Class 1

Class One

What is Orthodoxy?

The four claims of the Orthodox Church The Orthodox Churches claim to be the one holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church are based in 4 claims:
The Orthodox Church has maintained an unbroken historical continuity with the original Church founded by Jesus Christ in Jerusalem.
The Orthodox Church has faithfully maintained the apostolic faith once delivered to the Saints (Jude 3), neither adding nor subtracting from it.
The Orthodox Church faithfully worships God the Father in Spirit and Truth, providing mankind with personal access to the life and grace of the All-Holy Trinity.
The Orthodox Church has produced untold numbers of Saints throughout the centuries- Persons who bear within themselves the uncreated grace of God.
From the book The Faith: Understanding Orthodox Christianity, Clark Carlton

What comprises the Orthodox Church?

The Orthodox Church is of one mind, unified under Christ, this unity was handed down to the Apostles from Christ and preserved through the laying on of hands and through Bishops, Priest, Deacons.
The Church is Hierarchal and has been from the very beginning.
St. Clement: names hierarchal structures (early Bishop of Rome)
St. Ignatius of Antioch: Disciple of the Apostle John, 3rd Bishop of Antioch
St. Ignatius of Antioch… “fountain of Immortality”
“Where the Bishop is there let the people be” The Orthodox Church is a family of self-governing Churches.
No central organization, no absolute power Double unity of faith and communion
Each Church is independent
Each Church is in full agreement with the rest in matters of doctrine and in Communion with each other
Orthodoxy: Right Belief and right glory (right worship)
The Church that guards and teaches true belief about God
Glorifies him in right worship Eucharistic Society
Church unique geographies that are united mystically during the liturgy to comprise the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The nature of the Church is a community gathered around the Eucharist=Body and blood of Christ, and that a Bishop or his representative (Priests) must preside at the Eucharist The one episcopate (St. Cyprian of Carthage 258). Each Bishop possess not a part but the whole. Many episcopi but only one episcopate It is natural then that as they share the episcopate that they would become a conciliar Church.
Neither dictatorship nor individualism, but harmony and unanimity. They are united in love, in faith and in sacramental communion Acts 15: Apostles met at Jerusalem to decide about Gentile converts.
A pattern of conciliar councils is set. At first during the persecution of Christianity they were all local councils but they grew into Ecumenical councils over time.
That we are to “flee divisions” and everything that lacks unity

Thoughtful Questions:
If the Apostles returned today, what would they recognize as the Church Christ founded and imparted with the Holy Spirit?
Is the bible the fruit of the Church or the Church the fruit of the bible?

Historical Timeline:
33 A.D Pentecost.
49 A.D Council of Jerusalem.
Draw Rough Time Line.
33 A.D Pentecost.
49 A.D Council of Jerusalem.
69 AD Bishop Ignatius consecrated in Antioch in heart of the New
Testament era-St. Peter had been the First Bishop there.
Other early Bishops include James, Polycarp, and Clement.
95 A.D Book of Revelation written.
150 A.D St. Justin Martyr described the liturgical worship of the Church entered in the Eucharist.
Liturgical Worship is rooted in Both the Old Testament and New Testaments.
313 A.D The Edict of Milan marked an end to the period of Roman persecution by making Christianity legal.

325 A.D. The Council of Nicea settles the major heretical challenge to the Christian Faith posed when the heretic Arius asserts Christ was created by the Father. St. Athanasius defends the eternality of the Son of God. Nicea is the first of Seven Ecumenical (Church wide) Councils.
451 A.D. Council of Chalcedon affirms apostolic doctrine of two Natures of Christ.
589 A.D. A synod in Toledo, Spain adds the Filioque to the Nicene Creed (Asserting that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son). This is not accepted by the East but is in Rome.
787 A.D. The last of Ecumenical Councils: the Seventh Council restores the centuries old use of Icons in the Church.

880 Tension between East and West starts to the build in Photian Schism.
988 Conversion of Rus begins.
1054 The Great Schism occurs. Two major issues include Rome’s claim to a universal papal supremacy and her addition of the filioque clause.
1066 Norman conquest of Britain. Orthodox hierarchs are replaced with those loyal to Rome.
1095 The Crusades begun by the Roman Church. The sack of Constantinople (1204) adds to the estrangement.

1333 St. Gregory Palamas defends the Orthodox practice of hesychast spirituality and the use of the Jesus Prayer against Roman Theologian Barlaam.
1453 Islamic Turks overrun Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire ends
1517 Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the Roman Church in Wittenberg, starting the Protestant Reformation.
1529 Church of England begins to pull away from Rome.
1794 Missionaries arrive on Kodiak Island in Alaska.
1832 parts of Greece wins independence from Turkey.
1854 Dogma of Immaculate conception in Rome
1870 Papal infallibility becomes Roman Dogma
1917 Communist overthrow Tsar and White Russians who fought communist forced to flee Russian.

The three cultural and ecclesiastical elements in Christianity:
Semitic
Nestorian (Nestorian Church of Persia)
Monophysites Churches: Egypt (the Coptic Church, Ethiopia, Armenia, Syria (Jacobite Church), India
Greek
Expanded from Byzantine Empire North with St. Cyril and Methodius (863)
Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia
As Constantinople falls to Turks in 1453 the importance of the Principality of Moscow becomes important
four ancient Patriarchates: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem Eleven other autocephalous Churches: Russia, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus, Poland, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Sinai
Autonomous Churches: Finland, Japan and China Latin
Separation between Rome and the Reformers in the sixteenth century

Notes: Franchise: to have the right of a Frank. Means to be able to vote and a villain (Roman town dwellers) now means evil man.

Fr. John Romanides – thesis:
The purpose of the Church is to heal man of spiritual illnesses brought on by the fall (this spiritual illness characterized by a quest for happiness) and enable him to know God.
His second Thesis:
That dogmatic controversies throughout the history of the Church are caused by those who don not understand the function of the Church as a spiritual hospital. Thus the real difference with the West is in their loss of this understanding. This occurred because the Western ecclesiastical institutions were subverted by political forces into mere political institutions. As political institutions they became concerned with man’s happiness instead of his glorification. With mere forgiveness of sins rather than purification

The Symbol of Faith:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made; Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man. And He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who preceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

Amen…

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