Category:GOC

"GOC" represents the "Greek Orthodox Church", and more specifically to the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece.

Greek Orthodox Church Web-site : http://www.ecclesia.gr/english/archbishop/default.asp?id=707&what_main=1&what_sub=25&lang=en&archbishop_who=2

Orthodoxwiki article about the Church of Greece : https://orthodoxwiki.org/Church_of_Greece

Greek Orthodox Church Web-site : http://www.ecclesia.gr/english/archbishop/default.asp?id=707&what_main=1&what_sub=25&lang=en&archbishop_who=2

Web-site of the Church of Greece : http://www.ecclesia.gr/ (in Greek)

Orthodoxwiki article about the Church of Greece : https://orthodoxwiki.org/Church_of_Greece

The Church of Greece is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches of the Orthodox Christian communion, whose territory consists of the whole of Greece except for those parts which belong to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, such as the Dodecanese and Crete. Though bishops of the "new lands" (those that were liberated from 1912 and afterward) are members of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, they commemorate the Patriarch of Constantinople in the divine services.

Though it is also called the Greek Orthodox Church this reference is not restricted to the Church of Greece since it is also used by some of the Churches and Archbishoprics under the Patriarchate of Constantinople around the world.

The current primate of the Church of Greece is His Beatitude Ieronymos II (Liapis), Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

History

The first contact of the Greeks with Christ is related by the author of the Fourth Gospel. He writes that some Greeks among those who used to visit Jerusalem at the Passover approached Philip and Andrew and asked to see Jesus (Jn. 12.20-24). The Greeks, as seekers after truth, were eager to listen to something novel, to meet the new master. Jesus was aware that the Greeks who came to Him were men with a searching mind and a troubled spirit. Upon His confrontation with them, He exclaimed, "The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified" (Jn. 12.23). These Greeks were few in number, but Christ saw in them not only Greeks but Romans and Scythians and other peoples of all times and places who would also seek to find Him. Jesus said the hour had come for the Christian Gospel to be proclaimed outside the limited boundaries of ancient Israel.

The Greeks have played a major role in the kerygma and the didache of Christ. The Greeks found in the person of Christ the eternal Logos and the "unknown God" of their forefathers, while Christ discovered in them sincere followers and dedicated apostles of the New Kingdom.

In the history of the Greek Orthodox Church four stages of development can be distinguished. The first three centuries, through the age of Constantine the Great constitute the apostolic and ancient period. The medieval period includes almost ten centuries, to the fall of Constantinople. The age of captivity starts, roughly, in the fifteenth century and ends about the year 1830. It is followed by the modern period.

Stage 1: Apostolic and Ancient Period

The Greek Orthodox Church traces its history back to the time of St. Paul who was the first to preach Christianity in Greece. He visited Athens, Philippi, Thessaloniki, Veroia, Corinth and Crete. Christianity eventually spread through Greece from these cities. In these early days, the Church of Greece comprised a diocese, with Corinth as the centre, known then as Achaia and considered a city of great importance.

The Church of Cyprus recognised its autonomy from the Church of Greece during the Council of Ephesus in 431. This was confirmed by the Emperor in 488.

Stage 2: The Mediaeval Period

Following three centuries of underground existence and persecution in the Roman Empire, it was again the Greek Church, the Greek language, and Greek missionaries that carried the Christian message in both the East and the West. This first period ended in 313 with the edict of toleration, where Constantine the Great divided the Roman Empire and prepared the way for Christianity to become the state religion of the later Roman and Byzantine empires. The geographical area we know today as Greece constituted the diocese of Eastern Illyricum, which was self-governing.

For historical and other reasons, the Greeks for many centuries identified themselves solely as Christians and especially during the centuries of captivity under the Turks[1]. This is significant that although the patriarchs of Constantinople and many bishops of the Bulgarians, Albanians, and Slavs were Greeks during the Ottoman period, they did not attempt to Hellenize their congregations: neither did they try to force them to abandon their liturgical traditions and cultures.[2]

The term "Hellene" as an ethnic name began to appear among the Greeks of the high Middle Ages, but still was not commonly used. However, all nations living outside the medieval Greek world of the Byzantine Empire, such as the Russians, the Germans, Khazars, the English, the Georgians, the peoples of Italy, and the Franks, called the native inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire "Greeks." The designations "Greek Orthodox" and "Roman Catholic" were unknown in the early and medieval Church, and they took on their distinct meaning only after the eleventh century.

By 733 AD, under Emperor Leo the Third, Greece was acknowledged as part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but prior to this, it was subordinated to the Bishops of Rome.

Stage 3: Age of Captivity

During the Byzantine Empire and the subsequent Turkish occupation of Greece, the Christian church in Greece was under the administration of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. After the Greek War of Independence (1821-32), the provisional president of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias(1776-1831), began negotiations with the patriarch for the independence of the Greek church. The final decision was made when Otto I (1815-1867), the new king of Greece, feared the Turkish government might still be able to influence the politics of Greece through the patriarchate of Constantinople and as such the Greek church was declared autocephalous in 1833. The independence was formalised by Constantinople in 1850, with some limitations.

Stage 4: The Modern Period

Contemporary map of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's jurisdictions in Turkey and Greece. In 1864, the Ionian islands were added to the Church of Greece and in 1881 the diocese of Thessaly and parts of Epirus were also added. Also in this year, the first Greek Orthodox church was founded in America. Under an agreement made in 1908 between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Holy Synod of Athens, jurisdiction of the churches in America was given to the Church of Greece. In 1927, the statutes regarding the Church were modified resulting in the government controlling the church and attending the Holy Synod meetings. So during the 20s and 30s, the turbulent political events in Greece divided the Greeks of America and this resulted in Archbishop Athenaogoras of Corfu to be appointed to head the Greek Church in America.

Today the Church of Greece is governed by a Holy Synod, presided over by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Athens and assisted by four bishops chosen in regular succession. The Patriarch of Constantinople is still regarded as the spiritual head of the church and all of the Holy Chrisma used in Greece is consecrated by him. Organised as a state church, similar to the pattern adopted in the Russian church under Peter the Great of Russia, the ultimate authority is vested in the Synod of Bishops under the presidency of the archbishop of Athens and all Greece. A second synod, with the same presidency, consists of 12 bishops, each serving for one year only. The first synod deals with general ecclesiastical questions, whereas the second synod deals with administrative details. The church is divided into 81 small dioceses; some of these, are nominally under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. The majority of the church's priests in Greece do not have a university education, with very little formal training beyond two years at higher seminaries after high school. An up-to-date listing, in order of seniority of ordination, of the Holy Synod can be accessed at the Church of Greece's official website.