Holy Trinity Orthodox Church

A Brief Overview of Orthodox Christianity

The word “orthodox” comes from the Greek language and literally means “correct worship and belief.” In Orthodox Christianity worship and belief are inseparable. As we worship so we believe. The Orthodox Church is neither “Protestant” nor “Roman Catholic” but constitutes a unique reflection of the historic Christian faith. Orthodox Christianity traces its roots, both historical and spiritual, from the time of the Apostles.

The Apostles set out to spread the word of the Gospel to the “ends of the earth” and founded Churches throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. Of course early Christianity centered around the Mediterranean Sea and five cities of Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and finally Constantinople, became major centers of Christian leadership. The heads of the Church in these five centers, called Patriarchs, jointly ruled the Church for the first thousand years.

For the first three hundred years the Church faced persecution from the Roman government and was under attack from many directions. But, led by the Holy Spirit, the Church prevailed and under the rule of the Emperor Constantine, early in the 4th century, the Church became a legal Roman religion. From that time on the Church flourished, although not without occasional difficulties and assaults both from without and from within. Several attempts were made to distort the teaching of the Apostles and a series of Great Councils were held, which, led by the Holy Spirit, directed the Church in the development of the theology and practice of the Faith. The first of these Councils, held in Nicaea in 325 lead to the eventual development of the Nicene Creed, the fundamental statement of Faith affirmed by Orthodox Christians at every Divine Liturgy.

Over time, for a number of reasons, tension grew between some of the leaders of the Church in the West and in the East. Finally, in 1054 there was an official split between the Church leaders in Rome and Constantinople. The Roman Catholic Church became a separate entity and continues to be separate from the Orthodox Church today. Protestant churches developed as breakaway groups from the Roman Catholic Church beginning in the 16th century. The Orthodox Church to day is a worldwide body knit together by common belief and practice. It is the second largest Christian body in the world. Unlike the Latin Catholic Church there is no single “pope” or head of the Church, but the Bishops who act in a collegial manner under the leadership of the various Patriarchs pastorally rule the Church.

Orthodox Christianity has always seen Holy Scripture as part of the great Holy Tradition of the faith and life of the Church inherited from the Apostles. The Bible is a part of the essential foundation of orthodox Christianity and the services of the Church are rich with the use of scriptural readings and Biblically-based traditions. However, Biblical interpretation is always done in light of the tradition of the early Church Fathers and the Great Councils.

The Orthodox Church offers the Mysteries of Baptism, Chrismation, Holy Communion, Confession, Unction [healing of the sick], Ordination, and Marriage. We understand the Mysteries to be particularly intense opportunities of interaction with God working through the Holy Spirit. The spiritual life of the Church revolves around the Mysteries, each working in its own way to bring the faithful to a closer union with God. Accordingly Orthodox worship entails a glorious experience of hymns, psalms, prayer, and teaching set in a context of color, incense, music and praise, joining earth and heaven, the angels, Saints, and all the company of heaven.
(adapted from the St. Columba Orthodox Church website)

The Western Rite in Holy Orthodoxy

Before the year 1054 there would have been no difficulty in declaring that the Western Rite of the Undivided Church was simply the use of Latin speaking Churches. The Rite used by Christians in Scotland, Ireland and England, was as Orthodox as that used in Constantinople. In the first thousand years of Christendom all the far flung churches that were in communion with the Five Patriarchates (Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome) were Orthodox. After 1054, and more precisely, after the Norman Conquest (1066) of England, the Churches of the West were drawn into the Great Schism of the Roman Patriarchate away from the Unity of the Orthodox Church. The Western Liturgy came to reflect the Papal errors and even incorporated the Filioque in the Nicene Creed with other aberrations.

The restoration of a corrected, and truly Orthodox, Western Rite to Holy Orthodoxy in the United States was not originated by laity or by ordinary clergy. The vision of the Western Rite as an essential part of the Orthodox Mission in America belonged to Archbishop Tikhon of the American Archdiocese under the Moscow Patriarchate. About ninety years ago he examined the existing Anglican Book of Common Prayer and sent it to the Holy Synod of Moscow. That Liturgy, derived from the ancient use of the Orthodox West, and first expressed in English in the edition of 1549 by authority of King Edward the Sixth of England, was corrected and approved by the Holy Synod for Orthodox Church use.

In the years following, blessed Tikhon was himself elevated to Patriarch of Moscow, martyred by the communists in 1925, since declared a Saint of the Church, and now known to Orthodox faithful throughout the world as St. Tikhon, Enlightener of America. This is the same Saint Tikhon who, about the time he obtained approval for the restoration of the Western Rite in America, also consecrated (in 1904) Raphael Hawaweeny to the episcopate of the Orthodox Church of North America, from which the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese descends.

As the Orthodox Mission in America grew in numbers and in maturity, further authorization of the Western Rite was given by the Patriarchs and Holy Synod of Antioch. Metropolitan Anthony (Bashir) founded the Western Rite Vicariate for the creation of Western Rite Missions and Parishes in the Archdiocese. Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) has promoted an increasing number of Western Rite Parishes throughout North America; and new additions of Clergy and Laity to this world have more than doubled its size in a few years. Western Rite Orthodoxy is now a rapidly growing dimension of the Church's Mission in America.

The Western Rite Parishes represent a restoration of the legitimate Western Liturgy of the Undivided Church of the first 1,000 years, by Patriarchal authority, for the benefit of all Orthodox people.

-- Fr. John Connely, MA