July 30, 2003 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The following report about the Orthodox Church is by a friend who grew up in Orthodoxy. He has given me permission to publish the article, but he desires to remain anonymous:

The purpose of this article is to inform born-again Christians about the history and doctrines of the Orthodox Church. Many are familiar with the errors of Rome but few know what the Orthodox Church believes. It is no longer just a national church in far away countries. It is a world-wide religion. There are Orthodox Churches in Japan, Korea and even China. The 1995 Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook listed Orthodox Christianity as the fastest growing religious grouping in North America. It is also growing fast in the UK. There are hundreds of converts to it each year and many of them show a zeal and promote it more than those who are born into it.

It is believed by some Orthodox that the early history of the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland was more of the Eastern type. The early British / Celtic saints such as Augustine, Alban, Aidan, Cuthbert and Columba are regarded as Orthodox.

St. Aristovoulos (Aristobulus) the Cypriot, believed to be the brother of St. Barnabas (founder of the Church of Cyprus) and of Maria (wife of St. Peter) was a student of St. Paul. In the 1st century AD he was ordained by him as Bishop of Britain where he was the first to preach Christianity. Finally Aristovoulos became a martyr of Christianity since he was tortured to death by “wild men”. However the many followers he brought with him were able to carry on his apostolic work. Therefore Aristovoulos is considered by some as the founder of Christianity in England. All this is according to Orthodox tradition.

Constantine (the Great) and his mother Helen (who are regarded as saints by the Orthodox) both lived York during part of their lives.

In 669 AD the Greek Theodoros from Tarsus, was appointed the Head of the Anglican Church as Archbishop of Canterbury. He is considered as one of the most influential figures of English history. He built churches and monasteries; he founded the first library and established Greek, Latin and Theological studies in England.

However, this Eastern brand of Christianity was suppressed by the Saxon invaders and later was completely ousted by the Normans and replaced with Western Roman Catholicism. It was not until 1677 that the first Greek Orthodox Church was built in Greek Street in central London and was used by Greek refugees who fled from Ottoman persecution.

Some Orthodox are praying that Britain will “rediscover” its Orthodox past and be re-converted to the “true faith”.

In more recent times some famous names who converted to Orthodoxy are as follows:--

Timothy Ware who is now Bishop Kallistos (Greek for “the Best” or “Most Beautiful”) has written several books on Orthodoxy.

Peter Gilquist was the Evangelical Protestant director of “Campus Crusade for Christ”. He led a mass conversion to Orthodoxy in the USA of about 2000 people in 1986.

Michael Harper was one of the original leaders of the Charismatic movement in Britain, and one time curate at All Souls, Langham Place, an evangelical Anglican Church. He has become a priest in the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

Frank Schaeffer is the son of evangelical Francis Schaeffer. He is a well-known and much sought-after speaker. He lectures on the Orthodox Faith, Christianity and the arts, and his conversion to the Orthodox Faith. He has served on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Council and as the lay chairman of the Religious Education Committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He is also the editor and founder of Regina Orthodox Press which publishes many Orthodox books including the best-selling “The Faith” catechism series and was also the editor of “The Christian Activist”.

Dr. Andrew Walker, an ex-Pentecostal, is Professor of Theology, Kings College, London and former director of the “C.S. Lewis Centre”.

John Taverner, the famous composer, who was responsible for the music in Princess Diana’s funeral, is also a convert.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who was Orthodox as a prince of the Greek royal family, but became Anglican (in 1948) to marry Princess Elizabeth who later became Queen, has again embraced Orthodoxy (in the early 1990’s). His mother became an Orthodox nun after her husband died. She had her own Orthodox chapel in Buckingham Palace which was dismantled in 1969 after she died. She was buried at a Russian Orthodox Convent in Jerusalem according to her wishes.

Some reasons for joining Orthodoxy are to get away from the trendy and irreverent forms of worship found in many evangelical / charismatic / pentecostal churches and the acceptance of women clergy and other liberal doctrines found in the Church of England, Methodist and other churches. One advantage that Orthodoxy has over Rome is that there is no “infallible pope” but it still claims to trace its origins back to the apostles. The mystical aspect of Orthodoxy would attract the “charismatic type of Christian.”

