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WHEN CHURCHES JOIN - 6. General Documents

Local Ecumenism Information Kit
- Developed by the Local Ecumenism Working Group, NSW Ecumenical Council, October 2000
Phone (02) 9299 2215 for more information.

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Appendix 2. Understanding the Member Churches of the NSW Ecumenical Council

2.5 The Eastern Orthodox Churches

The churches of this family of churches that are members of the NSW Ecumenical Council are: the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The essential element that unites this family of churches is the double bond of 'unity in the faith' and 'communion in the sacraments'. These churches are, in origin, the ancient churches of apostolic times and places, especially within the Roman Empire.

The Christian Church began in Jerusalem. When it first burst forth from its Jewish roots and needed to make decisions for its mission in the ancient world, the leaders of the earliest communities held a council there which is described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15. The decisions were specifically sent with Paul and Barnabas to the important city and province of Antioch (Antakya, now in the south-eastern border of Turkey). Before long, the faith was established also in the great intellectual centre of Alexandria in Egypt (traditionally by St Mark himself), and from there it spread to Africa. There was a community of Christians in the imperial capital of Rome. We know that, from earliest days, the leaders of the churches met in councils to resolve matters of dispute.

Constantine and his city
In 324, the capital of the Roman Empire was moved from Rome to the ancient city of Byzantium on the Bosphorus. It was renamed 'New Rome', because Constantine determined to build there a Christian city, in contrast to old Rome and its pagan associations. Popularly, the city was called 'Constantinople' in honour of the Emperor, and that is the name that ultimately prevailed. When the bishops of the Church were called together by Constantine in 325 at his imperial summer palace at Nicaea (Iznik), the Emperor's concern was unity - unity in faith and unity in order - across the different communities in his dominions. Nicaea virtually divided the administration of the Christian world into three: Rome, Alexandria and Antioch. Jerusalem, hallowed by association with Christ and his apostles, was given due honour amongst Christian cities, though it was a minor town in Roman terms and ecclesiastically was a dependency of the See of Caesarea. The distinct areas of responsibility were Antioch (for Greek and Syriac speaking areas) and Alexandria (where, together with the Greek language, the ancient tongue of the Copts was spoken) were clarified. At a later council, in Constantinople in 381, the new imperial Christian city as given its rank - next in honour after Rome. When Rome ceased to be an imperial city, Constantinople took precedence, receiving equal standing to Rome by the Fourth Ecumenical Council (Chalcedon, 451).

Nicaea and Chalcedon
We might also note that there were strong differences in theological outlook and emphases, not least between Alexandria and Antioch, and the resolution of their differences had to be tested in ecumenical (=universal) councils. This was in order to preserve the unity of all the churches, and to define and combat heresy, distortions of the faith. The greatest of these ecumenical councils was Nicaea in 325 when a universal creed was devised, based on the baptismal creed used in one of the provincial churches (probably Caesarea). In the form, which the later Council at Constantinople approved, it is the Nicene Creed as recited in Orthodox Churches today. (The western form of this creed contains another word, in the Latin: filioque, meaning "and the Son", which is a later addition, and strongly rejected by the East both theologically and as an interference with the decisions of a universal council. Some western churches are returning to the original form for the sake of unity, for example, the Uniting Church).

There also were many canons passed, that is, regulations for the life and relationships of the churches. Here the difficulty of separating the interests of political and spiritual concerns sometimes complicated the relationships between the churches - and the effects are still with us (see the next section on the Oriental churches). The first schism of the Christian world occurred in response to the decisions of these councils, usually dated from the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, 451. One of the difficulties of achieving unity at Chalcedon was that several major churches lived beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. However, those difficulties now are being overcome.

The Second Schism
The tensions between the old Rome and New Rome (that is, Constantinople) were constant in the early period, and their relationship was much affected by various cultural, political and religious differences. By the end of the first millennium, differences led to divergence which, in turn, inevitably caused division. By the middle of the 11th century, the two churches of Rome and Constantinople were no longer in formal communion. In recent years, the two churches began a "dialogue of love", as well as initiating a theological "dialogue of truth", which has produced an agreement on the divisive 5th century christological issues.

Islam
For more than two centuries, however, the eastern churches had another force to contend with: Islam. From the time of Mohammed the Prophet (died 632), Islam spread with amazing speed across what was to be known - from the language of the dominant culture - as the Arabic world. The churches of Africa, Egypt (Alexandria), Syria (Antioch) and Jerusalem succumbed to its great power. In 1453, Constantinople itself fell to the armies of Mehmet II, the great church of Hagia Sophia, built first in Constantine's time, became a mosque, and a shadow fell across the Orthodox Christian world.

Icons
Constantinople in the middle of the 9th century was an active missionary church. It had emerged from the crisis of the last two centuries and more, from the controversy over icons, which had sapped its energies but also resolved some fundamental theological questions. Positively, from this period, and from the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 787 emerged a rich and fruitful theology which accounts for the leading place Orthodox teaching now holds in our defence of the environment. Icons were, in fact, symbols of the confidence God has in the created world: to use the natural pigments, on wood, to bring to mind the image (greek: eikon) of Christ was to proclaim the faith of incarnation. Icons now form a characteristic focus for liturgical and personal devotion for Orthodox Christians.

