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Movement
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Doctrine
and practice
Orthodox Church stands in historical continuity with the Christian
communities of the eastern Mediterranean and which spread by missionary
activity throughout eastern Europe. The word orthodox (from Greek,
"right-believing") implies doctrinal consistency with apostolic
truth. The Orthodox church has also established communities in Western
Europe, the western hemisphere, and, in Africa and Asia, and it currently
has an estimated 200 million adherents throughout the world.
Other designations, such as Orthodox Catholic (the word καθολικός means
universal, i.e. catholic), Greek Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox, are
also used in reference to the Orthodox church.
Structure and organisation
The Orthodox church is a fellowship of independent churches. Each is
autocephalous, that is, governed by its own head bishop. These autocephalous
churches share a common faith, common principles of church policy and
organisation, and a common liturgical tradition. Only the languages
used in worship and minor aspects of tradition differ from country to
country. The head bishops of the autocephalous churches may be called
patriarch, metropolitan, or archbishop. These prelates are presidents
of Episcopal synods, which, in each church, constitute the highest canonical,
doctrinal, and administrative authority. Among the various Orthodox
churches there is an order of precedence, which is determined by history
rather than by present-day numerical strength.
The Orthodox Church is a fellowship of “autocephalous” churches (governed
by their own head bishops), with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
holding titular or honorary primacy. The number of autocephalous churches
has varied in history. Today there are many: the Church of Constantinople,
the Church of Alexandria (Egypt), the Church of Antioch (with headquarters
in Damascus, Syria), and the churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Ukraine,
Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Poland,
the Czech and Slovak republics, and America.
There are also “autonomous” churches (retaining a token canonical dependence
upon a mother see) in Crete, Finland, and Japan. The first nine autocephalous
churches are headed by “patriarchs,” the others by archbishops or metropolitans.
These titles are strictly honorary.
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 honour, recognized by the ancient canons
because it was the capital of the ancient empire, should remain as a
symbol and tool of church unity and cooperation. The 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.
Since the Russian Revolution there has been much turmoil and administrative
conflict within the Orthodox Church. In western Europe and in the Americas,
in particular, overlapping jurisdictions have been set up and political
passions have led to the formation of ecclesiastical organizations without
clear canonical status. Though it has provoked controversy, the establishment
(1970) of the new autocephalous Orthodox Church in America by the patriarch
of Moscow has as its stated goal the resumption of normal territorial
unity in the Western Hemisphere.
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The Patriarch of Constantinople
A "primacy of honour" belongs to the patriarch of Constantinople
, because the city was the
seat of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, which between AD 320
and 1453 was the centre of Eastern Christendom. The canonical rights
of the patriarch of Constantinople were defined by the councils
of Constantinople (381) and Chalcedon (451). In the 6th century he also
assumed the title ecumenical patriarch. Neither in the past, nor in
modern times, however, has his authority been comparable to that exercised
in the West by the Roman pope: the patriarch does not possess administrative
powers beyond his own territory, or patriarchate, and he does not claim
infallibility. His position is simply a primacy among equals. The other
churches recognise his role in convening and preparing pan-Orthodox
consultations and councils. His authority extends over the small (and
rapidly vanishing because of the repressions from the turkish government)
Greek communities in present day Turkey; over dioceses situated in the
Greek islands and in northern Greece; over the numerous Greek-speaking
communities in the United States, Australia, and Western Europe; and
over the autonomous church of Finland.
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Other Ancient Patriarchates
Three other ancient Orthodox patriarchates
owe their positions to their distinguished pasts: those in Alexandria,
Egypt; Damascus, Syria (although the incumbent carries the ancient title
patriarch of Antioch); and Jerusalem. The patriarchs of Alexandria and
Jerusalem are Greek-speaking; the patriarch of Antioch heads a significant
Arab Christian community in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
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Russian and Other Orthodox Churches
The patriarchate of Moscow and all Russia is the largest Orthodox church
today by far, having survived a difficult period of persecution after
the Russian Revolution of 1917. It occupies the fifth place in the hierarchy
of autocephalous churches, followed by the patriarchies of the Republic
of Georgia, Serbia , Romania, and Bulgaria. The nonpatriarchal churches
are, in order of precedence, the archbishops of Cyprus,
Athens, and Tirana (established 1937, this see was suppressed during
Communist rule), as well as the metropolitanates of Poland, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, and America.
