Welcome to the

Holy Orthodox Church

(Revised Jan 2006.)

Most people know very little about the Holy Orthodox Church. It is the oldest Christian body in the world, and one of the largest Christian communions, yet the Holy Orthodox Church remains a mystery to people in Europe and America. One American priest called it a better kept secret than the CIA.

The Orthodox Church is described in the pages of the New Testament. As the Apostles spread the faith, they appointed people to lead each local community of Christians. These people came to be known as bishops. They were responsible for keeping the teaching handed to them by the Apostles and Evangelists, many of whom had known Jesus Christ. In many Orthodox lands you can trace the history of each church or bishopric from the days of these Apostles.

The early Church did not have any centralised structure. When there were disagreements or problems, the bishop would try to decide what the Apostolic tradition taught. Bishops and their people could meet in Church Councils. Great councils which involved representatives from the whole Church were known as Oecumenical Councils. After discussions, everyone at the council prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide them, then they voted. You can read about this in the New Testament. Individual bishops or clergy are fallible, but the Orthodox Church still turns to the Holy Spirit for guidance in exactly the same way.

In the great cities of the Roman Empire, the bishops gradually came to be called "patriarchs". Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem : each of these bishops was responsible for a wide geographical area. None of these senior bishops had authority in the area of another patriarch.

As Christianity spread beyond the lands of the Roman Empire, new bishops and patriarchs were appointed. To this day, these bishops are all linked by their belief in Jesus Christ, and guided by the Holy Spirit. There are disagreements from time to time, but the Church remains united in a bond of love. From the time of the Apostles to the 21st Century, the Orthodox Church has remained a family of local churches without a central authority figure, and without lasting divisions, somewhere where the Holy Spirit can blow freely.

Unfortunately, as time passed, some Christians developed the idea that one patriarch was senior to all the rest of the bishops and patriarchs. In the 11th Century, the Patriarch of Rome, generally called by the ancient title of Pope of Rome, was put forward as the head of the Church. The Popes tried to establish their centralised authority over all Christians. All the other patriarchs rejected this new teaching. The Orthodox remained as a family of local churches. The Roman Catholics in Europe split away from their brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church in 1054 A.D.

So, for 1000 years, the West was part of the undivided Orthodox Catholic Church. People have forgotten their ancient Christian roots. They are taught about Roman Catholicism, the authority of the Papacy in Europe during the Middle Ages, and the reaction of the Protestants at the Reformation. They never hear of the long centuries when the Orthodox Christians kept their faith unaltered in the face of Moslem conquerors. The West remembers key figures like Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Calvin, Huss and the reformers. It knows almost nothing about the great preacher St. John Chrysostom, the monastic organiser St. Basil, or mystics and visionaries such as St. Symeon the New Theologian or St. Gregory Palamas.

The whole of the West has heard of the great Protestant missions to Africa and the Far East. Many have heard of the Jesuits, and the spread of the Roman Catholic faith to South America. Yet the Orthodox missions to Eastern Europe, Russia, Alaska, China and Japan are forgotten. It is quite common for people to say that the Orthodox Church is not a missionary Church. Nothing could be more misleading.

During the early Middle Ages missionaries were sent out from the Eastern Roman Empire. They spread the faith into Eastern Europe using the local languages. Shortly before 1000 A.D. the Orthodox faith reached Russia. It spread onwards into different cultures and different languages to China, Japan, Alaska and eventually to America.

For many centuries the Orthodox lands of the East were ruled by Moslem conquerors. The people were backward compared with the West, and the local Orthodox Churches were struggling to survive. In spite of this there were missionaries and martyrs during the time of the Turkish rule. Then, in the 19th and 20th Century, Orthodoxy once again took up a worldwide mission. Various local Orthodox churches have arrived in almost all parts of the world.

You may not have heard about it, but an extraordinary spiritual change seems to be taking place. At the time when many non-Orthodox parishes are shrinking, and when local churches are closing, there is a move towards Orthodoxy. Traditional Orthodox countries such as Russia have returned to their Christian roots after the fall of Communism. Something similar is happening in the West. There are now as many Orthodox Christians in America as there are Baptists, and the Orthodox parishes are receiving many Evangelicals. In Britain, the Orthodox are one of the fastest growing Christian bodies, with more people than the Baptists or the Methodists. In South America there are millions of Orthodox Christians under the guidance of the Patriarch of Antioch. In places like Korea, Africa and the Philippines there are Orthodox missions. Orthodoxy is probably the second largest Christian communion in the world and seems to be growing fast.

In the modern world there is often a desperate search for meaning and spiritual experience. Many people say they have not found a mystic tradition in most Western Christianity. Others have been hurt by a narrow, fundamentalist presentation of the faith, with a harsh, judgemental God. Many devout people have turned to ancient, eastern religions or to Wicca or New Age groups. However, growing numbers are finding what they are searching for in the Orthodox Church. Orthodoxy has an unbroken tradition of centuries of spirituality, a way of life that leads to a mystic union with God. In the emptiness of a materialistic culture, this is what so many ordinary people are looking for. If you want to find out more about us, you will be very welcome.

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