Greek state. In 2012, due to the financial crisis , the Greek government considered paying only half of the priests' salaries in future.

literature

See also

Commons : Greek Orthodox Church  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Greece wants to pay priests only half their salary. In: diepresse.com. DiePresse.com, accessed on May 1, 2016 .