Of course, there are Orthodox who convert and become born-again Christian and often they suffer persecution. In countries where the Orthodox are the majority, the persecution and discrimination is open. Even in places where they are a minority there can still be pressure from the family and the close-knit community.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the main church of Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East. The Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch (now based in Damascus), Alexandria, Constantinople (Istanbul) and Moscow, belong to the Byzantine tradition. Many Arab Christians belong to the Orthodox Church. Countries where Orthodoxy is the dominant religion include the following:- Russia, Georgia, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. In addition, due to immigration, there are large communities of Orthodox people living in the USA, Western Europe, Australia and Africa. World-wide there are about 300 million Orthodox members.

The national churches are autocephalous (literally self-headed), with their own patriarchs. However, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is primus inter pares (first among equals) and his spiritual sway extends far beyond the confines of his church in Istanbul (Constantinople). The term “ecumenical” in its root meaning is “the inhabited world”. It is also applied to church synods that occurred between the 4th and 8th centuries -- Nicea (325) formulated the first part of the Creed, defining the divinity of the Son of God; Constantinople (381) formulated the second part of the Creed, defining the divinity of the Holy Spirit; Ephesus (431) defined Christ as the Incarnate Word of God and Mary as Theotokos; Chalcedon (451) defined Christ as Perfect God and Perfect Man in One Person; Constantinople II (553) reconfirmed the Doctrines of the Trinity and Christ; Constantinople III (680) affirmed the True Humanity of Jesus by insisting upon the reality of His Human will and action and completed the 5th and 6th Ecumenical Councils; and Nicea II (787) affirmed the propriety of icons as genuine expressions of the Christian Faith.

The Armenian, Coptic (Egyptian), Assyrian and Ethiopian Orthodox are also very large churches. However, since the time of the Chalcedonian council they split off and went their own way. They are classed as Oriental (non-Chalcedonian) Orthodox churches, though they still retain many Byzantine traditions and beliefs.

The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that it is the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” as is stated in the Nicean creed. The following is a quotation from “Our Orthodox Christian Faith” by Frangopoulos (henceforth referred to as OOCF): “Moreover, she is called Apostolic because she preserves and proclaims to all the Apostolic Faith and Confession and because her pastors and ministers, Bishops and Presbyters, all her clergy possess Apostolic Succession and administration. Thus the Church is the mouth of Christ and the Apostles and she always preaches all that ever issued forth from the mouth of Christ and the Apostles and she preserves unbroken the Apostolic Succession. That is to say, a bishop who was installed as such by the Holy Apostles themselves transmits the episcopal grace and ministry to another, who in turn is canonically succeeded by another and so on down the line right up to the present day, in such a way that they all constitute an unbroken continuation, and possess one and the same succession from the Apostles up to the present and to the end of time.”

This Orthodox theologian goes on to explain that Protestant churches are not real churches because Protestantism is full of divisions and therefore they are just confessions of faith and not churches. He dismisses the Roman Catholic Church since it changed true Christianity and filled it with false doctrines, especially Papal Primacy and infallibility. His conclusion is, “Which then is the Church of Christ? It is the Eastern Orthodox Church. She is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, since she has preserved the divine teaching of Christ unadulterated, genuine and whole. She has preserved and continues to preserve the Holy Apostolic Tradition - that which the Apostles taught and transmitted and which was preserved by the God-bearing (sic) Holy Fathers, i.e. that which was always everywhere and by all believed.... Hence, without a doubt and without any exaggeration whatsoever, only Orthodoxy is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ.” He warns all Orthodox believers to “avoid at all costs the heretical teachings and opinions of the Protestants, and the Papists, of the Uniats (sic) and the Ecumenists, and finally those of the fearful Jehovah’s Witnesses”. No distinction is made between the anti-trinitarian Jehovah’s Witnesses and Trinitarian Christians.

Frangopoulos means the leaders of the early church were “God-bearing” i.e. actually carrying God inside them (perhaps referring to transubstantiation and the Eucharist). The “uniats”, or more commonly spelt “uniates”, describe churches that left Orthodoxy to affiliate with Rome, e.g. Greek, Chaldean and Coptic Catholic churches.

