With the exception of the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Catholic Churches, most churches make no moral distinction between rhythm and mechanical or chemical contraceptives, allowing the couple free choice.

Today, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches stand virtually alone in holding that conviction.

With a membership currently estimated at over 85 million members worldwide, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Its intent was to provide the basis for discussions of reunion with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but it had the ancillary effect of establishing parameters of Anglican identity.

* 1962 – Representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church and Vatican City meet in Metz, France, and come to an agreement wherein the Russian church would send observers to the Second Vatican Council and in exchange, the Roman Catholic Church would refuse to condemn Communism.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, the Abbot is referred to as the Hegumen.

Arianism is defined as those teachings attributed to Arius which are in opposition to mainstream Trinitarian Christological doctrine, as determined by the first two Ecumenical Councils and currently maintained by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and most Reformation Protestant Churches.

In the Catholic Church ( both the Latin Rite and Eastern Catholic ), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Anglican abbeys, the mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot.

As they do not receive Holy Orders in the Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental Churches, they do not possess the ability to ordain any religious to Holy Orders, or even admit their members to the non-ordained ministries to which they can be installed by the ordained clergy ( females do not serve as clergy anyway, per formal church teaching, in these churches ), nor do they exercise the authority they do possess under canon law over any territories outside of their monastery and its territory ( though non-cloistered, non-contemplative female religious members who are based in a convent or monastery but who participate in external affairs may assist as needed by the diocesan bishop and local secular clergy and laity, in certain pastoral ministries and administrative and non-administrative functions not requiring ordained ministry or status as a male cleric in those churches or programs ).

Saint Alcuin ( Alcuin of York ) is considered as a saint by all the main branches of Christianity: Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

*** Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos ( Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches )

Surviving medieval art is primarily religious in focus and funded largely by the State, Roman Catholic or Orthodox church, powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular patrons.

Further, proponents of the necessity of the personal apostolic succession of bishops within the Church point to the universal practice of the undivided early Church ( up to AD 431 ), before being divided into the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Churches that claim some form of episcopal apostolic succession, dating back to the apostles or to leaders from the apostolic era, include the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Church of the East, the Anglican Communion, and some Lutheran Churches ( see below ).

Roman Catholics recognize the validity of the apostolic successions of the bishops, and therefore the rest of the clergy, of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, and the Old Catholic Church ( Union of Utrecht only ).

The Eastern Orthodox generally recognize Roman Catholic orders, but have a different concept of the apostolic succession as it exists outside of Eastern Orthodoxy.

The lack of apostolic succession through bishops is the primary basis on which Protestant communities are not considered churches by the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Coptic and Old Catholic Churches consider this anointing to be a sacrament.

The designation of five Catholic theologians to attend the World Council of Churches assembly in New Delhi as `` official '' observers reverses the Church's earlier stand.

In Western Christianity, this day is observed principally in the Catholic Church, although some churches of Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches also celebrate it.

** Leave-Taking of the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos ( Eastern Catholic Churches )

Though the anthem of the Church of England is analogous to the motet of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches, both being written for a trained choir and not for the congregation, it is as a musical form essentially English in its origin and development.

It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Orthodoxy.

The Holy See accepts as valid the ordinations of the Old Catholics in communion with Utrecht, as well as the Polish National Catholic Church ( which received its orders directly from Utrecht, and was — until recently — part of that communion ); but Roman Catholicism does not recognise the orders of any group whose teaching is at variance with what they consider the core tenets of Christianity ; this is the case even though the clergy of the Independent Catholic groups may use the proper ordination ritual.

Some Anglican churches consider themselves both Protestant and Catholic.

Some Anglicans consider their church a branch of the " One Holy Catholic Church " alongside of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a concept rejected by the Roman Catholic Church and some Eastern Orthodox.

The Roman Catholic Church does not consider the validity of an ecumenical council's teaching to be in any way dependent on where it is held or on the granting or withholding of prior authorization or legal status by any state, in line with the attitude of the 5th-century bishops who " saw the definition of the church's faith and canons as supremely their affair, with or without the leave of the Emperor " and who " needed no one to remind them that Synodical process pre-dated the Christianisation of the royal court by several centuries ".

In 1980, Hayek, a non-practicing Roman Catholic, was one of twelve Nobel laureates to meet with Pope John Paul II, " to dialogue, discuss views in their fields, communicate regarding the relationship between Catholicism and science, and ' bring to the Pontiff's attention the problems which the Nobel Prize Winners, in their respective fields of study, consider to be the most urgent for contemporary man.

As Anglicanism represents a broad range of theological opinion, its presbyterate includes priests who consider themselves no different in any respect from those of the Roman Catholic Church, and a minority who prefer to use the title presbyter in order to distance themselves from the more sacrificial theological implications which they associate with the word “ priest .” While priest is the official title of a member of the presbyterate in every Anglican province worldwide, the ordination rite of certain provinces ( including the Church of England ) recognizes the breadth of opinion by adopting the title The Ordination of Priests ( also called Presbyters ).

Stephen IX died at Florence on 29 March 1058 and is considered by the current-day Roman Catholic Church to have been succeeded by Pope Nicholas II, though others consider his successor to be Pope Benedict X, officially regarded as an antipope.

) Consequently, they regard Catholic priests ordained or consecrated as bishops since 1968, when the new rite came into use, as invalid, and they consider Pope Benedict XVI, who was consecrated a bishop in 1977 in the new rite, to be a mere priest, who cannot be the Bishop of Rome.

* 1274 – May 7 – The Second Council of Lyons, held by the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church convenes to consider the conquest of the Holy Land via Crusades and address the East-West Schism with the Byzantine church.

* May 7 – The Second Council of Lyons, held by the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church convenes to consider the liberation of the Holy Land via Crusades and address the East-West Schism with the Byzantine church.

Certain Traditionalist Catholic groups, particularly Sedevacantists, consider Lumen Gentium to be the demarcation of when the Roman Church fell into heresy, pointing to the use of " subsistit in " rather than " est " as an abdication of the Church's historic ( and to them compulsory ) identification of itself alone as God's church.

At least one Roman Catholic writer does not consider Mormons and members of some other religious groups to be separated brethren.

Because the most powerful church in the East was what has become known as the Eastern Orthodox church, the term " Orthodox " is often used in a similarly loose fashion as " Eastern ", although strictly speaking most churches consider themselves part of an Orthodox and Catholic communion.

* Part three goes on to say that the Catholic Church regards the Muslims with esteem, and then continues by describing some of the things Islam has in common with Christianity and Catholicism: worship of One God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, Merciful and Omnipotent, Who has spoken to men ; the Muslims ' respect for Abraham and Mary, and the great respect they have for Jesus, whom they consider to be a Prophet and not God.

A minority of Anglo-Catholics, sometimes called Anglo-Papalists, consider themselves under papal supremacy even though they are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning how to consider politics and ethics.

This understanding of " full communion " differs from that of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity in that the churches that enter into such arrangements do not consider themselves as forming together a single church.

The other section of Christians under the Roman Catholic Church did not consider Mar Thoma I as a bishop due to the nature of his ordination and many of the revolters returned to the Roman Catholic Church between 1653 and 1665 as a result of the proselytization efforts of the Carmelite missionaries sent by Rome.