Autocephaly, in hierarchical Christian churches and especially Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches,'s the status of a hierarchical church whose head bishop doesn't 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 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… (More on Autocephalous)