What then is their attitude towards other churches? Although some of the stricter ones (for example the Old Calendarists who still abide by the Julian calendar) regard all other churches as heretical, the main body of Orthodoxy is pro-ecumenical, seeking the unity of the Church. In 1967, partial reconciliation was achieved when the Pope and the Patriarch signed a mutual agreement to cancel the excommunication of 1054. Since then there has been constant dialogue between the two parties, and it is now permissible for a Catholic to receive communion in an Orthodox Church if he or she is not near a Roman Catholic church, and vice versa. Although the hierarchy is pro-ecumenical, the laity are always warned against joining any other churches. There is also dialogue with Anglicans and certain evangelicals such as the Evangelical Alliance in the UK.

Many Orthodox today still detest Rome because of the destruction and pillage which Constantinople and the beloved cathedral of Holy Sophia suffered at the hands of the Catholic Crusaders in 1204. Much of the booty found its way to Venice, and in particular to St Mark’s, which is adorned with Byzantine spoils. Throughout their history there are disputes over land, churches and relics. The fighting between Croat and Serb was in essence between Catholic and Orthodox. There are also disputes in Russia and Ukrainia.

Despite Orthodox antipathy towards the Roman Catholic Church it has much in common doctrinally. This is not surprising as they both have a common origin and history of a thousand years. Differences between East and West caused a schism in 1054 AD when Pope Leo IX excommunicated Patriarch Cerularius. The main differences can be summarised as follows:

However, almost one thousand years later there are more similarities than differences. The belief that man is saved by faith alone through God’s grace is not taught by either church. Frangopoulos states in OOCF, “The primary conditions for our justification are our faith in Christ the Saviour and the good works that spring from our virtues and our holy life”. He then emphasises the difference between Orthodox and Protestant belief concerning the need for works. He writes, “On this point we must state that we Orthodox greatly differ from the Protestants who, by wrongly interpreting certain passages from Holy Scripture, reject good works all together. But all that we have said thus far clearly supports and sustains the correctness of the Orthodox position which is that man is not justified by faith alone, but also by works of faith, which are necessary to confirm and validate our faith”. Unlike the Protestants, to the Orthodox, tradition has an equal authority to the Bible, the best interpreter of which is the Church hierarchy.

The Orthodox Church has seven sacraments which it refers to as Holy Mysteries. They are baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, repentance (which includes confession), priesthood, marriage and unction. The first four are obligatory. In order to be a Christian and be saved the first four must be observed. Frangopoulos writes the following about a person, “If he is not baptised, and chrismated (confirmed), if he doesn’t communicate [i.e. have communion] frequently and confess his sins, he does not receive grace and does not become a Christian”. The full baptismal service consists of an exorcism, baptism in blessed and consecrated water, confirmation or chrismation (anointing with “holy myrrh”), tonsured (cutting the hair in the form of a cross) and receiving “holy communion” or “eucharist” by the baby or the adult convert. Baptised babies receive communion regularly.

In the sacrament of the Eucharist, transubstantiation is believed to occur. The Greeks refer to this as “metousiosis”. During the Eucharist service the priest prays to God asking him to change the bread into the body and the wine into the blood of Christ. Frangopoulos in OOCF writes, “Precisely at this moment the Holy Spirit descends and changes the bread into the Body of Christ and the wine, in the Chalice, into the Blood of Christ. We then have the perceptible presence of our God-man Saviour in His entire Body and all who are ready to communicate, communicate Him, receiving within them not bread and wine but in very truth this very Body and Blood of Christ, and become ‘of the same body’ and ‘of the same blood’ and ‘Christbearers’, and they constitute with Christ, Whom they bear within themselves, one body and one blood, according to St. Cyril, and have Christ in them ‘dwelling and abiding together with the Father and the Holy Spirit’ according to St. Basil (in one of the Pre-Communion Prayers). Of course our eyes see bread and wine and our tongue senses the taste of bread and wine, but things are not as they appear. From the moment when the Holy Spirit descended and the Sacrament was perfected, we no longer have that which we see with our eyes or taste with our tongue. We have that which we believe, worship and adore. We have the Body and Blood of our Christ Who communicates to us life and incorruptibility.

“In this Mystery of the Holy Eucharist not only does the change of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ take place, but also our Lord’s entire life and saving work is represented and performed. That is to say, His incarnation, birth, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension and His session at the right hand of the Father, so that He may intercede on behalf of all. All i.e. the marvellous events which contributed to and perfected our salvation, and which salvation is granted to and assured us by the Sacrament of Holy Communion”.

