Eastern Orthodox Church
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It should not be confused with the Oriental Orthodox churches, such as are found in Armenia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Syria.
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[edit] History
Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church developed out of the united state church of the Roman Empire formally established in 380 CE. The church at that time was run by "the Pentarchy," five Patriarchs in Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch broke away, forming independent bodies that would later be called Oriental Orthodox. Both communions maintained separate Patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch, and continue till this day in the form of the Coptic Patriarch[1], Syrian Patriarch [2] (Oriental Orthodox) and Greek Patriarchs [3] [4] (Eastern Orthodox).
As the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Western church led by the Patriarch of Rome, a.k.a. the Pope, drifted away from the Eastern churches in its theology and liturgical traditions, causing a great deal of bickering between the two halves of the church over such issues as the "Filioque" addition to the "Symbol of Faith" (i.e. the Nicene Creed), which adds "..and from the Son" to "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father" (based on a reading of 1 John, where it is stated the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father). [5]
Matters finally came to a head in 1054. The Eastern patriarchs considered the Pope to be only primus inter pares, first among equals; but the Pope considered himself to have complete supremacy over them, and he demanded that they accept this. They refused, and a series of mutual excommunications between Rome and Constantinople followed, with the Patriarch of Constantinople gaining his current position as the first-among-equals of the Eastern Orthodox communion.
Because of these mutual excommunications, just as the Catholics believe that the Orthodox were the ones who broke away, so do the Orthodox churches consider the Catholics to have broken with them.
Around this same time, Greek-led Christianization efforts in Eastern Europe were well underway, with the Cyrillic alphabet being made expressly for the Slavic languages. Christianized Slavs and other peoples (such as Romanians) ultimately developed what is known as the Church Slavonic language. As the Grand Duchy of Moscow (the precursor of Russia) emerged and the Eastern Roman Empire declined, the Moscow-based Orthodox church became more and more prominent within the communion, with the see of Moscow eventually gaining the status of a patriarchate of what is now the Russian Orthodox Church. After the final collapse of the Roman Empire in 1453, although the Patriarch was allowed to remain in the newly Muslim Constantinople as head of the Ottoman Empire's Orthodox community, Moscow designated itself as the "Third Rome" (after Rome itself and Constantinople).
[edit] Organization
Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Christianity does not have a single universal leader. In theory, it is led by bishops--several of whom, called "patriarchs," possess de facto authority above the others. The Pope of Rome would be first, if he were not a damned heretic; the Ecumenical Patriarch (headquartered in the Phanar / Fener district of Constantinople / Istanbul) is thus by default "first among equals" (though not a few Orthodox deem him to be a heretic as well, thanks to his ecumenical activity and Turkish ties). The others are the patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem (who are invariably Greeks, despite the fact that their churches have Arab majorities). To confuse matters, a number of countries (notably Russia) have been granted "autocephaly," and their leaders may also be known as patriarchs (as in Russia). In any case, these churches are bound together as one church through ties of mutual recognition, commemoration, and intercommunion--that is, when they are not brawling or excommunicating one another.
Countries with Orthodox majorities include Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Georgia, among others. Countries with large immigrant populations, such as the USA, Britain, and Australia, are typically home to a number of different Orthodox jurisdictions, thus making hash of the theological requirement that each parish ought to be led by a single bishop, rather than divided according to language or national origin. Negotiations aimed at resolving this impasse have floundered upon the question of which bishops ought to be left standing, and what languages they ought to speak. The territory of Greece is, oddly enough, divided between the Patriarch of Athens and the Ecumenical Patriarch, while for historical reasons, the territory of Japan falls under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow. Not infrequently, churches come to blows over which hierarch ought to have jurisdiction; the modern history of the Ukrainian church centers on this question (which also has a nationalist dimension). Orthodoxy is not to be confused with the various "Uniate" churches which, although originating in Eastern Europe and the Levant, and maintaining Eastern liturgical customs, have allied themselves with Rome and are thus essentially Catholic.
The Orthodox Church is also not to be confused with the "Oriental" (non-Chalcedonian) churches--namely the Coptic, Armenian Apostolic, Eritrean/Ethiopian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, and Malankara (Indian) churches--several of whose patriarchs, confusingly, bear titles identical to those of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy. (There is even a Coptic Pope.) This despite the fact that their theology and liturgy are broadly congruent, and there is even some degree of furtive inter-cooperation if not intercommunion (in contrast to Orthodox / Unitate relations, which are frosty). The differences can be summarized thus: The Assyrian Church of the East (the so-called "Nestorian" church) accepts only the first two ecumenical councils (held at Nicea and Constantinople); the Oriental Orthodox churches also accept the third, the Council of Ephesus; but reject the fourth, the Council of Chalcedon, which the Orthodox Church accepts along with three other councils, for a total of seven. The Catholic Church accepts the seven ecumenical councils recognized by the Orthodox, plus many more (culminating in Vatican II), for a total of 21. The Anglican / Episcopal Church is not sure how many councils it recognizes.
