One Continuous Tradition

The Original Church of Christ

The history of the Orthodox Church is the history of the present-day Body of Christ, a continuous and unbroken thread through which human redemption is weaved.   It’s a story that began not with man’s labour, but with the Son of God’s Incarnation who founded His Church at the feet of the apostles, and edified it by the appearance of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.   This divine origin is what gives life to the Church, through the ages and through the storms of heresy, persecution and division, but holding fast to the faith "once for all given to the saints" (Jude 1:3).

The Orthodox Church goes back to the age of apostolic saints, to the time when Christ lived among men and sent his disciples out to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).   The apostles, under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit, planted churches all over the known world. The great cities of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome all became bastions of the early Christian world, each standing as a symbol of unity.

It was in this apostolic period that the creed was established and the Holy Eucharist was held up as the central mystery of Christian life.  By the early second century, St Ignatius of Antioch describes the Church as "catholic" – universal – and stresses that she should be in unity under the bishop, who is Christ’s successor.

The blood of the martyrs underscored the beginning of the Church in the second and third centuries. The emperors Nero, Decius and Diocletian sought to burn out the light of Christ.  Yet the unwavering faith of the saints cast a light on the Gospel.   The Church sprang up clean and fortified, a living testimony to the words of Christ: “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

In the Edict of Milan in 313 and Emperor Constantine’s conversion, Christianity emerged from the shadows of persecution into the light of imperial favour.  The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, devoted to the treatment of the Arian heresy, inaugurated the conciliar tradition in the Orthodox Church.   This council, led by the Holy Spirit, asserted Christ’s deity, proclaiming Him "of one body" (homoousios) with the Father.

Over the next several centuries we saw the emergence of theological giants – St Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian, and St John Chrysostom.   Not only did these fathers defend the faith, they also enlightened the Church about the mysteries of God.   Their texts, filled with Biblical revelation and pastoral guidance, continue to influence Orthodox theology and spirituality.

The conquest of Constantinople as the "New Rome" in 330 marked the dawn of a golden age for the Orthodox Church.  The Byzantine empire had assumed the role of preserver and propagator of Orthodoxy, uniting imperial power with ecclesiastical authority.   Hagia Sophia’s rites, the Cappadocian Fathers’ theological tracts and the art of iconography all flourished in these moments.

The Fifth through Eighth centuries were devoted to the fight against monophysitism and iconoclasm.   The Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 reaffirmed icon worship as ‘windows to heaven’, not symbols of worship but vehicles through which the faithful are invited into the mystery of the Incarnation.

Monasticism also reached its peak in this period.  The deserts of Egypt and the mountains of Athos became spiritual havens, where ascetics pursued union with God through prayer and ascetic struggle.   The writings of St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Symeon the New Theologian reflect the mystical heights reached by the Church’s spiritual tradition.

In the first centuries, however, conflicts emerged between the Eastern and Western Churches.  The Great Schism of 1054 resulted from conflicts about papal jurisdiction, the filioque clause and liturgy.   Complex as it was, this fracture broke the ties between Rome and the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates.

But, in the East, the Orthodox Church persisted, maintaining the breadth of the apostolic tradition.  The homilies of St John Chrysostom and St. Peter the Apostle.   Basil, still the same in spirit as when they were composed, is still at the centre of Orthodox worship.

The destruction of Constantinople in 1453 put the Byzantine Empire on its knees, but Orthodoxy survived. Under Ottoman rule, the Patriarch of Constantinople took on greater spiritual power as the ethnarch of Orthodox Christians. In the meantime, Orthodoxy swept to the Slavic countries, creating the Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian Churches.

The Russian Church in particular became the bulwark of Orthodoxy, and Moscow itself became the "Third Rome." St Sergius of Radonezh, St Seraphim of Sarov and the hesychast community of Mount Athos maintained the spiritual tradition of Orthodoxy.

It is the contemporary period that has presented the Orthodox Church with special challenges. The spread of secularism, the persecution of Orthodox states by communist powers, and the exodus of Orthodox Christians to the West tested the strength of the Church. But those struggles have also planted the seeds of renewal.

Through the 20th century, the apostles St Nektarios of Aegina, St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, and Elder Sophrony of Essex witnessed the very existence of God in the world. The re-instatement of monastic order, the resurgence of liturgy, and renewed devotion to patristic theology were all reasons for Orthodoxy’s recovery.

The Orthodox Church today represents the enduring reality of the Gospel. Her rites ring like hymns of the past, and her icons are as radiant as the Sun of the Transfiguration. The Orthodox Church provides a vision of community, not grounded in finite beliefs, but in the eternal love of the God Triune.

As St Gregory of Nyssa once wrote: ‘The aim of the Christian life is utterly nothing but to become God by grace.’ This theosis, this communion with God, is still the heart of Orthodox spirituality and the pathway on which the Church prepares all those for the Kingdom of Heaven.

The history of the Orthodox Church is more than the history of a church; it is the unfolding of God’s mystery in the human past, a holy activity that continues to draw mankind into the Father’s embrace, in the Son’s, in the Holy Spirit.

Quick Facts

• Founding Year: AD 33
• Place: Jerusalem
• Apostles Present:Peter, James (son of Zebedee), John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon the Zealot, Jude (Thaddeus, son of James), Matthias
• First Bishop: Apostle James
• First Council: Circa AD 50
• Ecumenical Councils: (325–787 AD)