What We Believe About The Church

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 worlds, 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 was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate and suffered and was buried; And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures; And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at 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 I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets; And I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

When we examine this phrase the word we must look at first is "Church." Then we will examine the four characteristics or marks of the Church, "One," "Holy," "Catholic," and "Apostolic."

The origin of this word is the Greek word Ecclesia. It is derived from the prefix ek and the verb kaleo (to be called out). Eccleisa means to be called out from. The Church is those human beings who comprise this society, the assembly that has been called out of this world, called to higher state of existence by God who has made such a thing possible.

The first of the characteristics of this society, this body, is that it is a visible body. It has a real, concrete existence. In the Old Covenant, to be a member of God’s people was a very clear thing. You were either a part of Israel or you weren’t. You were a part of Israel if you were born of the seed of Abraham, if you were born of a woman descended from Abraham and, if you were a male, if you bore the mark of circumcision on your body. All of these are very organic, visible things.

In the New Covenant with Christ, the faith of the Church is that from the beginning the purpose of the Lord’s coming was that He was going to give, and has given, new life. We must understand this "new life" in the most intense sense possible. It is really a new creation that we are speaking about when we speak of the new humanity. Just as there is an immeasurable difference between man and the creatures of the animal kingdom, so there is an immeasurable difference between a member of the human race, made in the image and likeness of God, and a member of the people of God, those whom He has called and have responded to that invitation to become part of His new creation.

The language that the Scriptures and the Holy Tradition of the Church uses from the beginning to refer to the Church is a very concrete language. The Church is the Body of Christ. Christ is the head and those who are part of His body are the members. In the ascension of Christ the Church experiences that where Christ is there His body is present also. Christ, the head, is in heaven and the members of His body are already mystically present in heaven with Him. And as we live in time on the earth so Christ is present with us until the end of the world.

The "bridegroom of the Church" and "the head of the body" do not refer to any kind of vague idea. Rather, they refer to the person of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, the "bride" of the bridegroom and the "members" of the body also refer to something that is very real and very visible and not vague.

This is contrary to the view of the Church held almost of necessity by Protestants. The Reformation idea is that the Church is something invisible. The Church is somehow the gathering whose membership will not really be clear until we are in heaven. It is comprised of all those who believe in and love Jesus and have an individual or private relationship with Him. That is the Church and you can’t tell by looking around who is really in it.

The teaching of the Church from the beginning is that the Church in this world is very visible and has very real boundaries and one is either in it or one is not in it (just as in the Old Covenant you were either of the seed of Abraham or you weren’t). Just as Christ called real people to Himself and through the Apostles established the Church on their foundation, so throughout time until the end of the world, through human history, the Church exists in this world as a visible body, a visibly bride for Christ the Bridegroom.

We say that the first mark or characteristic of the Church is that the Church is "one." Just as God is one (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), there cannot be divisions in the Church of God. The Church of God is indivisible. There can no more be two, three or several Churches than there can be two, three or several Gods. Just as the life of the Godhead is shared in perfect communion by the persons of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), it is that life that the one, true, and only God has given to His Church. The Church does not have any kind of life apart from God. It is the life of God that has been entrusted to the Church and, therefore, just as God is one, the Church is one.

From the viewpoint of the world and the descriptions of Church history, people speak of divisions in the Church. They point to the departure of the non-Chalcedonian churches (e.g., the Coptics) following the Council of Chalcedon (circa 451 AD), the division of the Greek church and the Latin church (circa 1054 AD), or what happened in the Latin church at the time of the Reformation (circa 1517 AD).

When we speak of these "divisions" we must insist that just as the persons of the Trinity cannot be divided, so also there must always be one Church in this world. The Church cannot be divided. If there is strife in the Church it means that there are people who are leaving the communion of the Church, there are people who are doing what St. John described in his first Epistle.

St. John speaks of people who were members of the Church and who were leaving the Church. This does not divide the Church. Rather, these people who leave the Church are being shown as being not of the Church. They have a different spirit than the Holy Spirit that holds the Church together.

The rift between the Latin west and the Greek east was caused by the Filioque ("and the Son") dispute and, even more importantly, by the claim of supreme authority over the entire Church by the pope of Rome. There are three things taught in the Latin church concerning the papacy.

