Patriarchate, what is it? There are two basic concepts

Patriarchate - what is this? From the school program it is remembered that there was also matriarchy, and that they mean the successive superiority of some over men - men over women and vice versa.

Characteristic features of the supremacy of men

The power of a man has other definitions, for example, androkratiya or andrarchy, which represent the same unconditional supremacy of men, as well as patriarchy. What is it - the power of the father (an authentic translation) or the social structure of society in which all power is concentrated in the hands of the stronger sex? Both. This form of social organization, when a man is a leader or a "dominant element", has its own characteristic features, for example, patrilineality, in which absolutely everything, including inheritance, is transmitted along the paternal line. Or patrilocaly, when the residence of each member of the family is determined by the husband. The very first part of these words "patri" testifies that the husband is always dominating, and even at polygyny, when there are a lot of wives, all power remains in his hands.

Patriarchate as Human Thinking

But this is within the framework of one family, and on a national scale, patriarchy - what is it? This is a society that has a gender ideology, when a boy grows up with the notion of gender inequality and the male priority, as something self-evident, when all rights, including the right to choose, all duties, decision-making and responsibility for their Execution, belong to men. In modern society, the form of the patriarchy is more hidden, it is not declared by the state, but norms of relationships between the sexes worked out by millennia, standards of behavior are laid by people at the level of the subconscious.

Religious meaning of the term

However, the term under study has circulation not only for secular notions, in Orthodoxy this is one of the most frequently encountered words. In a religious sense, patriarchy, what is it? It is a synonym for the church. In our times, as in the pre-Petrine (the great tsar abolished the patriarchate, and this institution was restored as a result of the decision of the Local Council of 1917-18). Patriarch Tikhon, who led the church until 1925, was elected Patriarch. The term in question refers to the hierarchical structure of church authority. In general, in Russia for the first time the patriarchate was introduced in 1589, and the first head of the church was Job. During the Soviet era, the patriarchate resumed in 1943, during the war. Sergius Stragorodsky stood at the head of Russian Orthodoxy until 1944, in which he died.

Alexei I, who came to replace him, was in the besieged city all the blockade and was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". His last name in the world is SVSimansky, he was the Moscow Patriarch from 1945 until his death in 1970. All the subsequent chapters of the ROC did their best to revive the Orthodoxy and spiritual health of the nation. Since 1971, the PIM has been headed by Pimen, in the world Sergei Mikhailovich Izvekov, who died in 1990. Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger, who became Patriarch in 1990 under the name of Alexy II, replaced him. The current head of the MP since 2009 is Kirill (in the world Gundyaev Vladimir Mikhailovich).

Large autocephaly

The major Orthodox patriarchates (according to the diptych) are Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Moscow and a number of autocephalous (autonomous within the limits of one state, for example, Bulgarian, Hungarian, etc.) churches, mainly located in the territories of Eastern Europe, all They together (and their official only 15) represent the Universal Orthodoxy.

Of course, there are dozens of churches that have left Orthodoxy, but belong to it historically, such as the "Greek Old Calendarists" or "the churches of Russian tradition" - they are many different, but they are not the patriarchates of the Orthodox Church.

Another name of the ROC

The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest of the existing autocephalous local churches. On the vast territory of Russia there are 136 dioceses. In addition to these, there are several dozen Stauropies, including monasteries, laurels, brotherhoods and cathedrals, directly subordinate to the patriarch (in this case he is called a sacred archimandrite) and not dependent on diocesan authorities. And all this wealth has another official name - the Moscow Patriarchate, or the MP. He takes the fifth place in the list of names commemorated in the liturgy - the diptych, and is recognized by all as the only legitimate canonical Orthodox church in the territory of the CIS countries. It is interesting to note that earlier the MP and the Moscow Patriarchate until 2000 were used as interchangeable word combinations. Now the Moscow Patriarchate is all the institutions that are directly administered by the patriarch. The Moscow Patriarchate does not include Old Believers, the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC) and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The Moscow Patriarchate has a basic document - the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church. It states that the highest authority and church administration are the Local Council, the Bishops' Council and the Holy Synod, which is headed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.