The Slavs
The Patriarch of Constantinople, Photios, initiated a mission to the Slavic peoples. He sent two brothers, Greeks from Thessalonika, Cyril (died 869) and Methodius (died 885), both extremely able men intellectually. They moved from region to region establishing churches, translating the scriptures and liturgy into Slavonic. From this mission emerged - through further turbulent centuries and other people's work - the Orthodox churches of Russia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (Moravia), and Serbia. True, Cyril and Methodius were caught up also in the divisions of the patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople, but they acted from the point of view that the church was one. Despite their difficulties, the churches grew. Bulgaria became an autocephalous (independent) patriarchate at the end of the 9th century, recognised as such by Constantinople in 927. The Serbian Church began to establish itself as a separate church under the greatest of its saints, Sava (1176-1235). A Serbian patriachate was created in 1346, recognised by Constantinople in 1375.

Romanian
The Romanians are sometimes described as "an island of Latins in a Slavic sea". Certainly the province of Dacia was a Roman province in the early 2nd century when Christian influence began. Bulgarian missionaries seem to have been the major influence for a second wave of Christianity in the late 9th or early 10th centuries, but the character of the Romanian Church remains distinct, and the Latin cultural flavour of the Romanian Orthodox Church is recognisable today. The monastic communities for both men and women have played a vital role in preserving the faith through many dark times in Romanian history, including the 20th century.

The Crusades
The crusades left a deep wound in the churches of the east. They began in western Europe as a call to Christian pilgrimage; they grew into a fanatical march to wrest the ancient patriarchates from the hands of Islam, but they culminated in the armies of the Christian west being pitted against the sacred sites of the Christian east, including the sack of Constantinople in 1204, an attack which might be seen as the fatal weakening of the city and its culture, which allowed Islam eventually to complete its defeat. The memory of this assault is vividly alive today, for Eastern Christians, for Muslims, and for Jews. It has especially made difficult the reconciliation of the Roman Catholic with the Eastern Orthodox churches.

The Churches after the Ottoman Empire
The dominance of the Turkish (Ottoman) empire reversed the independent status of several of these churches, and curiously the influence of Constantinople was extended by their return to its fold; only in the decline of the Ottomans did they re-emerge: Greece in 1833, recognised 1850; Romania 1864 / 1885; Bulgaria 1871 / 1945; Serbia 1879. The massive transmigration of populations, which established the modern nation of Turkey in 1922, when Muslims moved to what is now Turkey, and Greek Orthodox families were moved from their villages to the modern nation of Greece, left Constantinople (Istanbul) as an isolated city with a great Christian past. Nevertheless, its Patriarch still holds a primacy amongst all Orthodox churches, not of power but of honour, primus inter pares, first among equals in Christian bishops of the East. With the emergence of Turkey as a modern European power, there are some signs of greater freedom for the churches in its jurisdiction, and the present Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, is using every opportunity to extend his ecclesiastical and spiritual influence and knowledge of the churches, which relate to his ancient See. Equally, the churches of Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia are finding their place again under post-communist regimes.

The Eastern Churches after Communism
A word ought to be added about some separated but related churches. The fall of the Czar of Russia in 1917 meant a division in the Russian Orthodox Church, which has its parallel in many of the other Orthodox churches under Communist rule. The sad result of this is the existence now of a double Russian church hierarchy - the Russian Orthodox (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Russian Church Abroad (led in exile from New York). Some other groups, which formed in earlier times of Russian change and were suppressed, have also re-established themselves. Add to this the re-emergence of old nations, such as Ukraine, and the church in the whole region is profoundly divided. There will need to be time for healing. When war in the 20th century produced the new coalition of Yugoslavia, the separate state of Macedonia formed its own church. What the new independence of such nations means for their churches still remains to be seen. There are many working for reconciliation, not least through the good offices of the World Council of Churches. However, even there, relations have been strained, and the WCC has established (in 1999) a special commission to examine issues relating to the ecumenical participation of Orthodox churches and to work at re-building relationships.

Australia
Orthodox prayers were first heard in Australia in April 1820 led by Father Dionysil of the Russian ship Vostok berthed at Kirribilli Point. Greek migration from this time meant that several congregations were established, and their needs were met by priests coming from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Church of Greece in 1908. The Syrians were organised in 1911, the Russians in 1922 in Brisbane. An important step was taken on 7th March 1924 when the Ecumenical Patriarch set up the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand in Sydney with jurisdiction over all the Orthodox in the Pacific region. Australia shares with other countries in the diaspora (that is, in centres which fall outside the traditional patriarchates and other jurisdictions) the difficulty of manifesting Orthodox unity. Orthodox churches in union with Constantinople are one church, yet pastoral need requires priests (and in some cases, bishops) from Europe and the Middle East to serve the ethnic populations. The resolution of these problems probably awaits the calling of a pan-Orthodox council, which has been in the planning stage for some years.

Australian Leadership
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, more commonly known as the Greek Orthodox Church, is represented in Australia by His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos. His office, along with a theological college (St Andrew's), is in Sydney. Throughout Australia, there are 120 parishes of the Archdiocese, and 40 of those are in NSW. The liturgy (most often, the Liturgy of St Chrysostom) is celebrated in Greek and English.

The Patriarchate of Antioch is now represented by His Eminence Metropolitan Paul Saliba, who is based in Sydney. There are three parishes in Sydney and one in Wollongong, as well as in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. The Liturgy is celebrated in Arabic and English.

The Patriarchate of Romania is represented by the Reverend Father Dr Gabriel Popescu in Sydney, with priests also in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. The Liturgy is celebrated in Romanian and English.

Reading
The best general guide to the Orthodox churches is Timothy (Bishop Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church, Penguin, 1993.
For the Orthodox in Australia, H.L.N. Simmons, Orthodoxy in Australia, Holy Cross Press.