| John Anthony McGuckin Constantinople, Patriarchate of JOHN A. MCGUCKIN The patriarch of Constantinople is today rooted in the ancient former capital city of the Roman Empire (not Rome, but after the 4th-century Christian ascent to power, “New Rome” or Constantine’s City, Konstantinopolis). The city retained the ancient name of Constantinople until the early decades of the 20th century when Ataturk, signaling new beginnings after the fall of the Ottoman sultans whose capital it had also been, changed the name to Istanbul (originally another Greek Christian shorthand for “To the City” – eis tin polin) and at the same time moved the capital of Turkey to Ankara. After the rise of Turkish nationalism, and the disastrous Greco-Turkish War of the early decades of the 20th century (reflected, for example, in Kazantzakis’ novel Christ Recrucified), Constantinople, which had always been a major hub of world affairs, and a massively cosmopolitan city, changed into becoming a monochromatic backwater. The many religious communities that had remained there even after its fall to Islam in the 15th century dwindled, until today, demographically, Orthodox church life in that once great metropolis is a sad shadow of what it once was. From the foundation of the city as a Christian hub of the Eastern Empire by Constantine in the early 4th century, the city was the center of a great and burgeoning Christian empire: the Christian style and culture of Byzantium made its presence felt all over the world, from the Saxons of England, to the Slavs of the cold North, to the southern plateaux of Ethiopia. The Great Imperial Church (once the cathedral church of the patriarchate, too) was Hagia Sophia. After the conquest of the city by Islamic forces in 1453, the last emperor was killed and Byzantine dynastic rule was ended, and the patriarchate took over (under the sultans) political and religious supervision of all the Christians of the large Ottoman dominion. Under Mehmet II and his successors, many churches in Constantinople were seized as mosques. It had lost the Great Church of Hagia Sophia at the time of the conquest, but was also later ousted from the large headquarters of St. Mary Pammakaristos. After many vicissitudes and sufferings, the patriarchate came in 1603 to be established in its present location in the very modest Church of St. George at the Phanar in Istanbul. |
| A relatively modern term deriving from the Latin Patres, or “Fathers.” It was also known as patrology up to the mid-20th century, though this latter designation has now been restricted mainly to signify reference manuals dealing with the works of the fathers of the church. The fathers were the bishops, outstanding theologians, and leading monastic elders ofthe early church, who left behind them authoritative bodies of spiritual, biblical, liturgical, and dogmatic writings. The age of the fathers is generally seen as extending from after the apostolic era (beginning of the 2nd century) to the 8th and 9th centuries, whose great luminaries then included St. John of Damascus and St. Photios the Great. John is, in many ways, a certain sign of the closing of the patristic age, with his works gathering together as a kind of encyclopedia of the earlier authoritative materials to form a synthesis of patristic theology for the later church’s reference. In terms of Latin patristics, the traditional cut-off point has been significantly extended beyond this time, even up to the medieval western theologian Bernard of Clairvaux, who is sometimes called, in the Catholic Church, the “last of the fathers» Even so, there is not a hard and fast historical line, as Orthodoxy understands it, for some of the late Byzantine writers such as St. Symeon the New Theologian of the 11th century, or St. Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), for example, certainly enjoy a high “patristic status” in contemporary Orthodoxy. The word generally means, in Orthodox circles, those definitive and highly authoritative theologians of the church in its classical ages who represent purity of doctrine allied with great holiness of life; a life that manifests the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their acts and their consciousness, such that they are not merely good speculative thinkers, or interesting religious writers, as such, but rather substantial guides to the will of God, and Spirit-bearers (pneumatophoroi) whose doctrine and advice can be trusted as conveying the authentic Orthodox tradition of faith and piety. This does not mean that every single thing any one of the fathers ever wrote is given “canonical” status. Orthodoxy admits that the general rule of human authorship applies even among the saints, for as the adage tells, “even Homer nods,” but it does mean that collectively, and by the consensus of the fathers among themselves, and by the manner in which they stand in a stream of defense of the ecumenical faith of the church, they together comprise a library of immense prestige and authority. They are thus collectively strong and concrete evidence for the central tradition of the Orthodox Church. This is why the church affords them a very high theological authority, not as great as the Scriptures or the ecumenical councils, but certainly alongside the latter; for it was from their writings that the doctrine of the great councils generally emerged. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Church (Orthodox Ecclesiology) TAMARA GRDZELIDZE THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH The purpose of the church is to restore fallen humanity and thereby reconcile the whole creation to God. Its sacramental life is the means to fulfill this purpose. The divine economy of salvation is the foundational principle of the church. The mystery of human salvation leads to the mystery of the salvation of the whole creation which is God’s ultimate goal. In this life the church bears witness to a new existence revealed through the incarnation and the resurrection of Jesus Christ – “The Church has been planted in the world as a Paradise,” says St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 5.20.2) – and this new reality already proclaimed is destined finally to attain the status of the new creation. The nature of the church, as Orthodoxy understands it, is deeply experiential and accordingly it is difficult to describe it by any single formula that carries an overwhelming