In Orthodox theology, a council derives its authority from being subsequently embraced by the Church. Several "robber councils" have been held, only to be later disavowed, and it is difficult to suggest any set of legal principles capable of distinguishing valid councils from invalid ones. In any case, the result is that the Orthodox Church accepts that the Virgin Mary is truly called the Theotokos ("God-bearer"), that Christ has two natures in hypostatic union, and that the filoque is bollocks. Also, St. Augustine may have technically been a saint, but the flaws of his theology explain various cultural problems of the European West, culminating in the Great Schism of 1054, the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, the removal of the "religion" category from Greek national ID cards circa 2000, and the 2012 performance of Pussy Riot.
The Orthodox Church tends to be socially and politically conservative, to say the least. Not infrequently it is found cultivating cozy relationships with dictators and other right-wing elements; complicit in xenophobia; fomenting anti-gay riots; and in general making asses of themselves. In 2005, the Greek church was swept with a scandal so multi-tentacled as to defy easy summary (it involved simony, drug- and antiquities-smuggling, bribery/perversion of justice, and various sex scandals). In 2012 Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow was discovered wearing a luxury Breguet wristwatch, which was later airbrushed from official photographs.
Orthodoxy has been on the receiving end of atrocities as well. The Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey was decimated by the 1923 population exchange that removed all Orthodox from Turkey, with the exception of those within Constantinople itself; although the Patriarch remains in Constantinople (now called Istanbul), he is largely supported by the autocephalous Church of Greece. Now, due to the restrictions placed on the church by Turkey's model of secularism — including the requirement that the Patriarch be a Turkish citizen, a distinction that is claimed by extremely few Greek Orthodox today — the church is having to deal with an aging clergy and an inability to train replacements, as their only seminary was closed under a Turkish law banning any private institutions of higher education.
In Russia the church took a major hit in the Soviet era, with the modern state recognizing that over 250,000 clergy were killed by the communists, and the vast majority of its churches being closed down; but since the fall of Communism the church has become resurgent, with a large number of churches being reopened or built, and the church gaining sufficient power to take its stand among the persecutors rather than the persecuted.
In Syria, the beleaguered Orthodox (along with other Christian groups) are being targeted for execution by Sunni rebels, who blame them for supporting the Allawi (sectarian Shi'a) government of Bashar al-Assad. This despite the Christians' collective desire to keep their heads down and avoid the fighting.
[edit] In the United States
In the U.S., Orthodoxy has several competing organizational structures since it arrived in the country through immigrants. The Russians, via Alaska, are considered to have brought the Orthodox church to the United States, which would have given them first dibs on determining who was in charge. However, immigrants from other parts of Eastern Europe arrived in America bringing with them their own national churches, which complicated matters. One of the largest groups is the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). Many Orthodox bishops outside of North America believe that the OCA is not independent of the Russian Orthodox Church (though, oddly enough, the Russians believe it is).[6]
[edit] Calendar
The Gregorian calendar, currently used worldwide as the civil calendar, was instituted by the Roman Catholic Church. Hence, it was not immediately adopted in non-Catholic areas, specifically Orthodox countries that continued to use its predecessor, the Roman-era Julian calendar.
Until very recently, Orthodox countries used the Julian calendar as a civil calendar; according to the Gregorian calendar, the "October Revolution" is really the November Revolution. These countries now use the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes, but the Eastern Orthodox liturgy still operates according the Julian calendar; consequently, the Orthodox celebrate Christmas and Easter on different days than Western Christians, and Eastern Orthodox followers resident in Western countries often get to buy their Peeps and Easter Eggs on sale after the nominal Easter celebrations are over.
Eastern Orthodoxy is divided by calendar, although churches with different calendars can nonetheless remain in communion:
- Some churches, such as the Russian Orthodox Church, retain the Julian calendar fully.
- Others, such as most of the Greek Orthodox churches (but not the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem), adopted the Revised Julian calendar. This calendar is effectively the same as the Gregorian, although it will differ from 2800 onwards due to a different way of dealing with leap years. They still retain the Julian calendar for calculating Easter.
- Within those churches that adopted the Revised Julian calendar, minorities have rejected the new calendar and retained the Julian calendar instead — these are known as "Old Calendarists". These groups are most common in Greece
- The Finnish Orthodox Church and the Estonian Orthodox Church have fully adopted the Gregorian calendar, including the Gregorian calculation of Easter.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Wikipedia-List of Coptic Orthodox Popes
- ↑ List of Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs
- ↑ List of Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Alexandria
- ↑ List of Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch
- ↑ Eastern Orthodox Christianity
- ↑ Erickson, John H. "Canon 28: Yesterday and Today"St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary.