The Eastern Church is based on national autonomous sees. The highest respect is given to the patriarchates, including Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. In more recent years, patriarchates have been designated in Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, and Romania. Autocephalous churches, headed by a bishop but without a patriarchate, exist in the Ukraine, Cypress, Albania, Greece, Poland, and Georgia. Autonomous churches exist in Finland, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, and at Mt. Sinai.
Patriarchs are equal and autonomous but in communion with one another.
In the United States the bishops of the Churches that directly relate to the ecumenical patriarch work together as the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas. Most Orthodox Christians in America are members of these Churches. In the East married priests may be ordained. Monks are celibate, and bishops come from that group. The Eastern churches recognize only the seven ecumenical councils held between 325 A.D. and 787 A.D. because no further councils occurred at which the bishops of Rome and the Eastern patriarchs worked together.