The Greek Church has not lacked missionary zeal. Through
her agency the barbarians who entered southeastern Europe during the early
Middle Ages were converted to Christianity. At the present time nearly all the
peoples of the Balkan peninsula, including Greeks, Montenegrins, Serbians,
Bulgarians, and Rumanians, belong to the Greek Church. [34] Its greatest
victory was won toward the close of the tenth century, when the Russians were
induced to accept the Greek form of Christianity.
[34] Many Roman Catholics are found in Croatia-Slavonia,
Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Albania.
PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE GREEK CHURCH
The patriarch of Constantinople is the spiritual head of
the Greek Church. He enjoys, however, no such wide authority over eastern
Christians as that exercised by the pope over all Roman Catholics. There are as
many as sixteen branches of the Greek Church, each self-governing and under its
own officers. Despite the local independence of its branches, the Greek Church
remains unified in doctrine. It claims to be the only "Orthodox"
church and clings with almost Oriental conservatism to the traditions of
earlier ages. Nevertheless, as the official church of Russia, the largest and
most swiftly growing of European countries, the Greek Church has before it a
future of great importance.
