None of the 4 ancient apostolic churches consider themselves (or the others) as denominations. The word was invented by the protestant west in the 17th century.
The word 'denomination' would not even be understood in the protestant context in most languages.
Interesting. Perhaps we should look into that.
Christian denomination - Wikipedia
Individual Christian groups vary widely in the degree to which they recognize one another. Several groups claim to be the direct and
sole authentic successor of the church founded by
Jesus Christ in the
1st century AD. Others, however, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs, and practices.
Because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term "denomination" to describe themselves, to avoid implying equivalency with other churches or denominations.
The
Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination with roughly 1.2 billion members—slightly over half of all Christians worldwide—is the world's second largest
religious denomination after
Sunni Islam.
[1]
However, the Catholic Church does not view itself as a denomination, but as the original pre-denominational church.
[2] This view is rejected by other Christian denominations.
Protestant denominations account for approximately 37 percent of Christians worldwide.
[3]
The
Eastern Orthodox Church, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents,
[4] is the second-largest Christian organization in the world and also considers itself the original pre-denominational church.
Unlike the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church is itself a
communion of fully independent
autocephalous churches (or "jurisdictions") that mutually recognize each other to the exclusion of others. The Eastern Orthodox Church, together with
Oriental Orthodoxy and the
Assyrian Church of the East, constitutes
Eastern Christianity.
Christians have various doctrines about the Church (the body of the faithful that they believe Jesus Christ established) and about how the divine church corresponds to Christian denominations.
Both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox hold that their own organizations faithfully represent the One Holy catholic and Apostolic Church to the exclusion of the other.
Sixteenth-century Protestants separated from the Catholic Church because of
theologies and
practices that they considered to be in violation of their own interpretation. Generally, members of the various denominations acknowledge each other as Christians
Since the reforms surrounding
Vatican II of 1962-1965, the Catholic Church has referred to Protestant communities as "denominations", while reserving the term "church" for
apostolic churches, including the Eastern Orthodox (see
subsistit in and
branch theory).
But some
non-denominational Christians[5] do not follow any particular branch, though sometimes regarded as Protestants.[
not verified in body]
