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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Church History – III. Dogmatics – IV. Practical Theology – V. North America – VI. Missiology I. Religious Studies Generally speaking, the term laity (from Gk λαος/ laós, “people”) denotes adherents of a religious tradition who do not act as religious specialists or function within a defined socio-religious class (Priesthood, Monasticism). The use of the term is therefore inappropriate in religions without religious specialists, for example Islam. In some religions, the laity, who…

[German Version] A hierodeacon (Gk ἱεροδιάκονος) is an Orthodox monk (Monasticism: III) who officiates as deacon (VII) during the liturgy of the hours (IV) and the regular liturgy (VI). The number of deacons consecrated as hierodeacons or as hieromonks is limited, because only as many receive ordination (II) as are absolutely necessary for the conduct of the religious service in the monastery church. Like the priest-monks, the deacon-monks hold no elevated rank in the monastery, except during worship…

[German Version] “Ektenia” is derived from Gk ἐκτενής/ ektenḗs, lit. “outstretched, unceasing, fervent” (cf. ¶ Acts 12:5). In Orthodox worship, it designates the intercessions that are sung in antiphonous alternation, in the form of a litany. The deacon (Diaconate: VII) stands in the nave of the church with his (right) hand outstretched, and recites the petitions, whereupon the worshipers or the chorus respond with Kyrie eleison or “Grant [this], O Lord.” The Orthodox liturgy, the hourly prayers as well as other…

[German Version] Užgorod (Czech Užhorod, Hung. Ungvár), in western Ukraine, belonged politically to the kingdom of Hungary from the Middle Ages to 1918; it went to Czechoslovakia in 1919 but was returned to Hungary in 1940. It was in the Soviet Union after 1945 and has been in independent Ukraine since 1991. In the conflict between Habsburg pressure for Catholic union and the pressure of the Reformed local rulers of Transylvania for conversion, on Apr 23, 1646, 63 priests of the Orthodox diocese o…

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Middle Ages – III. Reformation – IV. Modern Period – V. Present – VI. Practical Theology I. Early Church The church polity projected and in part realized in early Christianity is one of the most significant institutional inventions of Late Antiquity. Since it has survived into the present, with many modifications and variations, it also represents an element of continuity between the ancient world and the modern world. Church polity as used here means all the institutions affecting the external organization of early Ch…

[German Version] I. Auxiliary Bishop – II. Chorbishop – III. Regional Bishop – IV. Suffragan Bishop – V. Titular Bishop – VI. Vicar Bishop I. Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop appointed at the request of a diocesan bishop to assist him in administration of the diocese. His rights, duties, and official functions are defined by canon law ( CIC cc. 403–411) and his letter of appointment. An auxiliary bishop is a member of the Bishops' Conference. Unlike a coadjutor, an auxiliary bishop does not have the right of succession. Wilhelm Rees Bibliography J. Listl, “Koadjutor-…

[German Version] Greek Catholic Church, a term used for what were formerly referred to as Uniate Christians and churches in eastern and southern Europe that were regarded as being part of the Roman Catholic Church as a result of unions with Rome. “Greek” implies the Orthodox liturgy (VI), which the Uniate churches celebrate in a modified form, while “Catholic” refers to the Roman Catholic confessional church. In the Habsburg monarchy, Greek Catholic was the official designation of the churches uni…

[German Version] Greek ᾿Ελευϑέριος, stemmed from the region of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor (according to Konstantin Harmenopulos's Häretikertraktat, PG 150, 25D). Apparently, he was active in the 10th century as a monk and founded a monastery in the region of Lycaonia. According to Harmenopulos, he is supposed to have proposed radically ascetic to libertine doctrines concerning the cohabitation of monks with women. He a…

[German Version] (c. 1350, probably Constantinople – between 1431 and 1438, Constantinople), monk and a learned Byzantine theologian. Joseph worked on the island of Crete, which belonged to Venice, from c. 1382/1383 to 1402/1403 as a preacher and Orthodox missionary. Afterwards, he lived primarily in Constantinople, c. 1402–1406 in the Studios monastery and 1416–1427 in the Charsianites monastery. As a representative of the ecumenical patriarch (Constantinople: V), he was supposed to strengthen th…

[German Version] A hieromonk (Gk ἱερομόναχος/ hieromónachos) is an Orthodox monk (Monasticism: III) who also serves as a priest (Priesthood: III, 3). Since its beginnings in Late Antiquity, Eastern monasticism has remained fundamentally a separate group within the church, distinct from both clergy (Clergy and laity: I, 2) and laity (III, 2). Therefore the monks allow only as many of their number to be ordained as priests as are absolutely necessary for the liturgy of the hours (IV) and the eucharistic…

[German Version] (Hung. Karlócza), a city on the Danube in Syrmia (Srem), Serbia, a Baroque ecclesiastical center of Orthodox Serbs within the Catholic Habsburg empire. From 1713 to 1920, it was a metropolitan (II) see, autocephalous (Autocephaly) after the abolition of the patriarchate of Peć in 1766. With the help of Russian theologians from Kiev, Sremski Karlovci became an intellectual and theological center (seminary opened in 1774, the first Serbian Gymnasium in 1791). The “national church co…

[German Version] Iaşi, a city in eastern Romania. Together with Suceava (Polish: Suczawa), Iaşi was intermittently the seat of the dukes and metropolitans of Moldavia from the 15th century onward, and became their permanent seat at the end of the 16th century. In 1642 a synod met in Iaşi which passed the so-called Confessio Orthodoxa (Articles of Faith: II) of P. Mogila. Iaşi stood under Greek (Phanariot) and partly under Russian influence until the 19th century. The transition to the Romanian-national cultural language was effected in Iaşi around …

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Orthodox Canon Law I. Early Church The metropolitanate is an outgrowth of the emergence of synods, which in the late 2nd century slowly began to develop into the most important regional ecclesiastical authorities (see also Church polity: I, 3.a). As soon as synods began to assemble regularly on a provincial level (Ecclesiastical province), the bishop of the provincial capital acquired new authority, which increasingly became legally codified. At the beginning of the 4…

[German Version] Peć, city on the Bistrica in Kosovo. It appears in documents from the early 13th century, when the archbishop of Žiča moved his see to Peć. Tsar Stefan Dushan (1331–1355) of Serbia named Archbishop Janićije I patriarch of the Serbs and Greeks, thus creating the first Serbian patriarchate of Peć, not recognized by Constantinople. The so-called Patriaršija, with the churches of the Holy Apostles (c. 1230), the Theotokos (before 1337), and St. Demetrius (before 1324), still bears witness to the golden age of Serbo-Byzantine art. After 138…