First, from the earliest days of the Church it was understood that there is order in the Church. The Church is not an anarchy. The Church is not a monarchy. The Church is not a democracy. The Church reflects the life of the Holy Trinity and there is an order in the persons of the Holy Trinity. The Son is begotten of the Father, not the other way around. The Spirit proceeds from the Father, not the other way around. The Son is begotten; the Spirit proceeds; the Son and the Spirit are not confused. The relationship of each of the persons of the Son and the Spirit to the Father is a unique one. Likewise, it was understood that Christ established an order in His Church. There was an order in the Apostles. Jesus singled out Peter, James, and John. From them He singled out Peter.

It had been understood in the Church from the beginning that Peter is the first of the Apostles, he is first among equals. Together with Paul, we sing in the Orthodox Church that they are the "first enthroned of the Apostles." We don’t have this idea in the Church that the relationship of each person to God within the communion of the Church is an identical relationship. There are people who are greater; there are people who are lesser.

So Peter was always considered to be to be first among the Apostles, the first among equals. This teaching regarding Peter is called his "primacy" (from the word meaning first). It means that in the ranks of the Apostles Peter had the first place. Likewise, regarding the church of Rome (which had a special relationship to Peter and Paul and also, practically, because Rome was the central city of the known world), it was agreed in the early Church among all the churches that the church of Rome had the first place and that the bishop of Rome was the first bishop in the ranks of the Church. For the bishop of Rome to be called the descendant of St. Peter was understood by the entire Church and accepted. This was so even though the church of Antioch had a similar claim, yet there was no conflict in the Church over these things.

But as the centuries progressed the bishops of Rome began ascribing to themselves an authority that was, in the eyes of the Greek church, something that was not there in the early Church. They claimed to have two things that the Orthodox reject as additions to the deposit of faith.

First, the bishops of Rome claimed to exercise "infallibility." Now infallibility per se is not the problem here because as Orthodox we believe in the infallibility of the Church (the true body of Christ will be teaching the Truth of God in this world until the end of time). However, the great problem occurred when the Roman church began to teach that this infallibility was expressed through one human mouthpiece, the bishop of Rome. This was something that was not, in the Orthodox understanding and experience of the Church, present in the early Church.

Secondly, the bishop of Rome began to claim what is called "supremacy" (the idea that the pope of Rome has immediate authority over the entire Church). The Apostles, everywhere they went, by the laying on of hands, established bishops and presbyters and deacons to be the means through which the authority that Christ gave to His Apostles is perpetuated in the Church until the end of the world. The churches established by the Apostles all existed together in communion, with the bishops being in communion with one another, just as the Apostles were. To say that among the bishops of the great churches, the great cities, the Patriarchs as they were called (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople) the bishop of the greatest city, Rome, has the first place is one thing. But to say that the bishop of Rome has immediate jurisdiction over the entire Church is quite another thing.

This claim of papal supremacy, which began to be exercised in great force in the Middle Ages, was at the center of the division that occurred between the Greek east and the Latin west. By attempting to force papal supremacy and the "Filioque" addition to the Nicene Creed on the eastern church, according to Orthodox understanding, the Latin church, the Roman Catholic Church, left the communion of the one Church. There was no division of the Church, the Church was not divided into two Churches. There cannot be two Churches any more than there can be two Gods. There is no such thing as relative truth in Christian experience. Truth regarding God is always absolute.

The third tragedy to befall Christianity, the Reformation (16^th century) was a phenomenon of the Latin church. The Orthodox Church never underwent a "reformation." From the Orthodox perspective, whenever the authority of the whole of Holy Tradition (the Scriptures, the creeds, the Church fathers and the saints, the Liturgy, the councils, the canons, the art, the music, the architecture, etc.) is attempted to be narrowed down to a singular expression (whether it is a supreme and infallible pope or the Bible interpreted by an individual independent from the way the Bible has been understood in the communion of the Church from the beginning) the truth of God is in great peril.

The Orthodox doctrine is that the Church must be one. The Church is the image on earth of the perfect communion in unity of the Holy Trinity in heaven. The authority that exists in the Church is the authority of the truth that God has revealed. It is not a monarchical authority imposed by those who rule the Church on those who are ruled in the Church. On the other hand, there is no anarchy in the Church. The Church is hierarchically structured, there is an order that reflects the Holy Trinity. The Church can only be properly understood as a family. The mystery of the Church is that it is the family of God. The members of the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the people of God who are called from this world to be the new humanity, the new creation, share that same life (the life of the Triune God) in the communion of Love. What makes one a member of the Church? The Church is comprised of those who confess the teachings and the life of the Church that have been held from the beginning everywhere by everyone who has claimed to be the Church, and who partake of the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that has been made present in the Church through the sacraments.

