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Organisation and leadership

The Eastern Orthodox Church is a fellowship of autocephalous (Ancient Greek: αὐτοκέφαλος; "self-headed") churches, with the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople recognised as having primus inter pares status. The patriarch of Constantinople has the honour of primacy, but his title is only first among equals and he has no real authority over churches other than the Constantinopolitan church. Rather, his role is limited to defined prerogatives interpreted by the ecumenical patriarch. At times, though, the office of the ecumenical patriarch has been accused of Constantinopolitan or Eastern papism.

The Eastern Orthodox Church considers Jesus Christ to be the head of the Church and the Church to be his body. It is believed that Church authority and the grace of God is directly passed down to Orthodox bishops and other clergy through the laying on of hands —a practice started by the New Testament apostles — and that this unbroken historical link is an essential element of the true church (Acts 8:17; 1 Timothy 4:14; Hebrews 6:2) The Eastern Orthodox Church asserts that apostolic succession requires apostolic faith, and bishops without apostolic faith, who are in heresy, forfeit their claim to apostolic succession. Orthodox churches differentiate themselves from other Christian churches by practising " ritual and liturgy... rich in mystery and symbolism," similar to their views on the sacraments.

The Eastern Orthodox communion is organised into several regional churches, which are either autocephalous or lower-ranking autonomous ("self-governing") church bodies unified in theology and worship. These include the fourteen autocephalous churches of the Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Georgia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Greece, Poland, Romania, Albania, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were officially invited to the Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016; the Orthodox Church in America formed in 1970; the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine created in 2019; the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric, granted autocephaly by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2022; and a number of autonomous churches. Each church has a ruling bishop and a holy synod to administer its jurisdiction and lead the Eastern Orthodox Church in the preservation and teaching of the apostolic and patristic traditions and church practices.

Each bishop has a territory (see) over which he governs. His main duty is to make sure the traditions and practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church are preserved. Bishops are equal in authority and cannot interfere in the jurisdiction of another bishop. Administratively, these bishops and their territories are organised into various autocephalous groups or synods of bishops who gather together at least twice each year to discuss the state of affairs within their respective sees. While bishops and their autocephalous synods have the ability to administer guidance in individual cases, their actions do not usually set precedents that affect the entire Eastern Orthodox Church. Bishops are almost always chosen from the monastic ranks and must remain unmarried.