The Orthodox Church is not a single organisation with one head on earth. It is a family of churches, each governing itself under its own bishops and primate, and all one Church because they hold the same faith and normally share the one Cup. Since October 2018 that Communion has been broken in part: the Church of Russia severed it with Constantinople, and later with the primates of Alexandria, Greece and Cyprus, over the recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. A church that governs itself in this way is called autocephalous, from the Greek for "self-headed"; an autonomous church governs itself within the care of a mother church.
Fourteen autocephalous churches are recognised by all the others: the ancient patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the churches of Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Albania, and the Czech Lands and Slovakia. Some churches have a status recognised by only part of the communion: the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America and of the Church of North Macedonia is recognised by some churches, and that of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by Constantinople and three others. Autonomous churches include those of Sinai and Finland; Estonia has two churches, one under Constantinople and one under Moscow, and the autonomy of the Church of Japan is recognised by Moscow but not by Constantinople.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople holds the first place of honour, first among equals, but has no direct authority over the other churches. The Oriental Orthodox churches, the Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Syriac and Malankara churches, are a separate family: they parted from the rest of the Church after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and are not in Communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church.