Nations and their churches
As Greece, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria win independence from the Ottomans, each sets up its own self-governing ("autocephalous") national church.
- The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)
- A Concise History of Greece — Richard Clogg, Cambridge University Press (1992)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture — John Anthony McGuckin, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
Independent Greece declared its church autocephalous in 1833, and Constantinople recognised it in 1850. Serbia’s church followed in 1879 and Romania’s in 1885. Bulgaria won its own exarchate from the sultan in 1870, but the patriarchate condemned it in 1872 for “phyletism”, organising the church by ethnicity, and the breach was healed only in 1945. Orthodoxy thus became a communion of national churches, united in faith and worship but each with its own head.
- The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)
- A Concise History of Greece — Richard Clogg, Cambridge University Press (1992)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture — John Anthony McGuckin, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
Why it matters today
Orthodoxy today is a family of self-governing national churches, which is why people say "Greek Orthodox" or "Serbian Orthodox". It explains how closely many Orthodox tie faith to nationality, and why disputes over who may grant autocephaly, as in Ukraine, become so bitter.