authority. The early church knew no such single doctrinal definition and the reason for this is that, according to Fr. Georges Florovsky (1972: 57), the reality of the church was only made manifest to the “spiritual vision” of the church fathers. The nature of the church can thus be experienced and described, but never fully defined. The closest approximation to a doctrinal definition within orthodoxy is the clause in the creed, which affirms that the church is “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.” The church is the place par excellence of a believer’s participation in the mysteries of God. The faithful participate in the divine mysteries from the very beginning of their life in Christ through the sacrament of baptism and reach the height of that participation in the Eucharistic celebration. The very essence of this participation is experiential, something that can be readily observed in the case of children whose love exceeds their understanding, or orthodox people of little knowledge but great faith. The love of God manifested to human beings and creation is reciprocated in faith by the church’s constant returning the love of God through the praise of the faithful. This human participation in the divine mysteries is nurtured always by the belief and knowledge that “God is love” (1 John 4.8), and this movement of praise that constitutes the church’s inner life is the height of creation – its meaning and fulfillment. |
| Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk heads liturgy at Moscow representation of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch Source: DECR Photo: mospat.ru On 26 th July 2022, on the feast of the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, celebrations took place at the metochion of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch to mark the patronal feast day. The Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Archangel Gabriel was celebrated by the Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk and the representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and dean of the metochion, Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis. Photo: mospat.ru Serving with the bishops were the representative of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Great Antioch and All the East archimandrite Philipp (Vasiltsev) and the clergy of the metochion. Protodeacon Vladimir Nazarkin headed the diaconal part of the service. At the conclusion of the Liturgy a prayer service was offered to the archangel Gabriel in the open air in the courtyard of the church. The prayer service was attended by representatives of the diplomatic missions of Mexico, Belgium, USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Montenegro, Argentina, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Romania, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Tunisia, Columbia, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Iraq, Albania, Palestine, France, Greece and Denmark. Among those present was also the president of the International Foundation for the Spiritual Unity of Nations V.A. Alexeyev. Photo: mospat.ru At the conclusion of the prayer service, Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis greeted the chairman of the DECR and said: “It is a great joy for me today, Vladyka, to convey to all those present at this celebration the love, blessing, prayers and greetings of our Patriarch, the Most Blessed John, Patriarch of Great Antioch and All the East. |
| John Anthony McGuckin St. Andrei Rublev (ca. 1360–1430) KONSTANTIN GAVRILKIN Little is known of the life of Russia’s greatest icon painter. The indirect evidence suggests that he was born around the 1360s and settled in the Trinity Monastery (later, the Troitse- Sergieva Lavra) near Moscow shortly after the death of its founder, St. Sergius of Radonezh (1392), presumably already as a monk. Rublev is first mentioned in the Chronicle of the Trinity Monastery under the year 1405, when he is said to have worked on the frescoes and icons of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin together with Theophanes the Greek, a prominent Byzantine master who is believed to have been associated with the hesychast movement and who trained Andrei in icon painting. In this and other sources associated with the same monastery, Andrei is mentioned in later years as a man of holy life and master of remarkable talent who decorated churches in Moscow, Vladimir, and other places. The last place Rublev was known to be working was at the Moscow Andronikov Monastery, where he died around 1430. In the Soviet period this monastery was closed but has since reopened as the Andrei Rublev Museum of Early Russian Art, with a collection representing Russian works from the 15th to 17th centuries. Although the authority of Andrei Rublev as model icon painter was recognized by the Stoglav Council of 1551, which declared that iconographers should follow the ancient standards of Greek icon painters, Andrei Rublev, and other famous masters (Lazarev 1966: 75–8), the decline of Russian iconography after the late 16th century led to a gradual loss of that knowledge and skill associated with Rublev and his school. By the 19th century virtually only the Old Believers who treasured the liturgical and spiritual traditions of the Muscovite Rus remembered his name without, however, being able to identify his works. With the beginning of the scholarly study of early Russian iconography at the beginning of the 20th century, the only starting point for the recovery of Rublev’s legacy was the Icon of the Holy Trinity in the Trinity Cathedral of the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, which, according to all the sources, was painted by Andrei Rublev alone. Cleaned in 1904, the icon provided iconologists with the stylistic and technical clues for further research. After a century-long study of his frescoes and icons, St. Andrei Rublev is recognized today as a great master of composition, light, and color, who was able to express through his works the peace and beauty of the world transformed by grace, the vision of the human being transformed by the Spirit into the true image and likeness of God. He was officially canonized as a saint by the Russian Church in 1988. