The paper explores the relationships between the fourteen independent Eastern Orthodox churches making part of a so called diptychon - a list of churches placed in order of "honor". These fourteen churches take part at the Pan-Orthodox Council in June 2016. The author firstly defines the current meaning of church "autocephalous" status and then creates a typology of the Orthodox ecclesiastical subjects drawing upon history, current situation, and structural features. The paper concludes that any strict typology is impossible to develop, while the differences in particular aspects would not help to represent the configuration of the entire Orthodox commonwealth. Instead, the paper develops grouping by certain paradigms: national/ transnational; anachronic/diachronic, national/imperial. Also, the paper introduces a new paradigm of a "diffused church" that overlaps with the above paradigms. The paper then deals with the distinction between the "symbolic" and the "real" aspects of church constitution and church self-perception. Keywords: Orthodox Church, autocephaly, typology of Orthodox Churches, church-organizational paradigm, nation, empire, Diaspora, Pan-Orthodox Council. page 74When we say "Orthodoxy" in reference to the Christian religious context, we are implicitly referring to two aspects of the phenomenon under consideration: on the one hand, one of the main Christian denominations in the broad sense (along with Catholicism and Protestantism), and on the other, a community or "family" of individual churches sharing a common faith and religion. those who are in sacramental communion (communio in sacris). These two meanings of the term indicate two dimensions of Orthodox identity: so to speak, religious-theoretical and organizational-practical. Orthodoxy is one of the living, reproducible Eastern Christian traditions, 1 and at the same time a confessional community with a certain structure. The organizational structure of the Eastern Orthodox Church has changed o ... Read more