Eastern Orthodox Christianity

One of the three major branches of CHRISTIANITY. The Eastern Orthodox churches are properly known as "the Orthodox Catholic Church." The word "orthodox" means "having the proper opinions or beliefs." In the case of the Orthodox churches, it means adhering to the decrees of the seven ancient, ecumenical councils. (The Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant churches accept these decrees, too.) The councils were meetings of bishops to determine Christian teaching, especially with regard to Jesus. Some Eastern churches, such as the ARMENIAN CHURCH and COPTIC CHURCH, refused to accept the councils' decrees. The Orthodox churches see themselves as continuing the traditions of the APOSTLES. Indeed, important centers of Orthodoxy were founded by apostles. Orthodox bishops also preserve "apostolic succession," as do the bishops in the Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches. They go back in an unbroken line of succession to Jesus's immediate followers. The Orthodox churches arose in the Eastern, Greek-speaking Roman Empire. ROMAN CATHOLICISM arose in the Western, Latin-speaking Roman Empire. Political and cultural tensions between the two led to theological disputes in the 800s. In 1054 the Pope and the head of the Orthodox churches, the Patriarch of Constantinople, excommunicated one another. In 1204 the Fourth CRUSADE viciously attacked Constantinople. Not until 1965 did the Pope and the Patriarch reestablish friendly relations. Orthodoxy comprises 15 independent territorial churches—for example, the churches of Constantinople, Russia, and Greece—and three other churches that are semi-independent in Crete, Finland, and Japan. The independent churches call their chief offi cials either patriarchs, archbishops, or metropolitans. The Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized as the fi rst among equals. The leaders of the Orthodox churches have never claimed the political powers that the PAPACY claimed in the West. That is because in the Eastern Roman Empire political power did not disintegrate the way it did in the West. Until 1453 the Byzantine Empire patronized Orthodoxy. The Russian Empire took over that role until 1917. Orthodox theologians have generally expressed the truth of Christianity differently than Catholic and Protestant theologians. Catholics and Protestants have tended to think in judicial terms. They have talked about original SIN, guilt, reparation, and atonement. Orthodox theologians talk instead about the divinization of humanity. In their eyes, human beings were made for communion with GOD. Indeed, human beings fi nd their fulfi llment in the divine. The INCARNATION and especially the RESURRECTION of Jesus testify to that fulfi llment, despite the obstacles that life in the world presents. The church and its SACRAMENTS are the places where such communion and divinization take place today. Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox churches recognize seven sacraments. Their central WORSHIP practice is the celebration of the EUCHARIST in the Divine LITURGY. Orthodox services are long but are noted for their beauty and mystical quality. Orthodox churches allow even infants to receive the bread and wine of communion, provided they are baptized (see BAPTISM). Orthodox churches also make rich use of sacred pictures known as icons (see IMAGES, ICONS, IDOLS IN RELIGION). They have well-developed traditions of monasticism. Although Orthodox priests may be married men, bishops must be celibate. Orthodox churches have not won as many converts through foreign missions as have Catholic and Protestant churches. The rise of ISLAM in the seventh century restricted their opportunities. So did the relative weakness of the Christian territories in which they lived. But the Russian church spread across Asia and then established missions in Alaska. In the 19th and 20th centuries, immigrants also brought many other forms of Orthodox Christianity to the United States. In 1970 the patriarch of Moscow established the Orthodox Church of America, but not all Orthodox churches in America belong to it. See also ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND EASTERN ORTHODOXY IN AMERICA. Further reading: John Binns, An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Emmanuel Clapsis, The Orthodox Churches in a Pluralistic World: An Ecumenical Conversation (Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2004); Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (Baltimore, Md.: Penguin, 1963); Nicholas Zernov, Eastern Christendom (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961). ecumenical movement A movement among Christian churches that seeks to reunite them. Throughout its history, CHRISTIANITY has experienced divisions. The most important divisions occurred in the fourth and fi fth centuries C.E., when Christians such as Arians and Nestorians were expelled as heretics; in 1054, when the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church split; and in the 16th century and later, during the Protestant REFORMATION. The ecumenical movement has attempted to overcome these divisions. It began in the early 20th century and continues today. The impetus for the ecumenical movement developed in the 19th century. At that time, missionaries from Europe and North America were taking the message of Christianity to other parts of the world. They discovered that divisions at home were not so important overseas. In fact, they found that these divisions confused people and made mission work more diffi cult. In response, they started to look for ways to eliminate the divisions. In 1910 several missionary societies held a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. Their goal was to formulate a common plan of action. Eventually these societies organized three groups to work on three sets of issues. One group was the International Missionary Society, responsible for coordinating activities so that missionaries did not compete to convert the same people. A second was the Commission on Life and Work; it dealt with cooperation in serving other people. The third was the Commission on Faith and Order; it explored whether it was possible for churches to come together on teachings about which they had disagreed. In 1948 the two commissions combined to form the World Council of Churches (WCC). In 1961 the International Missionary Council joined them. In the early years of the ecumenical movement, Protestants took the lead. By the time the WCC was founded, Orthodox churches were also actively involved. The Roman Catholic Church (see ROMAN CATHOLICISM) has never joined, in part because some in the church think that the only way for Christians to reunite is for all those who left the Catholic Church to rejoin it. Nevertheless, the Second VATICAN COUNCIL (1961–65) opened the Catholic Church up to the ecumenical movement. Since then it has cooperated with the WCC. At the beginning of 2005 the WCC had 347 member churches in more than 120 countries. It offi cially defi ned itself as "a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfi ll together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit." The World Council of Churches was not the only organization to grow out of the ecumenical movement. Churches around the world that shared the same heritage also formed global organizations. Two examples are the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. In addition, churches in individual countries came together to form associations, such as the National Council of Churches in the United States. In some places churches with varying heritages merged. One such merger produced the Church of South India. Some churches, too, opened up offi cial dialogues with other churches. One result was that some churches entered into full fellowship with one another, agreeing, for example, to accept each others' ministers. The ecumenical movement was part of a larger trend in the 20th century. For example, Buddhists formed a World Buddhist Council and a World Buddhist Sangha Council. Even more encompassing is the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, organized in the 1990s. It brings representatives of all religions together, as it did, for example, in the summer of 2004 with its parliament "Pathways to Peace" in Barcelona, Spain. Not all churches, however, have participated in the ecumenical movement. Many conservatives prefer to emphasize their particularity and view the ecumenical movement with suspicion. Some prominent churches in the United States do not participate in either the World or National Council of Churches. They include the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. In addition, at the beginning of the 21st century churches that did belong to these Councils were grappling with issues that threatened to divide them once again. The most controversial issue was whether churches should ordain sexually active homosexuals and perform marriage ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples.