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One step short of autocephaly is "autonomy". A church that is autonomous has its highest-ranking bishop, such as an archbishop or metropolitan, appointed by the patriarch of the mother church, but is self-governing in all other respects. While autocephalous does mean self-governing, it literally means "self-headed". Kephalos means "head" in Greek. Hence, autocephalous denotes self-headed, or a head unto itself, while autonomous literally means "self-legislated", or a law unto itself. Nomos is the Greek for "law'. "Over the last half century few subjects have provoked so much controversy in the Orthodox world as autocephaly. One need only mention the unedifying disputes between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople concerning the status of the churches of Poland, Czechoslovakia and America. Disagreement has centered on the way in which autocephalous status is attained. To put matters in simplest terms, according to the Russian Church, any autocephalous church has the right to grant canonical independence to one of its parts. According to Constantinople, on the other hand, only an ecumenical council can definitively establish an autocephalous church, and any interim arrangements depend upon approbation by Constantinople, acting in its capacity as the mother church and first among equals." [1]
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