This belief in transubstantiation is so strong that an Orthodox book called “The Divine Liturgy Explained” (henceforth referred to as DLE), by Nicholas Elias illustrates the doctrine as shown below.

It is believed that the partaking of the Eucharist imparts “the seed of immortality”, strength and grace to the recipient. In addition, the Eucharist is also performed for the dead. I quote OOCF again, “The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is also offered on behalf of our fathers and brothers who have fallen asleep (repose) as St. Cyril of Jerusalem states: ‘Then (we commemorate) our holy Fathers who have fallen asleep, and bishops, and in a word, all who have reposed amongst us, believing that their souls are greatly profited by the prayers of the most holy and awesome sacrifice offered on their behalf”‘.

There is also another service called a ‘memorial’ which is performed usually on the anniversary of the death of a loved one. The Orthodox accept the Apocrypha as canonical and therefore Frangopoulos justifies it in this way, “The first Scriptural witness which instructs us to perform Memorial Services on behalf of the dead is in the Old Testament. In II Maccabees (12:43) Judas Maccabeus is portrayed as offering sacrifice for those who have fallen in battle, for their atonement and for the forgiveness of sins. Holy Tradition then portrays the Holy Church as always performing Memorial Services and as offering up petitions on behalf of the dead. All the Divine Liturgies commemorate the dead with the following words: ‘Remember all those who have departed this life in the hope of the resurrection of life eternal (N. and N. [names of deceased]) and give them rest, O God, where the light of thy countenance reigns’. The Holy Fathers SS. Athanasius the Great, Cyril of Jerusalem and John Chrysostom speak about ‘a very great profit’, a very great benefit and repose that these commemorative prayers grant to the souls of the departed.” [Despite this teaching, Orthodoxy condemns the Catholic doctrines of purgatory and indulgences].

As part of the Memorial Service, the relatives of the deceased prepare a special food made of wheat called Kollyva. This food is distributed to friends and relatives to be consumed. According to Elias, the Kollyva represents the souls of the departed, and he quotes John 12:24 as proof. In ancient Greece, they cooked a similar dish which was made from a selection of grains and seeds. They called it “panspermia” and offered it to the dead, the living and the god Hades. Is Kollyva a continuation of this ancient pre-Christian practice?

Another strange practice is to make a waxen or metallic effigy (votive) of the part of the body which needs healing and offer it to a saint, just like ancient Greeks would to the temple gods and goddesses. Baby statues made of wax are taken to church with the hope of increasing fertility. And so, the great human concerns of birth, death and fertility are nothing but pagan practices : the use of marriage crowns at weddings, the placing of money in a grave (cf. a silver coin for the god Charon), the votives and the funeral meal.

In common with the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church also teaches that the priests have the power to forgive sins. The sacrament of repentance and confession is urged upon all believers. Frangopoulos tells his readers, “He (God) entrusted the power of remitting sins, and hence the sacrament of repentance and confession, to the clergy and shepherds of His Church. Those who do not recourse to them shall never receive forgiveness of sins”.

Orthodox priests are believed to exercise much power. In DLE the following explanation is found, “The blessing of the priest has a marvellous efficacy as being an exercise of the mysterious power with which he is invested.... The priest changes bread and wine ... into the Body and Blood of Christ.... He bestows special sanctity upon the Christians and upon the objects blest.... The hand of the priest is, therefore, an instrument of imparting Divine Grace. For this reason Orthodox Christians throughout the centuries customarily kiss the hand of their priest...... (pp. 86-7). It is quite common to see a priest raising his hand expecting it to be kissed instead of the usual handshake.

Catholic and Orthodox have the same attitude towards the Virgin Mary and the saints. They are depicted on icons (i.e. holy paintings) in the Eastern Church and usually as statues in the Western Church. It is believed that the dead saints act as intercessors; hence believers pray to them and give them much honour.

Frangopoulos informs us that, “We especially turn to the Church Triumphant in heaven: the Church of our Saints and we commemorate them and especially ‘our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary’. We commemorate them and ascribe glory and honour to their holy personages and their sacred memories, and we ask their prayers before God on our behalf and their supplications and aid in the many needs of our lives. With special faith and devoutness we honour the Most Holy Theotokos, the Mother of our Lord, and we ask her protection and her speedy overshadowing and aid. We recourse to the wonder-working Saints - Holy men and women - for our spiritual and bodily needs, since God granted to them the gift of performing miracles and of the miraculous healing of many spiritual and physical maladies.”

