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The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world. It is considered by its adherents to be the very same Church established by Christ and his Apostles. It is composed of numerous theologically unified autocephalous ecclesial bodies each shepherded by a synod of independent bishops whose duty is to preserve the beliefs and practices (Traditions) of the Church. All Orthodox bishops can trace their lineage back to one of the twelve Apostles through the process of apostolic succession.

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that the Orthodox Church is

Members of the Eastern Orthodox Church usually refer to themselves as simply Orthodox. Eastern is a term often applied in the Western World for the sake of clarity. Traditionally the Orthodox refer to themselves as Catholic (even Roman Catholic) since the Roman Empire (centered in Constantinople) called itself Roman and its people, Greek speaking though they were, called themselves Romans. But for modern scholarship and to alleviate confusion in textbooks the term Byzantine Empire is often used today. Members of the Orthodox Church consider themselves to be members of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, a claim also held by the Assyrian Church, the Coptic Church, and what is today referred to in the Western World as the Roman Catholic Church. As the Orthodox see it the Assyrians and Copts broke from the church after the first few centuries and the Roman Catholics in 1054. Since then the Eastern Church has referred to itself as Orthodox (Correct Believing). National pride has lead many local congregations to adopt national epithets such as Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox, but theologically and spiritually there is believed to be only One Church, the Orthodox Church.

Several other ancient Churches in Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa also use the term Orthodox, but are distinct from the Eastern Orthodox Church as described in this article.

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