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'''Autocephaly''' (literally "self-headed") is the status of a church within the [[Orthodox Church]] whose [[primate|primatial]] bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. When an [[ecumenical council]] or a high-ranking [[bishop]], such as a [[patriarch]] or other [[primate]], releases an [[Ecclesiastical Province|ecclesiastical province ]] from the authority of that bishop while the newly independent church remains in [[full communion]] with the hierarchy to which it then ceases to belong, the council or primate is granting '''autocephaly'''. Historically, however, autocephaly is not always obtained in such a manner.
==Church usage==
* In 466, the [[Church of Antioch]] elevated the bishop of Mtskheta to the rank of Catholicos of Kartli, thus rendering the [[Church of Georgia]] autocephalous.
* The [[Orthodox Church in America]] received autocephaly from the [[Church of Russia]] in 1970 (though that action is still not formally recognized by any many of the older other autocephalous churches).
==New autocephalous churches==
The notion that the [[Church of Constantinople]] has the sole authority to grant autocephaly is largely based on an interpretation of Canon 28 of the [[Fourth Ecumenical Council|Council of Chalcedon]] (451) stating that the Ecumenical Patriarch has authority in "barbarian lands." However, that is argued by many to refer only to certain areas on the borderlands of the ancient [[Roman Empire]] and having nothing whatsoever to do with the modern world some 1500 years later. Historically (see above), many of today's autocephalous churches were originally under the authority of Constantinople by virtue of geographical proximity or a tradition of Constantinopolitan missionary activity. So what may seem like a clear pattern of ecclesiastical order to some is argued by others to be merely coincidental and not [[ecclesiology|ecclesiological]].
There is, however, a good deal more historical evidence to suggest that Constantinople has a sort of missionary authority in the areas outside those territories which have been explicitly defined by pan-Orthodox synods to constitute autocephalous churches.[http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8148.asp] This claim is disputed particularly by the [[Church of Russia]] and its daughter and dependency churches,[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/PatAlexisCanon28.shtml] especially sometimes as an expression of the idea that Moscow is the [[Third Rome]].
=== Patterns of Autocephaly ===
