It depends on what particular church someone is a member of. In my case, the Orthodox Church in America whose primate is Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of all America and Canada. My bishop is Paul, Bishop of Chicago.
Because I’m not sure if a Patriarch, Metropolitan, etc… is a Bishop. Are those just titles, like arch bishop, Cardinal, Pope?
They are titles - all are indeed bishops. When we talk about primacy of honor, all bishops are equal including the primate, but at the same time the primate is given particular responsibilities to carry out in the life of the church, but being equal with his brother bishops he strives to carry out those responsibilities in a spirit of consensus and unanimity with all the bishops.
Like @Isaac14 said, all are bishops. Patriarch and Metropolitan are just titles. Think of the Pope of Rome. He is the Bishop of the diocese of Rome. Or the Ecumenical Patriarch, he is the Archbishop of Constantinople.
I did not say you did.
These are not ‘most organizations’ but canonical churches that do not have ‘one guy at the top’.
I doubt that the theology of the Eastern Catholic Church is the same as the theology of the Orthodox church. For one thing, the priest at the Byzantine Catholic Church has said that it is a mortal sin to miss Divine Liturgy on Sunday. It is my understanding that the Orthodox churches do not have mortal and venial sins.
Only when we’re doing it right . . .
Neither do EC . . . although you will have no difficulty finding plenty of EO and EC writings on the matter . . .
Note the Melkite reservations on the signing of Vatican I . . .
There are other differences also:
Do Eastern Catholics accept Vatican I or do they reject Vatican I as do the Orthodox?
This is an aberration that should not be.
Even “tolerate” is too strong a word for that.
Yes.
I’ll go with Patriarch Athenagoras’ critic on Humanae Vitae, “We assure you that we remain close to you, above all in these recent days when you have taken the good step of publishing the encyclical Humanae Vitae. We are in total agreement with you, and wish you all God’s help to continue your mission in the world.”
Hello. A genuine question as I had looked into the Orthodox Chirch in America. Aren’t they not in communion with the other Orthodox churches? I understand they hope they will be in the future, but are not and never have been as of now.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify! The Orthodox Church in America is in communion with all Eastern Orthdox churches. Its status as an autocephalous church, however is not universally acknowledged. We were given our autocephalous status by the Russian Orthodox Church in, if I recall correctly, 1970. The Ecumenical Patriarch does not accept that Russia had the right to do so and views us an an autonomous church under Moscow.
The Eastern Churches both Orthodox and Catholic believe in purification but what we do not agree with the West is the need to make expiation for sin after death (Purgatory). We believe that a) the souls of the departed require purification before entering the Kingdom of God, and b) that prayers for the dead are efficacious to that effect.
I’m sure the filioque is a non-issue for most Orthodox. Just the ones you find on FaceBook lol!
There are two levels of theology; theologia prima and theologia secunda. The first is the foundational belief of the Church, as embedded in its rule of prayer. Where we differ, and this may be where the author refers to as terminology, would be the theologia secunda. Theologia secunda is the result of contemplation and reflection upon theologia prima. Because doctrine is culturally, historically and linguistically conditioned, it is this experience which shapes how the East and the West understand the theologia prima.