He explains icons by saying, “Moreover, we ought to know that the honour shown to the icon refers chiefly to the person of the Saint that is depicted thereon. ‘For the honour of the image passes on to the prototype and he that reverences the icon venerates the hypostasis of him who is depicted therein’ as the Holy Seventh Ecumenical Council declares. Hence we have the Saints as our intercessors before the Lord and as help in our needs; we have them, their holy icons, and their holy relics as examples of virtue and sanctity. This is why we honour them and celebrate their memory, and invoke them in our prayers, in our supplications and in our Liturgies”.

Throughout the Orthodox world there are legends of many icons which work miracles. For instance, on the Greek island of Tinos, considered as the Lourdes of the Aegean, there is an icon of the virgin said to have miraculous curing powers and covered with gold, diamonds and pearls. The faithful line up to kiss this holy relic. The activities occurring on this island have not changed over the centuries. In fact it is well documented that Tinos was a sacred island as far back as the fourth century BC, when pilgrims flocked to its shores hoping to be healed by Poseidon and to participate in the Poseidonic festivals.

There are many stories of tears and blood flowing from an icon. For instance, many testify to seeing Mary depicted on an icon crying real tears.

There was a period in Orthodox history when the veneration of icons was banned. This was known as “THE AGE OF ICONOCLASM” which lasted from about 726-843.

For more than a century after the accession of Leo III (717-741), a persisting theme in Byzantine history may be found in the attempts made by the emperors, often with wide popular support, to eliminate the veneration of icons. Fear of idolatry had led to an official proscription against icons in 730. In 754, 338 bishops met in Hieria and Constantinople and condemned the use of icons but since the Orthodox Church use icons, this council is not recognised. The Iconoclasts (those who fought against the use of icons in worship) obtained a condemnation of St. John of Damascus, a supporter of icons, at the Council of Hieria in 754 but this was reversed at the second Council of Nicaea in 787 (i.e. the one that is recognised as the 7th and last). In 787, the Empress Irene who took over on the death of her husband Leo IV convoked the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea at which Iconoclasm was condemned and the use of images was re-established. During this period there was much fighting many were killed. This empress insisted on being called “emperor” i.e. using the masculine form and by skillful intrigues with the bishops and courtiers she organised a conspiracy against her son, Constantine the sixth VI, who was arrested and blinded at his mother’s orders (797). Irene’s zeal in restoring icons and her patronage of monasteries ensured her a place among the saints of the Greek Orthodox Church. Her feast day is August 9. St. John of Damascus and his fellow monks prevailed. Monks made a living by painting icons. All writings of the Iconoclasts were destroyed. It was not until 843, that the icons were definitively restored to their places of worship and icon veneration solemnly proclaimed as Orthodox belief. The restoration was effected by Empress Theodora after the death of her iconoclast husband, Theophilus in 842. Acceptance of icons was made a test of orthodoxy; that is, you could not “take them or leave them;” you had to accept the concept of icons in order to be in good standing with the church.

The “Feast of Orthodoxy” is a feast celebrated on the first Sunday of Lent by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine Rite to commemorate the return of icons (sacred images) to the churches (843) and the end of the long iconoclastic controversy. We can blame two domineering women empresses (Irene and Theodora) and the monks (who made their living by painting icons) for the present day idolatry of 300,000,000 people. Many Orthodox homes have a corner somewhere in the house with at least one icon of Mary or a saint.

Today, it is quite common to find churches dedicated to Mary and the saints on sites that had temples dedicated to Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and other pagan gods and goddesses.

Mary is revered so much by the Orthodox that it is quite normal to address her in the following ways: All Holy One, Our Lady, Mother of God, Mediatrix, Immaculate, Pure One, the True Vine, Jacob’s Ladder, Burning Bush, Rod of Aaron, Bride of God, Daughter of the King, Queen of Heaven, more honourable than the Cherubim, more glorious than the Seraphim. Scriptural proof for her eternal virginity is supposedly Ezekiel 44:1-3. In the liturgy for the veneration of Mary, she is asked to “redeem and save us” Below is a typical prayer to Mary which is sometimes recited in the divine liturgy.