It is the understanding of the Church from the beginning that this prayer of Jesus Christ is answered. His body, the visible body that we call the one Holy and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church, has remained one despite its wounds, despite its strife, despite those who have left her communion. It remains one in history and in time until the end of the world. And if it is not then there is no Church at all.

Observe the continuity of teaching concerning the one Church.

• "Where the Church is there also is the Spirit of God. Where the Spirit of God is there also is the Church and all its grace." St. Ireneaus of Lyons (130-202 AD)

• "The Church is one even though the number of churches is constantly growing. As the Church becomes more fertile, there are many churches but only one Church." St. Cyprian of Carthage (about 200-258 AD)

• "He cannot have God as his father who does not have the Church as his mother." St. Cyprian of Carthage

• "The Church is greater than heaven and earth; it is a new world and Christ is its Sun." St. Ambrose of Milan (340-397 AD )

• "The body of Christ to which Christians are united through baptism is the source of our resurrection and salvation." St. Athanasius the Great (293-373 AD)

• "The Church is the earthly paradise in which the God of heaven dwells." St. Germanos of Constantinople (about 634-733 AD)

• "The Church is the great window through which the Son of righteousness shines upon a world of darkness." St. Nicholas Cabasilas (14th c. AD )

• "Christ’s Church is not an institution. It is new life in Christ directed by the Holy Spirit." Sergius Bogota (20th century theologian)

• "The Church is the center of the universe, the place where its destiny is made." Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958 AD)

• "In the darkness of this fallen world the Church is an opening in the wall made by the triumphant cross. The love of the Trinity never ceases to shine through the light of the resurrection." Olivier Clement (contemporary French Orthodox theologian)

• "The Church is the entrance into the life of Christ, the communion with eternal life." Fr. Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983 AD)

The most basic meaning of something that is holy is that, "it is not of this world." In the Greek the word for holy is "agios." The center of the word, "gi" means that which is earthly, of this world, experienced by the senses. It is the same root that the word geology comes from. In Greek the prefix "a" means "not." The root meaning of "agios," holy, is "not earthly", not of this world, not of human experience.

The life that holds the Church together is not simply the life of this fallen creation. Rather, it is the Life of God that called the Church into existence. We speak of the Church coming forth from the open side of Christ as He dies on the cross giving His life for the life of the world. Just as there would be no visible creation without God calling it from non existence into being, so there would be no Church without the Church, the new creation, having been called into being by God.

The Church is not a human institution; the Church is indestructible. When we speak of the holiness of the Church what we mean is that the Church is called into existence by God. It is comprised from the very beginning of sinful people, earthen vessels. The claim of being the one, Holy Church does not mean that it is the Church of the perfect and the sinless.

The kingdom of heaven is the wheat and the tares growing together until the end. The Church is comprised of all sorts of people.

All sorts of things are found in the Holy Church (and were found in many of the churches of the new testament who received Apostolic epistles). The sinfulness of the people that comprise the Church is always very evident. The end will reveal who has truly been a member of the body and who has been a withered branch. There are withered branches that die and are cut off the tree but that doesn’t effect the life of the tree. The tree of the Church is kept alive by the sap of the blood of Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit.

By the promise of God His truth will be made available in this world until the end. This body which He has called into existence does not depend upon human beings for its existence. Even though we depend on it for eternal life, its life comes from God. The Church is the new creation of God. It is Holy because it is kept alive by the life of the Holy God. Surely if the Church were merely a human institution it would long ago have ceased to exist because of the infidelity, incompetence, betrayals, hard heartedness, compromise and heresies of people that have come forth from it (including those in the highest of places). But, never the less, it continues no matter how hard the forces of this world try to destroy it. Because the Church is kept alive by God, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it in this world. That is its Holiness.

This word comes from the Greek expression meaning whole or complete, lacking nothing (universality is only a secondary meaning) Each local expression of the Church has everything that is needed for the eternal life that Christ has made available to us. The local church is complete because it is a manifestation of the Church that has received the eternal life that God has given it. We become part of the life of God Himself through the Church.