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Doctrine
In its doctrinal statements and liturgical texts, the Orthodox church
strongly affirms that it holds the original Christian faith, which was
common to East and West during the first millennium of Christian history.
More particularly, it recognises the authority of the ecumenical
councils at which East and West were represented together. These
were the councils of Nicaea
I (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus (431),
Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople
III (680), and Nicaea
II (787). Later doctrinal affirmations by the Orthodox church
for instance, the important 14th-century definitions concerning communion
with God are actually developments of the same original faith of the
early church.
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Tradition
The concern for continuity and tradition, which is characteristic of
Orthodoxy, does not imply worship of the past as such, but rather a
sense of identity and consistency with the original apostolic witness,
as realised through the sacramental community of each local church.
The Holy Spirit, bestowed on the church at Pentecost, is seen
as guiding the whole church "in all truth" (John 16:13).
The power of teaching and guiding the community is bestowed on certain
ministries (particularly that of the bishop of each diocese) or is manifested
through certain institutions (such as councils). Nevertheless, because
the church is composed not only of bishops, or of clergy, but of the
whole laity as well, the Orthodox church strongly affirms that the guardian
of truth is the entire "people of God".
This belief that truth is inseparable from the life of the sacramental
community provides the basis for the Orthodox understanding of the apostolic
succession of bishops: consecrated by their peers and occupying the
"place of Christ" at the Eucharistic meal, where the church
gathers, bishops are the guardians and witnesses of a tradition that
goes back, uninterrupted, to the apostles and that unites the local
churches in the community of faith.
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Christ and Panagia Mary
The ecumenical councils of the first millennium defined the basic Christian
doctrines on the Trinity, on the unique Person and the two natures of
Christ and on his two wills, expressing fully the authenticity and fullness
of his divinity and his humanity. These doctrines are forcefully expressed
in all Orthodox statements of faith and in liturgical hymns. Also, in
light of this traditional doctrine on the Person of Christ, the Virgin
Mary is venerated as Mother of God. Further Mariological developments,
however, such as the more recent Western doctrine of the immaculate
conception of Mary, are foreign to Orthodoxy. Mary's intercession is
invoked because she was closer to the Saviour than anyone else and is,
therefore, the representative of fallen humanity and the most prominent
and holiest member of the church.
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Sacraments
The doctrine of seven sacraments is generally accepted in the Orthodox
church, although no ultimate authority has ever limited the sacraments
to that number. The central sacrament is the Eucharist;
the others are baptism, normally by immersion;
confirmation, which follows baptism immediately
in the form of anointment with chrism; penance;
Holy Orders; marriage; and anointment of the sick. Some medieval authors
list other sacraments, such as monastic tonsure, burial, and the blessing
of water.
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Celibacy
Orthodox canonical legislation admits married men to the priesthood.
Bishops, however, are elected from among celibate or widowed clergy.
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Practices
According to a medieval chronicle, when representatives of the Russian
prince Vladimir visited the Hagia
Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople in 988, they
did not know "whether they were in heaven, or on earth". Most
effective as a missionary tool, the Orthodox liturgy has also been,
throughout the centuries of Muslim rule in the Middle East, an instrument
of religious survival. Created primarily in Byzantium and translated
into many languages, it preserves texts and forms dating from the earliest
Christian church.
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Liturgy
The most frequently used Eucharistic rite is traditionally
attributed to St John Chrysostom. Another Eucharistic liturgy,
celebrated only ten times during the year, was created by St Basil
of Caesarea. In both cases, the Eucharistic prayer of consecration
culminates with an invocation of the Holy Spirit (epiclesis)
upon the bread and wine. Thus, the central mystery of Christianity is
seen as being performed by the prayer of the church and the action of
the Holy Spirit, rather than by "words of institution", pronounced
by Christ and repeated vicariously by the priest, as is the case in
Western Christendom.
One of the major characteristics of Orthodox worship is a great wealth
of hymns, which mark the various liturgical cycles (see Liturgy).
