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.

Some Eastern Orthodox Churches have issued statements to the effect that Anglican orders could be accepted, yet have still reordained former Anglican clergy ; other Orthodox churches have rejected Anglican orders altogether.

** April 6 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** April 15 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** April 30 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** August 22 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** August 6 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** August 9 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

The Eastern Orthodox Church observes several All Souls ' Days during the year.

The Eastern Orthodox Church dedicates several days throughout the year to the dead, mostly on Saturdays, because of Jesus ' resting in the Holy Sepulchre on that day.

** August 13 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

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

** August 2 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** April 1 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

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.

** August 1 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** August 3 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** April 26 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

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.

** August 8 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

** April 16 ( Eastern Orthodox liturgics )

Lecky and Stanley's Eastern Church.

Trinitarianism remained the dominant doctrine in all major branches of the Eastern and Western Church and later within Protestantism until modern times.

) However, Ambrosian chant was named in his honor due to his contributions to the music of the Church ; he is credited with introducing hymnody from the Eastern Church into the West.

( Eastern Orthodox Church )

** Abraham of Smolensk ( Eastern Orthodox Church )

* Saint Anastasius Sinaita ( of Sinai ) – theologian, Father of the Eastern Orthodox Church, monk, priest, and abbot of the monastery at Mt.

* Assumption of Mary ( Eastern Orthodox Church, a public holiday in the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Georgia )

In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is also considered a saint, his feast day being celebrated on 15 June .< ref >

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 ).

Like the Roman Catholic Church, these ancient Eastern churches may use the doctrine of apostolic succession in ministry in their apologetics against Protestantism.

So does the Coptic Church, which, being part of Oriental Orthodoxy, is not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church and considers itself " the True Church of the Lord Jesus Christ ".

Eastern Orthodoxy does not have the concept of " validity " when applied to Sacraments, but it considers the form of Roman Catholic Sacraments to be acceptable, if still devoid of actual spiritual content.

The Roman Catholic Church considers Protestant and most Anglican ordinations invalid, while recognizing Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and some Anglican ordinations as valid.

The varieties in these three areas do share greater similarities with Nawat than the other Nahuatl varieties do ( suggesting a closer connection ); however, Campbell ( 1985 ) considers Nawat distinct enough to be considered a language separate from the Nahuatl complex, thus rejecting an Eastern Nahuatl subgrouping that includes Nawat.

On the basis of a comparison with seventeen other Eastern Sudanic languages, Thelwall ( 1982 ) considers Nubian to be most closely related to Tama, a member of the Taman group, with an average lexical similarity of just 22. 2 per cent.

* Freemasonry and its affiliate organizations ( Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls ), for beliefs and practices that the Vatican considers incompatible with Catholicism.

The Catholic Church does recognise as valid ( though illicit ) ordinations done by breakaway Catholic, Old Catholic or Oriental bishops, and groups descended from them ; it also regards as both valid and licit those ordinations done by bishops of the Eastern churches, so long as those receiving the ordination conform to other canonical requirements ( for example, is an adult male ) and an orthodox rite of episcopal ordination, expressing the proper functions and sacramental status of a bishop, is used ; this has given rise to the phenomenon of episcopi vagantes ( for example, clergy of the Independent Catholic groups which claim apostolic succession, though this claim is rejected by both Orthodoxy and Catholicism ).

In the Eastern Christian traditions, priests and deacons are allowed to be married, yet have to remain celibate if they are unmarried at the time of ordination.

Certain Latin-Rite Catholic priests may receive a dispensation to be married before ordination, and all Eastern Catholic priests outside the United States are also permitted to be married, provided they are so before ordination.

In Eastern Orthodoxy, marriage is treated as a Sacred Mystery ( sacrament ), and as an ordination.

The Eastern Orthodox Church also has ordination to minor orders ( known as cheirothesia, " imposition of hands ") which is performed outside of the Divine Liturgy, typically by a bishop, although certain archimandrites of stavropegial monasteries may bestow cheirothesia on members of their communities.

Married men may become priests in Eastern Orthodoxy and the Eastern Catholic Churches, but in neither case may they marry after ordination, even if they become widowed.

The role of a priest in the Anglican Communion is largely the same as within the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity, except that canon law in almost every Anglican province restricts the administration of confirmation to the bishop, just as with ordination.

The Anglican churches, unlike the Roman Catholic or Eastern Christian traditions, have allowed the ordination of women as priests in some provinces since 1971.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is one of the Mysteries, and is seen as an ordination and a martyrdom.

In many Eastern churches, some parish priests administer the sacrament of chrismation to infants after baptism, and priests are allowed to marry before ordination.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy, celibacy is the norm for bishops ; married men may be ordained to the priesthood, but even married priests whose wives pre-decease them are not allowed to enter marriage after ordination, although today some exceptions are made.

In most Orthodox traditions and in some Eastern Catholic Churches men who are already married may be ordained priests, but priests may not marry after ordination.

There have been no changes since then in the discipline of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which for bishops, priests, deacons, and subdeacons excludes marriage after ordination, but allows, except for periods before celebrating the Divine Liturgy, conjugal relations by priests and deacons married before ordination, and requires celibacy and perpetual continence only of bishops.

* In Eastern Orthodox Churches, and Eastern Catholic Churches ( which latter are in full communion with Rome ), married men may be ordained to any order except as bishops, and one may not marry after ordination as a subdeacon.

In the liturgical traditions of Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, the term ordination refers more narrowly to the means by which a person is included in one of the orders of bishops, priests or deacons.

In all Eastern Catholic Churches, subdeacons are minor clerics, since admission to major orders is by ordination as deacon.

Churches such as the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox exclude this practice for their priests, while accepting already married men for ordination to priesthood.

Eastern parish clergy are usually married, but as stated below, their marriage must have occurred before ordination as a subdeacon.

The Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy permit married men to become clergymen ( with certain limitations ), but do not permit clergy to marry after ordination.