Given the complexity of the times in which we live, it is necessary to make a list of those of the communion of Orthodox churches throughout the world that at present, according to our doctrine, understanding and experience of what the Church is, comprise this one, undivided Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in its fullness. (The following list is from The Orthodox Church by Bishop Kallistos Ware)

The patriarchs and bishops of all of these churches live in a communion of faith, doctrine, and life that we call the Orthodox faith. To be part of the visible Orthodox Church as it exists in this world one belongs to a parish church of one of these churches. Each one of these churches and each one of the local expressions of these churches is regarded as Catholic, having everything that is needed and has been given for the salvation of the world by Christ. Even when there is corruption and sin and lukewarm ness and a kind of nominal Christianity prevailing some times in any given local expression of the Church, we would say that it is for God (who ultimately sorts out the wheat from the tares and who sorts out the stuff in the dragnet) to sort out His Church in the end. The Church is not the society of the perfect, the Church is the means by which the Truth that has been given by God to the world is made available.

The word Apostle comes from the Greek verb apostolo which means to send out. The first and greatest Apostle was Christ, sent forth from the Father to bring the life of God into the world. Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so the twelve Apostles were sent by Christ to the ends of the earth.

Christ entrusts His entire revelation into the hands of human beings. That is how He works.

The Apostles, in a relatively short period of time, went to the ends of the earth establishing churches by doing very specific things. They laid on hands to set apart those who would be bishops, presbyters and deacons. The act of the laying on of hands signifies the transmission of the Tradition, the passing on of the Tradition, the life.

Likewise, those churches established by the Apostles established other churches in which this continuity of Apostolic life, faith and authority has been transmitted, passed on in a very visible way. That is to say that the Orthodox Church is the Church of the Apostolic succession. We trace our life to Christ and the Apostles through a visible line of succession. The priests in local churches have been ordained by a bishop who has, in turn, been ordained by other bishops that, if you went back far enough, would take you back to one of the twelve Apostles.

The Orthodox Church is not a grassroots, democratic phenomenon. It is not the creation of the people. It is given by God. It is a hierarchical society. Just as Christ sent the Apostles, so the Apostles established those who were set apart to guard the deposit of the faith.

We would say that being in communion with the Church involves, at its core, being part of this body in which the Apostolic faith, the presence of the Apostolic Tradition, visibly from the beginning has been transmitted. The Orthodox claim that we are that body.

First of all, because the grace of God does what it wills and God desires the salvation of all, the grace of God operates outside the visible boundaries of the Orthodox Church. But the grace that is operating outside those visible boundaries is the grace of the Church that operates through God’s mercy. In the Roman Catholic Church or in the various Protestant bodies, people find Truth and people find faith. In the case of most people in 20^th century America who come to the fullness of faith within the communion of the Orthodox Church it is because they have at least had a partial experience of that Truth outside the Orthodox Church.

In the non-Orthodox churches, even though we would say that in every case the reason why the non-Orthodox churches are not in communion with the one Church is because they have either added to or subtracted from the deposit of faith something that has not been there from the beginning and is not attested to by the undivided Tradition of the Church, yet, never the less, we would say that in these bodies there is a variable amount of Truth that is to be found. And just as we do not judge who in the communion of the Church are the wheat and the tares, so likewise we do not judge people outside the communion of the Church.

We would say, for those who through no fault of their own have never been able to encounter the Orthodox faith, that they will be judged on the basis of what they have been given, not by what they have not been given. And, by the way, conversely to that, membership in the one, true, Holy Church is no guarantee of salvation. There are those who, even though they begin in the life of the Church, do fall away. The demands for those who do claim to be part of the one, true and only Church are very much greater. The Lord says that to whom much is given much will be expected.

It is not for us to make any kind of judgment or evaluation concerning the salvation of anyone outside or inside the communion of the Church. We would say that we believe that the fullness of the truth that God has revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, His Son, the Bridegroom of the Bride, is to be found within the communion of the Church when those in its communion are being faithful to what they have received. Outside the communion of the Church there are partial expressions of that Truth but they are always mixed with varying amounts of error and addition. It is in the Church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of Truth (1Tim. 3:15), that we must sift through those teachings and declare through the eyes of the Tradition that we have received which is true and which is false. But in doing so we make no kind of judgment of people or of persons.