These cycles, used in sometimes complicated combinations, are the daily
cycle, with hymns for vespers, compline, the midnight prayer, matins,
and the four canonical hours; the paschal cycle, which includes the
period of Lent before Easter and the 50 days separating Easter and Pentecost
and which is continued throughout the Sundays of the year; and the yearly,
or sanctoral, cycle, which provides hymns for immovable feasts and the
daily celebration of saints. Created during the Byzantine Middle Ages,
this liturgical system is still being developed through the addition
of hymns honouring new saints. Thus, two early missionaries to Alaska,
St Herman and St Innocent, were recently added to the catalogue of Orthodox
saints.
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Icons
Inseparable from the liturgical tradition, religious art is seen by
Orthodox Christians as a form of pictorial confession of faith and a
channel of religious experience. This central function of religious
images (icons) unparalleled in
any other Christian tradition received its full definition following
the end of the iconoclastic movement
in Byzantium (843). The iconoclasts invoked the Old Testamental prohibition
of graven images and rejected icons as idols. The Orthodox theologians,
on the other hand, based their arguments on the specifically Christian
doctrine of the incarnation: God is indeed invisible and indescribable
in his essence, but when the Son of God became man, he voluntarily assumed
all the characteristics of created nature, including describability.
Consequently, images of Christ, as man, affirm the truth of God's real
incarnation. Because divine life shines through Christ's risen and glorified
humanity, the function of the artist consists in conveying the very
mystery of the Christian faith through art. Furthermore, because the
icons of Christ and the saints provide direct personal contact with
the holy people represented on them, these images should be objects
of "veneration" (proskynesis), even though "worship"
(latreia) is addressed to God alone. The victory of this theology
over iconoclasm led to the widespread use of iconography in the Christian
East and also inspired great painters most of whom remain anonymous
in producing works of art that possess spiritual as well as artistic
value.
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History
Because a majority of non-Greek-speaking Christians of the Middle East
rejected the Council of Chalcedon and because, after the 8th century,
most of the area where Christianity was born remained under the rule
of Muslims, the Orthodox patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem
kept only a shadow of their former glory. Constantinople, however, remained,
during most of the Middle Ages, by far the most important centre of
Christendom. The famous Byzantine missionaries, St Cyril and St
Methodius, translated (864) Scripture and the liturgy
into Slavonic, and many Slavic nations were converted to Byzantine Orthodox
Christianity. The Bulgarians, people of Turkic stock, embraced
it in 864 and gradually became Slavicized. The Russians, converted
in 988, remained in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the patriarchate
of Constantinople until 1448. The Serbs received ecclesiastical
independence in 1219, although they have been under strong influence
of the Orthodox Church for centuries.
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Schism
Tensions periodically arose between Constantinople and Rome after the
4th century. After the fall of Rome (476) to Germanic invaders, the
Roman pope was the only guardian of Christian universalism in the West.
He began more explicitly to attribute his primacy to Rome's being the
burial place of St Peter, whom Jesus had called the "rock"
on which the church was to be built (see Matthew 16:18). The Eastern
Christians respected that tradition and attributed to the Roman bishop
a measure of moral and doctrinal authority. They believed, however,
that the canonical and primatial rights of individual churches were
determined above all by historical considerations. Thus, the patriarchate
of Constantinople and its own position had to be determined by the fact
that Constantinople, the "new Rome", was
the seat of the emperor and the Senate.
The two interpretations of primacy "apostolic" in the West,
"pragmatic" in the East coexisted for centuries, and tensions
were resolved in a conciliar way. Eventually, however, conflicts led
to permanent schism. In the 7th century the universally accepted creed
was interpolated in Spain with the Latin word filioque,
meaning "and from the Son", thus rendering the
creed as "I believe … in the Holy Spirit … who
proceeds from the Father and the Son". The interpolation,
initially opposed by the popes, was promoted in Europe by Charlemagne
(crowned emperor in 800) and his successors. Eventually, it was also
accepted (in around 1014) in Rome. The Eastern church, however,
considered the interpolation heretical, as it was. Moreover, other issues
became controversial: for instance, the ordination of married men to
the priesthood and the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist. Secondary
in themselves, these conflicts could not be resolved because the two
sides followed different criteria of judgement. The papacy considered
itself the ultimate judge in matters of faith and discipline, whereas
the East invoked the authority of councils, where the local churches
spoke as equals.
