Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
A Parish of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Phoenix, Arizona
What is the Orthodox Church?
In a nutshell, the Orthodox Church is the Body of Christ that came into existence on the Day of Pentecost when the
Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of our Lord Jesus who were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem. These
faithful followers of our Lord, led by the apostles, proclaimed to all the good news of our salvation in Jesus
Christ, Who was crucified for us, and rose from the dead, "trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb,
bestowing life." (Troparion of Pascha)
Over time, this proclamation led to the establishment of assemblies of believers across the Roman Empire, and then
across the world. For many centuries, in the face of persecutions that led to the martyrdom of many, and to the
suffering of thousands more, the Church endured, and the Church was one. As false teachings crept into the
teaching of some, the Church, led by the Holy Spirit, established the canon of the holy Scripture, determining
which books were canonical, and which were not. When it was necessary to respond to other needs, the Church
gathered in great councils of her leaders, the bishops, who came from throughout the world to consider the way to
rightly declare the word of Truth. Those who accepted the teachings and rulings of these men of God speaking with
one voice are the people of the Church, the Body of Christ; while those who rejected these decisions departed from
the Church. As the years passed, many of the local Churches fell away; some, following false teachings; others,
because of the arrival of conquerors who forced a different religion upon the people. Yet the Church endured.
Five great administrative centers arose from the Churches established by the apostles: Rome; Constantinople;
Alexandria; Antioch; and Jerusalem. Each was directed by a Patriarch, a bishop who had been chosen from among his
brother bishops to exercise authority over the churches within the various dioceses in that area. Each was equal
in rank in the Church, yet they acted together when necessary to respond to problems or challenges that were greater
than any one bishop could resolve on his own, and to answer questions of faith and doctrine and morals that had an
impact on the Church as a whole. Each administrative center was (with one exception) an important political and
economic center, as well as being the home of the leaders of the Church. Rome, of course, was the capital of the
Empire; and even after the Emperor Constantine built a new city, Constantinople, to be the capital of the Empire
in the East, Rome remained as the "first city" of the Empire. Alexandria was the commercial and political
capital in Africa; and Antioch, in the eastern Mediterranean. Jerusalem, of course, was neither an economic nor
a political center; but, as it is the place where our Lord lived, and died, and rose to life again, and the place
from which He departed when He ascended into heaven, and the place where the Holy Spirit came to establish the
Church, the city was afforded a place of honor among the other centers of Church administration.
The fall of Rome to the attacks of Germanic invaders, and the ascension to power in the West of Odoacer, ruler of
the Heruli, in A.D. 476, introduced new problems for the Church in the West. The Church was the only central
authority that remained of the Roman Empire in the West; while the other four Patriarchates were protected by the
Empire in the East (commonly known as the "Byzantine Empire"; which did not fall until A.D. 1453). The Church in
the West spoke and wrote in Latin; the Churches in the East spoke and wrote in Greek. As a result of these and
other problems and misunderstandings, tensions arose between Rome and the East, until relations were severed in
AD 1054. Rome claimed supremacy in the Church -- a claim never accepted by the Churches in the East, which have
come to be known as the "Orthodox Church." The oneness of the early Church was broken.
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