The Apostolic Era
This said, our
brief survey of
the long evolution of Orthodox Christianity begins with the first Pentecost in
Jerusalem and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Christ's small circle of
disciples. It is then that the Orthodox Church was born - today the second
largest organized body of Christians in the world. The Apostles, it is true,
had been historic witnesses to Christ's messianic ministry and resurrection
before the Spirit of God descended on them. Still, it was with this event that
they felt authorized to preach the Gospel to the world. Only then were they
able to fully understand the mystery of Easter, that God had raised Jesus from
the dead, and begin their mission. The expansion of the early Christian
movement, however, was not without problems, nor was it spontaneous. Persecution
and martyrdom awaited most of its initial members. The aggressive new
missionary community, nevertheless, was destined to survive and grow in
numbers. By the third century it had become a "mass phenomenon."
Though unevenly scattered, it constituted possibly as much as ten percent of
the total population of the Roman Empire. As such, it was sufficiently strong
to compel the Roman emperors to end the persecutions. The Church, arguably, could
no longer be ignored - numerically or ideologically; hence the legal
recognition of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine at the beginning of the
fourth century (312), and its subsequent recognition as the official religion
of the empire by the end, under Theodosius (392).
From Wiki:
The name Greek Orthodox Church (Monotonic Greek: Ελληνορθόδοξη Εκκλησία, Polytonic: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἑκκλησία, IPA: [elinorˈθoðoksi ekliˈsia]) is a term referring to the body of several Churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament. Today, several of these Churches conduct their services in Arabic, the common language of most of their faithful, while at the same time maintaining elements of Greek cultural tradition. The current territory of the Greek Orthodox Churches more or less covers the areas in the Eastern Mediterranean that used to be a part of the Byzantine Empire. The origins of the Orthodox Church can be traced back to the churches which the Apostles founded in the Balkans and the Middle East during the first century A.D., and it maintains many traditions practiced in the ancient Church. Greek Orthodox Churches, unlike the Catholic Church, have no Bishopric head, such as a Pope, and hold the belief that Christ is the head of the Church. However, they are each governed by a committee of Bishops, called the Holy Synod, with one central Bishop holding the honorary title of "first among equals."
Greek Orthodox Churches are united in communion with each other, and with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Eastern Orthodox hold a common doctrine and a common form of worship, and they see themselves not as separate Churches but as administrative units of one single Church. They are notable for their extensive tradition of iconography (see also: Byzantine art), for their veneration of the Mother of God and the Saints, and for their use of the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, which is a standardized worship service dating back to the fourth century A.D. in its current form. The most commonly used Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church was written by Saint John Chrysostom (347–407 A.D.).
No comments:
Post a Comment