‘To the most holy Mother of God’

O all-holy Lady, Mother of God, the light of my darkened soul, my hope and protection, my refuge and consolation and my joy, I give thee thanks that Thou hast made me, who am unworthy, worthy to receive of the holy Body and the precious Blood of Thy Son. Do thou who didst bear the true Light enlighten the spiritual eyes of my heart; thou who didst engender the Fountain of immortality give life to me who am dead in sin; thou the compassionate mother of the merciful God have mercy on me and give me compunction and contrition of heart, humility in my thoughts, and the recall of my reasoning powers from their captivity. And make me worthy unto my latest breath, uncondemned to receive the sanctification of the divine Mysteries unto the healing of soul and body, and grant to me tears of repentance and confession so that I may praise and glorify thee all the days of my life. For thou art blessed and glorified unto the Ages. Amen.’

Mary is regarded as the Queen at the right hand of Jesus Christ. Elias states (DLE, p. 75), “On thy right hand stood the Queen, clothed in vesture and wrought with gold and arrayed in many colours (sic) Psalm 44:10”. In fact, he is referring to Psalm 45:9 [the Psalms are numbered differently in Greek Orthodox Bibles] and is applying the title ‘Queen’ to Mary. On p. 239 she is called the “Bride of God”. “Blessed Bride of God, Thou Good Soil which grew the untilled corn that saves the world, grant that I may be saved by eating it”.

Many of the beliefs and practices in Orthodoxy are pre-Christian and are derived from ancient Greece. However, some of them originate from Judaism. The garments which the priests wear are very significant. There are similarities with the Aaronic priesthood. In fact, while the priest is putting them on he recites from Exodus 28:2-29 and Ecclesiasticus 45:7-17 and other passages. Some of the laws of a Nazarite vow found in Numbers 6 apply to the Orthodox priest, e.g. not cutting the hair or shaving.

It is the custom for Orthodox women to refrain from going to church while they are having a period. This tradition is from Leviticus 15:19. In addition, it is still believed that a woman is unclean immediately after childbirth and is not allowed to enter the church as described in Leviticus 12. Many ritualistic laws of the Old Testament still apply in Orthodoxy.

Ironically, although the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation was sparked off by the flight of Greek scholars taking with them valuable manuscripts to the West after the conquest of Constantinople, the Orthodox Church herself was never blessed with a similar experience.... Well, she could have, had not the Catholic Jesuits, with the Pope’s blessing, caused the murder of Patriarch Cyril Lucaris in 1638. This Eastern Luther who taught salvation by faith, election and sufficiency of the Scriptures and opposed the worship of the saints and the doctrine of transubstantiation, was regarded as a threat to Rome. After his death, successive Patriarchs condemned him as a heretic, and to this day, evangelical Christians are still being persecuted by the Orthodox Church. This Patriarch also gave the order for the New Testament to be translated into the Modern Greek of that time and it was based on the Received Text.

It is no small wonder, especially to born-again Christians who have come out of the darkness of Orthodoxy, to see people born and brought up in a traditionally Protestant country converting to the Eastern Church. In a little chapel in Guildford (in Surrey, England), I witnessed English people bowing down in front of icons, kissing them and lighting candles. It seems that these people experience a sense of holiness and spirituality by performing these rituals. There is an atmosphere of awe which is almost hypnotising, as the priest and choir chant the liturgy. It is these mystical experiences in Orthodoxy which attract some Westerners seeking a spiritual dimension to their lives. To them, emotions and feelings are more important than the divine truths taught in the Bible.

Although the root meaning of the Greek word “Orthodoxy” is “right” or “correct” opinion or worship, in the light of what you have just read, you are urged to decide for yourself whether it is an apt description of the religion.

The Church of Hagia Sophia was the Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for more than one thousand years. Originally known as the Great Church, because of its large size in comparison with the other churches of the then Christian World, it was later given the name of Hagia Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of Christ.

Justinian conceived the grandiose project of rebuilding the Great Church from its foundations. Construction work lasted five years [532-537] and on December 27, 537, Patriarch Menas consecrated the magnificent church. On Tuesday, May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror entered the vanquished city late in the afternoon and rode to Hagia Sophia. He was amazed at its beauty and decided to convert the Cathedral into his imperial mosque.

Thus ended the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. Many Orthodox dream that one day the Divine Liturgy will once again be heard here and Constantinople will be a Christian city again.