The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, is a communion composed of up to seventeen separate autocephalous (self-governing) hierarchical churches that profess Eastern Orthodoxy and recognise each other as canonical (regular) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
An exarch was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical.
The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) was an organization of bishops from Eastern Orthodox Christian jurisdictions in the Americas. It acted as a clearinghouse for educational, charitable, and missionary work in the Americas. In 2010, it was replaced by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America.
Eastern Orthodoxy in Italy refers to adherents, religious communities, institutions and organizations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Italy. In 2014, there were 14 distinctive Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions on the territory of Italy, some of them belonging to canonical Eastern Orthodox churches, while others are classified as independent (noncanonical). First session of the Council of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in Italy was held in 2009.
Castello is the largest of the six sestieri of Venice, Italy.
The Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe is an archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with special status, headquartered in Paris. It comprises various Russian Orthodox parishes located throughout Western Europe.
Alfred Herbert Ernest Osborne, formerly known as Basil Osborne, is a former Eastern Orthodox Christian bishop. Osborne was formerly an auxiliary bishop of the Patriarchate of Moscow from 1991 to 2006 and a titular bishop under the Ecumenical Patriarchate from 2006 to 2010. He was returned to lay status, at his own request, in February 2010 after indicating to the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople that he wished to resume a family life and be free to remarry.
San Giorgio dei Greci is a church in the sestiere (neighborhood) of Castello, Venice, northern Italy. It was the center of the Scuola dei Greci, the Confraternity of the Greeks in Venice. Around this period there was a similar church in Naples called Santi Pietro e Paolo dei Greci. There was also a Greek Brotherhood of Naples.
Archbishop Spyridon of America is a retired Greek Orthodox bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate who was the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America from July 1997 to August 1999. Internal conflicts within the church caused his resignation in 1999, after which he went into retirement, without accepting his subsequent assignment as Metropolitan of Chaldia.
The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church or Italo-Albanian Byzantine-Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches which, together with the Latin Church, compose the Catholic Church. It is an autonomous (sui juris) particular church in full communion with the Pope of Rome, directly subject to the Roman Congregation for the Oriental Churches, but which follows the Byzantine Rite, the ritual and spiritual traditions that are common in most of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It uses two liturgical languages: Koine Greek, the traditional language of the Eastern Churches, and Albanian, the native language of most of its adherents.
The Scuola dei Greci was the confraternity of the Greek community in Venice. Its members were primarily Greeks, but also included Serbs.
Metropolitan Gennadios was the metropolitan bishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy, a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople covering Italy, Malta, and San Marino.
The Pan-Orthodox Council, officially referred to as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, was a synod of set representative bishops of the universally recognised autocephalous local churches of the Eastern Orthodox Church held in Kolymvari, Crete. The Council sat from 19 to 26 June 2016.
Patriarchate of Constantinople generally refers to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the seniormost authority in the Eastern Orthodox Church, led by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The diocese of Constantinople is alleged to have originated with Andrew the Apostle's visit in 38, and has been formally designated as Patriarchate since 531. Its seat is the city successively known as Byzantium, Constantinople, and now Istanbul, Turkey.
The Patriarchal Exarchate in Western Europe is an exarchate created by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) on 28 December 2018.
The Parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Italian Republic is a subdivision of the Russian Orthodox Church which covers the territory of Italy, Malta and San Marino.
The joining of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe to the Moscow Patriarchate was the process of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe (AROCWE), formerly part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, entering the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Greek community in Venice dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Republic of Venice was still formally part of the Byzantine Empire. Settled mostly in the sestiere of Castello, it reached its height in the centuries after the Fall of Constantinople, when many Greeks, including merchants, soldiers, and scholars, fled the Ottoman conquest. Tied to the Greek world through its extensive overseas possessions, the city became a major center for Greek education and the Modern Greek Enlightenment, but declined after the Fall of the Venetian Republic and the establishment of the modern Greek state. The community's property is now largely owned and managed by the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice.
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Italy and Malta consists of all the active Orthodox bishops serving Italy, Malta, and San Marino, and representing multiple jurisdictions. It is not, properly speaking, a synod. It is one of several such bodies around the world which operate in the so-called "diaspora."
