The Orthodox Church is together with the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of the Reformation, one of the three branches of Christianity. Orthodoxy as the Church of Christ on earth is little normative since it concerns a new life with Christ and in Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. The Orthodox Church in essence is not an institution but the very Body of Christ Himself. Out of His love for mankind, Jesus Christ did not leave us a new philosophy or metaphysics but His very own Body. The risen Lord, ever continues to live in His Church on earth and our own life is found in this great mystery of Christ in earth. Christians, are called such because they belong to Christ, they live in Christ and Christ lives in them.
The Orthodox Church is in it's essence a liturgical Eucharistic Church. This reality is expressed in the image of the Church as the Bride of Christ the Logos of the Word of God, who is the Bridegroom. It is a covenant of everlasting fullness, or an incomplete completeness that realizes itself more and more by the operation of the Holy Trinity in the mysteries of the Church. This unity one finds especially in the Byzantine Liturgy in which the historical and spiritual continuity of Orthodoxy is expressed, broad synthesis of the theology of the Church fathers and councils. Today this Liturgy is celebrated in the most diverse languages in the whole world. In part, because of the last large migrations of the 19th and especially the 20th century, is the Orthodox Church now present on all continents. The encounter between Orthodoxy and the west is, due to several orthodox diasporas, undeniably one of the major spiritual events of our time. At present the Orthodox Church encompasses the four ancient Patriarchates of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarchate), Alexandria, Antiochian (See in Damascus), Jerusalem and also the Patriarchate of Moscow (since 1589), as well as the Patriarchates of recent date: Serbia (1920), Romania (1925) Bulgaria (1953) and Georgia (1990 but it's origin goes back to the 4th century). Then there exist several autocephalis Churches like the ones of Cyprus, Greece, Poland and Albania. The total number of orthodox in the whole world is around 250 million. The situatoin in which most local Orthodox Churches find themselves at present makes any religious statistics difficult or impossible to ascertain.