ABSTRACT
The origins of the Orthodox Church within the specific region of the Greek peninsula since the apostolic period until the present day depict a significant and continuous political, ethnographic, religious, and cultural unity, albeit in a changing historical context. The history of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece is closely related to the Greek War of Independence; therefore the later period of the history of the Greek Church highlights its significance, based on the Church autocephaly issue, because the Greek Church has been established as an autocephalous independent ecclesiastical body only since 1833. This chapter focuses on the last period of the history of the Church of Greece, which is closely related to the establishment of the Greek State. It particularly reviews the first three historical periods of the Greek Church because the ecclesial life in Greece prior to 1833 relates directly to the ecclesiastical life and administration either of the Church of Rome or of the Constantinopolitan Church.
