The Church of Greece (, ), part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Its canonical territory is confined to the borders of Greece prior to the Balkan Wars of 1912âÂÂ1913 ("Old Greece"), with the rest of Greece (the "New Lands", Crete, and the Dodecanese) being subject to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, most of the dioceses of the Metropolises of the New Lands are de facto administered as part of the Church of Greece for practical reasons, under an agreement between the churches of Athens and Constantinople. The primate of the Church of Greece is the archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
Adherence to the Eastern Orthodox Church was established as a definitive hallmark of Greek ethnic identity in the first modern Greek constitution, the "Epidaurus Law" of 1822, during the Greek War of Independence. The preamble of all subsequent Greek constitutions simply states "In the name of the Holy, Consubstantial, and Indivisible Trinity" and the Orthodox Church of Christ is established as the "prevailing" religion of Greece.
Mainstream Orthodox clergy salaries and pensions are paid by the State, at rates comparable to those of teachers. The church had previously compensated the State by a tax of 35% on ordinary revenues of the church but, in 2004, this tax was abolished by Law 3220/2004. By virtue of its status as the prevailing religion, the canon law of the Church is recognized by the Greek government in matters pertaining to church administration. Religious marriages and baptisms are legally equivalent to their civil counterparts. All Greek Orthodox students in primary and secondary schools in Greece attend religious instruction.
Liaisons between church and state are handled by the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs.
Supreme authority is vested in the synod of all the diocesan bishops who have metropolitan status (the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, ) under the de jure presidency of the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece. This synod deals with general church issues. The Standing Synod is under the same presidency, and consists of the Primate and 12 bishops; each members serves for one term on a rotating basis and deals with administrative details.
The church is organized into 81 dioceses, of which 36, located in northern Greece and in the major islands in the north and northeast Aegean, are nominally and spiritually under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Patriarchate retains certain privileges over and in themâÂÂfor example, their bishops have to acknowledge the Patriarch as their own primate during prayers. They are called the "New Lands" (ÃÂÃÂñù çÃÂÃÂñù, or Néai Chà Ârai) as they became part of the modern Greek state only after the Balkan Wars, and are represented by 6 of the 12 bishops of the Standing Synod. A bishop elected to one of the Sees of the New Lands has to be confirmed by the Patriarch of Constantinople before assuming his duties. These dioceses are administered by the Church of Greece "in stewardship" and their bishops retain their right of appeal (the "ékklÃÂton") to the Patriarch.
The dioceses of Crete (Church of Crete), the Dodecanese, and the Monastic state of Holy Mount Athos remain under the direct jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople; they are not part of the Church of Greece. The Archdiocese of Crete enjoys semiautonomous status: new bishops are elected by the local Synod of incumbents, and the Archbishop is appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate from a three-person list (the triprósà Âpon) drawn by the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs from among the incumbent Metropolitans of Crete.
As in other Orthodox Christian churches, male graduates of seminaries run by the church (and financed by the Greek State) may be ordained as deacons and eventually priests. They are allowed to marry before their ordination as deacons, but not afterwards. The vast majority of parish clergy in Greece are married. Alternatively, they may enter monasteries and/or take monastic vows. Monastics who are ordained as priests and possess a university degree in theology are eligible as candidates for the episcopate (archimandrites). Women may also take monastic vows and become nuns. In 2004, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece voted to reinstate the female diaconate, but limited ordaining women as deaconesses to monastic communities.
Monasteries are either affiliated to their local diocese, or directly to one of the Orthodox Patriarchates; in the latter case they are called "Stauropegiac" monasteries (StayropÃÂgiaká, "springs of the Cross").
A split (schism) occurred within the church in 1924 when the Holy Synod decided to replace the Old Calendar (Julian) with a hybrid calendarâÂÂthe so-called "Revised Julian Calendar"âÂÂwhich maintained a modified Julian dating method for Pascha while adopting the Gregorian Calendar date for fixed feasts. Those who refused to adopt this change are known as Old Calendarists (palaioimerologites in Greek) and still follow the old Julian Calendar. They themselves have suffered several schisms, and not all Old Calendarists comprise one church. They refer to themselves as "Genuine Orthodox Christians".
