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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, among other things, is to preserve and teach the Apostolic and Patristic traditions and related Church practices. All Orthodox bishops 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 the authentic and original Christian Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. As such, the Eastern Orthodox Church views its role as the preserver of the teachings and traditions given to the Early Christians by the Apostles nearly 2,000 years ago and the developer of conciliar interpretations which expand and illuminate the original teachings. 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. When one considers the name of the Church one must place it within its historical context. From the beginning Christians referred to their Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. While today, a number of other Churches also lay claim to this title (The Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church, the Coptic Church, and others), the Orthodox Church sees these other Churches as break-away groups; the Assyrians and Copts broke from the church after the first few centuries and the Roman Catholics in the 11th century (see East-West Schism). The term “Orthodox” translates from the Greek to mean “Correctly Believing” or "Correctly Glorifying God" (from the adjective orthos = correct, right & the verb dokeo,-o = I see, I believe or the noun doxa = glory) and was adopted by the Church in order to distinguish itself from what was becoming a larger and larger body of non-orthodox Christian denominations. What unites the Orthodox is their theology, which is the same across the board, but because each congregation is governed by its local bishop (or synod of bishops), differences in style and custom are common between countries. These local customs are referred to as differences in “Typica” and are perfectly acceptable within the Church since they do not conflict with the Theology. Thus it is that many Orthodox Churches adopt a national title (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc.) and this title serves to distinguish which language, which bishops, and which typica is followed by that particular congregation. Members of the Church are free to associate with any congregation regardless of typical differences though most members tend to gravitate to whichever group makes them feel most comfortable. Because of theological and spiritual unity and because of their devotion to the original teachings and traditions of the Christian faith; the Orthodox consider themselves to be the only valid continuation of the original One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
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