|
What is Orthodoxy?
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” (in Greek 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 (cf. Ephesians 1:22-23 and Colossians 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 (AD 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 Saint Augustine of Hippo (AD 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 AD 1054 Schism 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.
Sources:
|
,
