Who is the bishop in the Orthodox tradition?
Who is the bishop in the Orthodox tradition?
Among the clergy of the Orthodox Churchthree orders are singled out. Some are called deacons, others are priests, and still others are bishops. The church hierarchy was established in the apostolic period and still retains a continuity from the closest disciples of Christ.
The bishop is the highest ecclesiastical hierarch. Otherwise, these people can be called "princes of the Church." The bishopric is the highest form of the priesthood.
Only the priests can be a bishop,who took monastic vows. Thus the person necessarily passes all degrees of the priestly service, beginning from the lowest, such as deacons and priesthood. In the practice of the Orthodox Church, priests may also be bishops, who have remained widowers, however, monastic vows should still be taken as such.
The bishop must not be just and not onlythe spiritual father of all believing people of a particular ecclesiastical region (diocese). The bishop (bishop) is also responsible as the chief administrative figure of the diocese. Each bishop is entrusted to the government by a certain ecclesiastical region, all the temples and monasteries of which are under the authority of the archpastor. If we speak in secular language, then the bishop is the governor of the church area.
The ruling bishops (bishops) are the only onesthe right to ordain. It is they who dedicate deacons and priests to the sanctuary. And the bishops themselves are ordained only by the patriarch in collaboration with other archpastors.
There are several "titles" in the episcopate,which can be "appropriated" for certain services to the Church and the Fatherland or for long service. So, there are bishops, archbishops and metropolitans. In recent years, in Russia, due to the increase in the number of dioceses and the division of the latter into smaller church areas, there are metropolias. The latter unite several dioceses. The head of the whole metropolia becomes the Metropolitan.
The Patriarch (the head of the whole Church) is also a bishop. He is elected from among the worthy metropolitans.