It is often assumed that the anathemas exchanged in Constantinople
in 1054 between the patriarch Michael Cerularius and papal
legates marked the final schism. The schism, however, actually took
the form of a gradual estrangement, beginning well before 1054 and culminating
in the sack of Constantinople
by western Crusaders in 1204.
In the late medieval period, several attempts made at reunion, particularly
in Lyons (1274) and in Florence (1438-1439), ended in failure. The papal
claims to ultimate supremacy could not be reconciled with the conciliar
principle of Orthodoxy, and the religious differences were aggravated
by cultural and political misunderstandings.
After the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, they recognised
the ecumenical patriarch of that city as both the religious and the
political spokesman for the entire Christian population of the Turkish
empire. The patriarchate of Constantinople, although still retaining
its honorary primacy in the Orthodox church, ended as an ecumenical
institution in the 19th century when, with the liberation of the
Orthodox peoples from Turkish rule, a succession of autocephalous
churches were 1833, Romania (1864), Bulgaria (1871), and Serbia
(1879).
The Orthodox church in Russia declared its independence from Constantinople
in 1448. In 1589 the patriarchate of Moscow was established and formally
recognised by Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople. For the Russian
church and the tsars, Moscow had become the "third Rome",
the heir to the imperial supremacy of ancient Rome and Byzantium. The
patriarchate of Moscow never had even the sporadic autonomy of the patriarchate
of Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire. Except for the brief reign
of Patriarch Nikon in the mid-17th century, the patriarchs of Moscow
and the Russian church were entirely subordinate to the tsars. In 1721,
Tsar Peter the Great
abolished the patriarchate altogether, and thereafter the church was
governed through the imperial administration. The patriarchate was re-established
in 1917, at the time of the Russian Revolution, but the church was violently
persecuted by the Communist government. As the Soviet regime became
less repressive and, in 1991, broke up, the church showed signs of renewed
vitality. (The Orthodox church in Eastern Europe had a similar but foreshortened
history, restricted by Communist governments after World War II but
gaining freedoms in the late 1980s.)
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Relations with Other Churches
The Orthodox church has been the organic continuation of the original
apostolic community and is holding a faith fully consistent with the
apostolic message. Orthodox Christians have, however, adopted different
attitudes through the centuries towards other churches and denominations.
In areas of confrontation, such as the Greek islands in the 17th century,
or the Ukraine during the same period, defensive Orthodox authorities,
reacting against active proselytism by Westerners, declared Western
sacraments invalid and demanded rebaptism of converts from the Roman
or Protestant communities. The same attitude prevails, today, in some
circles in Greece.
Always rejecting doctrinal relativism and affirming that the goal of
ecumenism is the full unity of the faith, Orthodox churches have been
members of the World Council of Churches since 1948. Orthodox generally
recognise that, before the establishment of full unity, a theological
dialogue leading in that direction is necessary and that divided Christian
communities can cooperage and provide each other with mutual help and
experience, even if sacramental intercommunion, requiring unity in faith,
appears to be distant.
The Protestant majority in the World Council of Churches has occasionally
made Orthodox participation in that body awkward, and the ecumenical
attitude adopted during the reign of Pope John XXIII by the Roman Catholic
church (which does not belong to the council) has been welcomed by Orthodox
officials and has led to new and friendlier relations between the churches.
Orthodox observers were present at the sessions of the Second Vatican
Council (1962-1965), and several meetings took place between popes Paul
VI and John Paul II on the one side, and patriarchs Athenagoras
and Demetrios on the other. In another symbolic gesture, the
mutual anathemas of 1054 were lifted (1965) by both sides. The
two churches have established a joint commission for dialogue between
them. Representatives met on at least 11 occasions between 1966 and
1981 to discuss differences in doctrine and practice. The claim
to authority and infallibility made by the pope is generally seen
as the primary obstacle to full reconciliation.
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