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"The Lord's Prayer "
"Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy Kingdom come;
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one".
"ΤΟ ΣΥΜΒΟΛΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ"
Πιστεύω είς ένα Θεόν, πατέρα παντοκράτορα, ποιητήν ούρανού και γής, όρατών τε πάντων και άοράτων. και είς ένα κύριον Ίησούν Χριστόν, τον Υιόν του Θεού, τον μονογενή, τον έκ του πατρόν γεννηθέντα προ πάντων τών αίώνων. Φώς έκ φωτός, Θεόν αληθινόν, έκ θεού αληθινού, γεννηθέντα ού ποιηθέντα, όμοούσιον τώ πατρί, δί ού τα πάντα εγένιτο.
Τόν δί ημάς τούς ανθρώπουςκαι δια την ημετέραν σωτηρίαν, κατελθόντα έκ των Ουρανών και σαρκωθέντα έκ Πνεύματος Αγίου και Μαρίας της Παρθένου και ενανθρωπήσαντα.
Σταυρωθέντα τε ύπέρ ημών έπί Ποντίου Πιλάτου, και παθόντα.
Και αναστάντα τη τρίτη ήμέρα κατά τας Γραφάς
Και ανελθόντα εις τους ούρανούς, και καθεζόμενον έκ δεξιών του Πατρός.
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The Greek Orthodox Church Introduction
"The Greek Orthodox Church is under the protection of the state, which pays the clergy's salaries, and Orthodox Christianity is the "prevailing" religion of Greece according to the constitution. The Greek Orthodox Church is self-governing but under the spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul. One of the three branches of world Christianity and the major Christian Church in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the Orthodox Christian Church, also sometimes called the Eastern Church, or the Greek Orthodox, or Orthodox Catholic Church, claims to have preserved the original and apostolic Christian faith. Figures for its worldwide membership range from 100 to 200 million, depending on the method of accounting.
Structure and Organization
The Orthodox church is a fellowship of administratively independent, or autocephalous
(self-governing) local churches, united in faith, sacraments, and canonical discipline,
each enjoying the right to elect its own head and its bishops. Traditionally, the
ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul) is recognized as the "first among
equal" Orthodox bishops. He possesses privileges of chairmanship and initiative but
no direct doctrinal or administrative authority. The other heads of autocephalous
churches, in order of precedence, are: the patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, with
jurisdiction over Africa; the patriarch of Antioch, now residing in Damascus, Syria, and
heading Arab-speaking Orthodox Christians in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq; the patriarch of
Jerusalem, with jurisdiction over Palestine; the patriarch of Moscow and all Russia; the
patriarch-catholicos of Georgia (former USSR); the patriarch of Serbia; the patriarch of
Romania; the patriarch of Bulgaria; the archbishop of Cyprus; the archbishop of Athens and
all Greece; the metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland; the archbishop of Albania; the
metropolitan of Prague and all the Czech Lands and Slovakia; and the metropolitan of all
America and Canada.
Three autonomous churches also enjoy a large degree of independence, although the election
of their primate is subject to nominal approval by a mother church. These are the churches
of Crete and Finland, under Constantinople, and the churches of Japan and Ukraine, under
Moscow. The autocephalous and autonomous churches differ greatly in size and membership.
The churches of Russia (50-90 million) and Romania (21 million) are by far the largest,
whereas some of the ancient patriarchates of the Middle East, including Constantinople,
are reduced to a few thousand members. The patriarch of Constantinople, however, also
exercises jurisdiction over Greek-speaking churches outside Greece and controls, for
example, the Greek archdiocese of America, which is distinct from the Orthodox Church in
America, listed among the autocephalous
churches. In Greece the Orthodox church is the established religion. Long repressed in the
USSR and the Communist countries of Eastern Europe, it experienced renewed freedom with
the removal of restrictions on religion during the Gorbachev era.
History
Historically, the contemporary Orthodox church stands in direct continuity with the
earliest Christian communities founded in regions of the Eastern Mediterranean by the
apostles of Jesus. The subsequent destinies of Christianity in those areas were shaped by
the transfer (320) of the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine I.
As a consequence, during the first 8 centuries of Christian history most major
intellectual, cultural, and social developments in the Christian church also took place in
that region; for example, all ecumenical councils of that period met either in
Constantinople or in its vicinity. Missionaries, coming from Constantinople, converted the
Slavs and other peoples of Eastern Europe to Christianity (Bulgaria, 864; Russia, 988) and
translated Scripture and liturgical texts into the vernacular languages used in the
various regions. Thus, the liturgy, traditions, and practices of the church of
Constantinople were adopted by all and still provide the basic patterns and ethos of
contemporary Orthodoxy.
