Eastern Churches

Eastern Christianity is a cultural sphere of Christian traditions that developed since Early Christianity in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa, Asia Minor, Southern India, and parts of the Far East. The term does not describe a single communion or Christian denomination. Instead, the terms "Eastern Christianity" and "Western Christianity" mirror the historical, geographical, and cultural divide between the Hellenistic east and Latinate west and the political divide between the Byzantine Empire and the Western Roman Empire.

Today, Eastern Christianity designates a few main communions. In order of size, they are: the Eastern Orthodox Church (237 million adherents), the Oriental Orthodox Churches (85 million), the Eastern Catholic Churches (16 million; they are in full communion with the Holy See and the Catholic Church, yet maintain Eastern liturgical and spiritual practices), the Assyrian Church of the East (0.2 million), and the Ancient Church of the East (0.1 million). Other diverse, independent communions together comprise a few more million adherents, belonging to various schismatic offshots.