Greece was an early center of Christianity. The Apostle Paul was involved in the founding of several early Christian communities and Paul's letters to the churches in Thessalonica, Philippi, and Corinth are included in the New Testament.
Upon formation of the Patriarchate, the Church was formerly a part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Under Ottoman rule, the Muslims exercised no control over the church. With the establishment of the Greek kingdom, however, the government decided to take control of the church, breaking away from the patriarch in Constantinople. The government declared the church to be autocephalous in 1833 in a political decision of the Bavarian Regents acting for King Otto, who was a minor. The decision roiled Greek politics for decades as royal authorities took increasing control. The new status was finally recognized as such by the Patriarchate in 1850, under compromise conditions with the issue of a special "Tomos" decree.
In 1833, Parliament dissolved 400 small monasteries having fewer than five monks or nuns. Priests were not salaried; in rural areas they were peasant farmers themselves, dependent for their livelihood on their farm work and from fees and offerings by parishioners. Their ecclesiastical duties were limited to administering the sacraments, supervising funerals, the blessings of crops, and exorcism. Few attended seminaries. By the 1840s, there was a nationwide revival, run by travelling preachers. The government arrested several and tried to shut down the revival, but it proved too powerful when the revivalists denounced three bishops for purchasing their office. By the 1880s, the "Anaplasis" ("Regeneration") Movement led to renewed spiritual energy and enlightenment. It fought against the rationalistic and materialistic ideas that had seeped in from secular Western Europe. It promoted catechism schools and Bible study circles.
The 20th-century religious revival in Greece included the Zoë (Zoe) movement, a Greek Orthodox semimonastic association founded in 1907 by Eusebius Matthopoulos. Named after the Greek word for "life", the movement operated largely independently of the institutional Greek Orthodox Church and developed a strong, decentralized organizational structure centered primarily in Athens. Zoë brought together both laypeople and clergy; its core consisted of highly disciplined, unmarried members bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, approximately half of whom were ordained priests.
Zoë was actively engaged in teaching, preaching, publishing, and the administration of schools, youth organizations, and professional associations throughout Greece. It sponsored a nationwide Sunday School program operating in approximately 7,800 churches and provided religious education to an estimated 150,000 students. The movement also established affiliated organizations for youth, parents, professionals, and young women nurses, and promoted the widespread distribution of Bibles, religious literature, and pamphlets. Its publications reached hundreds of thousands of copies annually in the period following World War II. Zoë encouraged greater lay participation in liturgical and sacramental life and contributed to a broader revival of religious practice in Greece.
The movement was initially viewed with suspicion by the Orthodox episcopate, which objected to its strong independent organization. Its influence was later weakened by internal divisions, including the departure of several members who formed a rival association, Soter, as well as by its close associations with the military dictatorship established in Greece in 1967. By the late 20th century, ZoëâÂÂs prominence had significantly declined.
In a 2019 interview with Norman Russell, the Greek philosopher Christos Yannaras stated that although he had participated in the Zoë movement in his youth, he later came to regard it as crypto-Protestant in character.
Head of the Church of Greece and of the Holy Synod is Archbishop Ieronymos II (Ioannis Liapis), Archbishop of Athens and All Greece (2008âÂÂ).
Notes <br/><sup>1</sup> In 2010 the Metropolis of Attica was split into 2 new Metropolises, the Metropolis of Kifissia, Amaroussion and Oropos (temporary Vicar: the Metropolitan of Mesogeia) and the Metropolis of Ilion, Acharnes and Petroupolis (temporary Vicar: the Metropolitan of Megara) <br/><sup>2</sup> The Metropolis of Trikke was separated from the Metropolis of Stagi (and Meteora) in 1981 but still bears the titular name "Trikke and Stagi"
(under the jurisdiction of Constantinople until 1928, then under Athens; except the Dodecanese)