The Orthodox Church
An Introduction
The Orthodox Church was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ and is the
living manifestation of His presence in the history of the mankind. The
most conspicuous characteristics of Orthodoxy are its rich liturgical life
and its faithfulness to the apostolic tradition. It is believed by
Orthodox Christians that their Church has preserved the tradition and
continuity of the ancient Church in its fullness compared to other
Christian denominations which have departed from the common tradition of
the Church of the first 10 centuries. Today Orthodox Church numbers
approximately 300 million Christians who follow the faith and practices
that were defined by the first seven ecumenical councils. The word
orthodox ("right belief and right glory") has traditionally been used, in
the Greek-speaking Christian world, to designate communities, or
individuals, who preserved the true faith (as defined by those councils),
as opposed to those who were declared heretical. The official designation
of the church in its liturgical and canonical texts is "the Orthodox
Catholic Church" (gr. catholicos = universal).
 The
Orthodox Church is a family of "autocephalous" (self governing) churches,
with the Ecumenical (= universal) Patriarch of Constantinople holding
titular or honorary primacy as primus inter pares (the first among
equals). The Orthodox Church is not a centralized organization headed by a
pontiff. The unity of the Church is rather manifested in common faith and
communion in the sacraments and no one but Christ himself is the real head
of the Church. The number of autocephalous churches has varied in history.
Today there are many: the Church of Constantinople (Istanbul), the Church
of Alexandria (Egypt), the Church of Antioch (with headquarters in
Damascus, Syria), and the Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia,
Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Albania and America
There are also "autonomous" churches (retaining a token canonical
dependence upon a mother see) in Czech and Slovak republic, Sinai, Crete,
Finland, Japan, China and Ukraine. In addition there is also a large
Orthodox Diaspora scattered all over the world and administratively
divided among various jurisdictions (dependencies of the above mentioned
autocephalous churches). The first nine autocephalous churches are headed
by patriarchs, the others by archbishops or metropolitans. These
titles are strictly honorary as all bishops are completely equal in the
power granted to them by the Holy Spirit.
The
order of precedence in which the autocephalous churches are listed does
not reflect their actual influence or numerical importance. The
Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, for example,
present only shadows of their past glory. Yet there remains a consensus
that Constantinople's primacy of honor, recognized by the ancient canons
because it was the capital of the ancient Byzantine empire, should remain
as a symbol and tool of church unity and cooperation. Modern pan-Orthodox
conferences were thus convoked by the ecumenical patriarch of
Constantinople. Several of the autocephalous churches are de facto
national churches, by far the largest being the Russian Church; however,
it is not the criterion of nationality but rather the territorial
principle that is the norm of organization in the Orthodox Church.
In the wider theological sense "Orthodoxy is not merely a type of
purely earthly organization which is headed by patriarchs, bishops and
priests who hold the ministry in the Church which officially is called
"Orthodox." Orthodoxy is the mystical "Body of Christ," the Head of which
is Christ Himself (see Eph. 1:22-23 and Col. 1:18, 24 et seq.), and its
composition includes not only priests but all who truly believe in Christ,
who have entered in a lawful way through Holy Baptism into the Church He
founded, those living upon the earth and those who have died in the Faith
and in piety."
 The Great Schism between the Eastern and the Western Church (1054) was the
culmination of a gradual process of estrangement between the east and west
that began in the first centuries of the Christian Era and continued
through the Middle Ages. Linguistic and cultural differences, as well as
political events, contributed to the estrangement. From the 4th to the
11th century, Constantinople, the center of Eastern Christianity, was also
the capital of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, while Rome, after
the barbarian invasions, fell under the influence of the Holy Roman Empire
of the West, a political rival. In the West theology remained under the
influence of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and gradually lost its
immediate contact with the rich theological tradition of the Christian
East. In the same time the Roman See was almost completely overtaken by
Franks. Theological differences could have probably been settled if there
were not two different concepts of church authority. The growth of Roman
primacy, based on the concept of the apostolic origin of the Church of
Rome which claimed not only titular but also jurisdictional authority
above other churches, was incompatible with the traditional Orthodox
ecclesiology. The Eastern Christians considered all churches as sister
churches and understood the primacy of the Roman
bishop only as primus inter pares among his brother bishops. For
the East, the highest authority in settling doctrinal disputes could by no
means be the authority of a single Church or a single bishop but an
Ecumenical Council of all sister churches. In the course of time the
Church of Rome adopted various wrong teachings which were not based in the
Tradition and finally proclaimed the teaching of the Pope's infallibility
when teaching ex cathedra. This widened the gap even more between
the Christian East and West. The Protestant communities which split from
Rome in the course of centuries diverged even more from the teaching of
the Holy Fathers and the Holy Ecumenical Councils. Due to these serious
dogmatic differences the Orthodox Church is not in communion with the
Roman Catholic and Protestant communities. More traditional Orthodox
theologians do not recognize the ecclesial and salvific character of these
Western churches at all, while the more liberal ones accept that the Holy
Spirit acts to a certain degree within these communities although they do
not possess the fullness of grace and spiritual gifts like the Orthodox
Church. Many serious Orthodox theologians are of the opinion that between
Orthodoxy and heterodox confessions, especially in the sphere of
spiritual experience, the understanding of God and salvation, there exists
an ontological difference which cannot be simply ascribed to cultural and
intellectual estrangement of the East and West but is a direct
consequence of a gradual abandonment of the sacred tradition by heterodox
Christians.
At the time of the Schism of 1054 between Rome and Constantinople, the
membership of the Eastern Orthodox Church was spread throughout the Middle
East, the Balkans, and Russia, with its center in Constantinople, the
capital of the Byzantine Empire, which was also called New Rome.
The vicissitudes of history have greatly modified the internal structures
of the Orthodox Church, but, even today, the bulk of its members live in
the same geographic areas. Missionary expansion toward Asia and emigration
toward the West, however, have helped to maintain the importance of
Orthodoxy worldwide. Today, the Orthodox Church is present almost
everywhere in the world and is bearing witness of true, apostolic and
patristic tradition to all peoples.
The Orthodox Church is well known for its developed
monasticism. The uninterrupted monastic tradition of Orthodox Christianity
can be traced from the Egyptian desert monasteries of the 3rd and 4th centuries. Soon monasticism
had spread all over the Mediterranean basin and Europe: in Palestine,
Syria, Cappadocia, Gaul, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Slavic countries.
Monasticism has always been a beacon of Orthodoxy and has made and
continues to make a strong and lasting impact on Orthodox spirituality.
The
Orthodox Church today is an invaluable treasury of the rich liturgical
tradition handed down from the earliest centuries of Christianity. The
sense of the sacred, the beauty and grandeur of the Orthodox
Divine Liturgy make the presence of heaven on earth live and
intensive. Orthodox Church art and music has a very functional role in the
liturgical life and helps even the bodily senses to feel the spiritual
grandeur of the Lord's mysteries. Orthodox icons are not simply beautiful works of art which have
certain aesthetic and didactic functions. They are primarily the means
through which we experience the reality of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth.
The holy icons enshrine the immeasurable depth of the mystery of Christ's
incarnation in defense of which thousands of martyrs sacrificed their lives.
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