What “Denomination” of the Orthodox Church?

Question: You always talk about “The Church” and the Orthodox faith. What denomination of the Orthodox Church are you talking about? There are many different denominations in it.

The claim that there are “different denominations” within Orthodoxy is not only inaccurate—it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Orthodox Church is.

The Orthodox Church is not a collection of separate or competing sects. It is a single, unified communion of local Churches, each governed by its own synod of bishops, yet fully united in faith, sacraments, apostolic succession, and dogma. These local Churches—such as the Russian, Greek, Serbian, Antiochian, Romanian, and others—are not denominations, sects or cults in the Protestant sense. They do not possess divergent doctrines or separate ecclesiologies. Rather, they are territorial expressions of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

To speak of “denominations” in this context imposes a Western ecclesiological framework—specifically a post-Reformation paradigm—onto the Orthodox Church, where it simply does not belong. Denominations, as understood in the West, differ in doctrine, sacraments, hierarchy, and often in fundamental theological world-view. This is not the case within Orthodoxy. All canonical Orthodox Churches confess the same Creed, celebrate the same Divine Mysteries, preserve the same liturgical life, and are united through the same patristic tradition.

What sometimes causes confusion is the existence of national jurisdictions, especially in diaspora communities. But these are administrative and pastoral structures, not divisions in faith. Where there is disagreement between bishops or synods, it is not doctrinal division but usually concerns issues of primacy, governance, or political interference. Such tensions are not new to Church history and do not constitute denominationalism in any sense.

To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand the very nature of the Orthodox Church, which regards itself not as one tradition among many, but as the continuation of the Church founded by Christ and the Apostles, preserved without rupture or innovation. Any internal disagreements or breaks in communion (such as between Constantinople and Moscow) are viewed as temporary wounds in the Body, not the birth of separate ecclesial bodies. The goal is always reconciliation—not multiplication.

To assert that Eastern Orthodoxy contains denominations is to misapply a Protestant term to a Church that does not fit that model. Orthodoxy is one Church in many local expressions, not many churches under one label. This unity of faith, liturgy, and sacramental life is what has preserved the Orthodox Church unbroken for nearly two thousand years.