GREEK CHURCH

GREEK or EASTERN CHURCH, that section of the Church which formerly separated from the Roman or Western in 1054, which assumed an independent existence on account of the arrogant claims of the latter, and which acknowledges the authority of only the first seven general councils; they dissent from the FILIOQUE DOCTRINE, administer the Eucharist in both kinds to the laity, and are zealously conservative of the orthodoxy of the Church.