Unity in Truth and Love of God

We Orthodox believe that the life of the Church is life in communion with God Himself, in the Truth and Love of Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

We believe that Christ is the Son of God. We believe that He reveals the truth about God and man. We believe that we can know this truth by the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, that He gives to us.

The greatest truth shown to us by Christ is that God is Love, and that the only true way of living is by following Christ who called Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Christ gave the great commandment and the great example of perfect love. Thus the greatest truth is love. This is our conclusion. And life in this truth which is love, is the life of faith, the life of the Orthodox Church.

Of course there are deviations and betrayals and sins all around. Clergy and laymen alike are guilty. But the Church itself, despite the sins of its members, is still the union with the Truth and Love of God given to men in Jesus Christ, made present and accessible in the Holy Spirit, who lives in those who believe.

The Original Christian Church

In brief, the one, undivided Church is said to have begun on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Resurrection of Christ. Already by the 4th century the term "Orthodox Christian" was used to designate those Christians who remained faithful to the totality of the teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles, as opposed to those who were known as "heretics" who promoted false doctrines and beliefs. [The term "orthodox" means "correct believing" or "correct, true glory."]

Due to a variety of complex circumstances, the Western church, known today as the "Roman Catholic Church," split from the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch in 1054 A.D. Roman Catholics, however, see it from the opposite perspective, namely that the Orthodox Church broke communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

We Orthodox believe that we are the continuation of the ancient Orthodox Christian Church, that we trace our history back to Christ and the apostles, and that the Church was "formally" established on the day of Pentecost. The Roman Catholic Church placed itself outside of this fellowship when it broke off communion with us in the 11th century.

This is a very brief outline; a thorough treatment of the issue would fill volumes, and there are many resources readily available should you wish to research the history of this further. For more information we would recommend that you check links on Church history. Or you may wish to read the book by Bishop Kallistos [Timothy] Ware called "The Orthodox Church," which gives the historical background in detail.

For further reading:

See Church History, section of the Fr Thomas Hopko's books four-volume work, The Orthodox Faith .

The Orthodox Faith