Eastern Orthodox Church
The
Eastern Orthodox Church, officially called the
Orthodox Catholic Church, and also referred to as the
Orthodox Church and
Orthodoxy, identifies itself as the present-day continuation of the theology and episcopacy established by Jesus Christ through his Apostles. The Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian church in the world, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, primarily in Eastern Europe, throughout the Middle East and across Russia. It is the religious affiliation of the majority of the populations of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine; significant minority populations exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kazakhstan, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the disciples almost 2,000 years ago. The Church's structure is composed of several self-governing ecclesial bodies, each geographically distinct but unified in theology and worship.