These developments, however, were not always consistent with the evolution of Western
Christianity, where the bishop of Rome, or pope, came to be considered the successor of
the apostle Peter and head of the universal church by divine appointment. Eastern
Christians were willing to accept the pope only as first among patriarchs. This difference
in approach
explains the various incidents that grew into a serious estrangement. One of the most
vehement disputes concerned the filioque clause of the Nicene Creed, which the Western
church added unilaterally to the original text.
The schism developed gradually. The first major breach came in the 9th century when the
pope refused to recognize the election of PHOTIUS as patriarch of Constantinople. Photius
in turn challenged the right of the papacy to rule on the matter and denounced the
filioque clause as a Western innovation. The mounting disputes between East and West
reached another
climax in 1054, when mutual anathemas were exchanged. The sacking of Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade (1204) intensified Eastern hostility toward the West. Attempts at
reconciliation at the councils of Lyon (1274) and Florence (1438-39) were unsuccessful.
When the papacy defined itself as infallible (First VATICAN COUNCIL, 1870), the gulf
between East and West grew wider. Only since the Second VATICAN COUNCIL (1962-65) has the
movement reversed,
bringing serious attempts at mutual understanding.
Doctrines and Practices
The Orthodox church recognizes as authoritative the decisions of the seven ecumenical
councils that met between 325 and 787 and defined the basic doctrines on the TRINITY and
the INCARNATION. In later centuries Orthodox councils also made doctrinal definitions on
GRACE (1341, 1351) and took a stand in reference to Western teachings. The Orthodox
church accepts the early traditions of Christianity, including the same sacraments as the
Roman Catholic church--although in the Orthodox church infants receive the Eucharist and
confirmation--and the episcopate and the priesthood, understood in the light of APOSTOLIC
SUCCESSION. Married men may become priests, but bishops and monks may not marry. The
veneration of MARY, as Mother of God is central to Orthodox worship, and the intercession
of saints is emphasized in the Orthodox liturgical tradition. After an early controversy
on the subject, the images, or ICONS, of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints are now
seen as visible witnesses to the fact that God has taken human flesh in the person of
Jesus. The LITURGY
used by the Orthodox church is known as the Byzantine rite. It has been translated from
Greek into many languages, including the Old Church Slavonic used by the Russian Orthodox
church. The liturgy is always sung, and communion is distributed to the congregation in
both kinds (bread and wine). MONASTICISM, which had its origins in the Christian East
(Egypt, Syria,
Cappadocia), has since been considered in the Orthodox church as a prophetic ministry of
men and women, showing through their mode of life the action of the Holy Spirit. The
monastic republic of Mount ATHOS, Greece, is still viewed among Orthodox Christians as a
center of spiritual vitality.
The Orthodox church has been generally quite open to the contemporary ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT.
One by one, the autocephalous churches have all joined the Protestant-initiated WORLD
COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, without modifying their own view on Christian unity, but considering
the council as an acceptable forum for dialogue and cooperation with other
Christians. The recent steps taken by the Roman Catholic church and the decrees of the
Second Vatican Council were seen by the Orthodox as promising groundwork for the future,
and this positive reaction was witnessed by several meetings between Orthodox and Catholic
leaders, including participation by Vatican representatives in ceremonies marking the
thousandth anniversary of Russian Christianity in 1988.
John Meyendorff
Bibliography: Attwater, Donald, The Christian Churches of the East, 2 vols., rev. ed.
(1962) and Saints of the East (1962); Constantelos, Demetrios, Understanding the Greek
Orthodox Church (1982); Drillock, David, and Erickson, John, eds., The Divine Liturgy
(1982); Ellis, Jane, The Russian Orthodox Church: A Contemporary History (1986); Forest,
Jim, Pilgrim to the
Russian Church (1988); Hussey, J. M., The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire (1986);
Lernor, Nicholas, Eastern Christendom (1961); Macha, Josef, Ecclesiastical Unification: A
Theoretical Framework (1974); Meyendorff, John, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and
Doctrinal Themes, 2d ed. (1987), and The Orthodox Church, Its Past and Its Role
in the World Today, trans. by J. Chapin (1962); Paraskevas, John, and Reinstein,
Frederick, The Eastern Orthodox Church (1969); Rogier, L. J., et al., eds., The Christian
Centuries, 5 vols. (1962-78); Runciman, Steven, Byzantine Style and Civilization (1975)
and The Great Church in Captivity (1968); Salaville, Severien, An Introduction to the
Study of Eastern Liturgies (1938); Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church (1963); Zernov,
Nicholas, Eastern Christendom (1961)
Adapted from: John Meyendorff. The Orthodox Church. The Academic American Encyclopedia
(Electronic Version), copyright © 1993 Grolier, Inc., Danbury, CT."
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