Tomos (Eastern Orthodox Church)

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Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, signed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on 5 January 2019.

A tomos (Greek: τόμος, romanizedtomos, lit.'section', 'part of', 'part which is cut') in the Eastern Orthodox Church is a decree of the head of a particular Eastern Orthodox church on certain matters (such as the level of dependence of an autonomous church from its mother church).[1]

Tomos is a Greek word; it can be literally translated as 'a section'. "In the narrower meaning in Orthodox church terminology, a tomos is [...] a scroll or a small book, but one with a very specific purpose — it codifies a decision by a Holy Synod, or council of Orthodox bishops."[2] The translation of the word tomos in English is document.[3]

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References[edit]

  1. ^ Victor Roudometof (2013). Globalization and Orthodox Christianity: The Transformations of a Religious Tradition. Routledge. p. 173. ISBN 978-1135014698.
  2. ^ Talant, Bermet (2018-12-21). "Ukraine's word of 2018: Tomos". KyivPost. Retrieved 2019-01-13. The word is 'tomos,' and it was one of the most searched words on Google in Ukraine this year. In Greek, it literally means 'a section' and is related to the verb 'to cut.'
    By extension, it came to refer to a section of a papyrus scroll, on which books used to be written, and then to a volume of a book, which is where we also get the English word 'tome'. [...]
    In the narrower meaning in Orthodox church terminology, a tomos is indeed a scroll or a small book, but one with a very specific purpose — it codifies a decision by a holy synod, or council of Orthodox bishops.
  3. ^ Casper, Jayson (6 January 2019). "From Russia, Without Love: Ukraine Marks Orthodox Christmas with Biggest Schism Since 1054". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2019-01-13.

External links[edit]

  • The dictionary definition of tomos at Wiktionary