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Icons THEODOR DAMIAN The theology of the image of God represents one of the principal Orthodox Christian doctrines that has enjoyed a great level of attention and development over the centuries. This theology, closely linked to the whole problem of Christology, has generated and has become a criterion, first, of the legitimization of the tradition of the icon in the early church and second, in the Orthodox tradition after the great schism, until the present day. In Orthodoxy the icon is understood as a sign of the divine presence in the world and as a reminder of our essential relationship with God. The icons were used in the worship of the early church. They expressed an incarnational focus of thinking and were considered complementary to the gospel, as both things spoke of the same saving events. In the early church not everybody was in favor of the use of icons liturgically; however, both groups lived together without serious conflict. There were some church fathers who spoke against the use of icons and several others who approved them in this early period. A special confirmation of their existence and acceptance was given at the Quinisext Council (692) held in Constantinople under Emperor Justinian II whose Canon 82 states: “The Christian images are legitimate. They are accepted by the Church and even considered useful, because by the fact of representing Christ they remind all of his salvific work.” The synod even decided to forbid the representation of Christ in symbols (such as the Lamb that had become popular in western art to “stand in for” the Savior) so as to encourage the iconography of his human face and figure. The history of the veneration of icons witnessed periods of great troubles and misunderstandings. The chief controversy over the legitimacy of images, especially as that broke out in the two periods of Byzantine Iconoclasm, was based on a literal interpretation of the second commandment of the Decalogue which forbids the creation of idolatrous images and bans their worship. The controversy also arose because of Eastern influences on Byzantine Christianity from Judaism and Islam, as well as because of the iconoclasts’ desire to “reform and purify” the content of worship. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East JOHN A. MCGUCKIN The Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches in the Syrian tradition. The word “Assyrian” was applied to them by the English (Anglican) missionaries of the 19th century (1885–1915) who first established a western mission among them (Coakley 1992), and wished to avoid the pejorative term “Nestorian” that had often been applied to them, so as to signal their different theological stance from both the Non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Miaphysite Churches (pejoratively called the Monophysites) and the Eastern Orthodox Chalcedonians. After this importation of the term by the Anglicans, many among them started to use the word to designate themselves, although an earlier and more common designation had been the “Church of the East.” A. H. Layard, who first excavated the archeological remains of Niniveh, was the first to suggest that the local Syrian Christians were the descendants of the ancient Assyrians, and the idea gained currency among the Anglican missionaries (Wigram 2002). Later, the title “Assyrian” was imported and used among the Syrian Orthodox diaspora, especially in America, as a way to distance themselves as Syriacspeaking Christians from the Islamic State of Syria. The church regards itself not as “Nestorian,” but Christian, while holding Mar Nestorius in honor as a continuator of the teachings of the Syrian saints Mar Theodore of Mopsuestia and Mar Diodore of Tarsus, whose theological teachings are regarded as authoritative expositions. It thus departs from the colloquium of the ecumenical councils, regarding Nicea I (325) as the only authoritative standard. The Council of Ephesus (431) was the occasion of the ancient rupture. But the Council of Chalcedon and Constantinople II deepened the fracture; the latter anathematizing Theodore and Diodore posthumously. After the great christological arguments following on the heels of the Council of Ephesus (431) it was obvious to the imperial court at Constantinople that the task of reconciling the differing approaches to the christological problem would not be as easy as simply declaring and promulgating the “Ephesine” solution. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Gospel THEODORE G. STYLIANOPOULOS “Gospel” (from the Anglo-Saxon “god-spell”) or “evangel” (from the Greek euangelion) defines the central message of Christianity: the “good news” of God’s gift of salvation ( John 3.16 ). The essence of the gospel is God’s gracious liberation of humanity from the powers of sin and death, and its restoration and communion with God in Christ and the Spirit. The centrality of Christ and his saving work, prophesied in the Old Testament and revealed in the New, means that the gospel message is proclaimed not only in the scriptures, but also, properly speaking, in all aspects of the church’s life which are intrinsically evangelical – her identity, worship, sacraments, mission, creed, theology, and practice. Although the term “gospel” (euangelion) occurs most frequently in Paul, the primary sources of the gospel are the four canonical gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – each of which as a book is also called “gospel.” The same term also designates in the Orthodox Church the separately printed gospel lectionary (the annual cycle of selected readings from the four gospels, distinct from the parallel lectionary called Apostle – apostolos). The term “gospel” is also customarily applied to the specific lesson from the gospel lectionary recited in worship and often to the sermon itself. The first allusion to the gospel, traditionally called “first gospel” (proto-euangelion), is found in Genesis 3.15 announcing God’s promise that Eve’s offspring, the Messiah, will crush the serpent’s head while the serpent will strike the Messiah’s heel. A focal and explicit reference to the good news is Isaiah 7.15 concerning Emmanuel, “God-with-us,” born of a virgin (parthenos, LXX), fulfilled in the virginal conception and birth of Jesus by Mary (Matt. 1.23). The Old Testament generally looks forward to a great future era when God’s good news will be proclaimed (euangelizesthai, Isa. 61.1 and Ps. 95.1–3, LXX ), a day when God would decisively defeat evil and establish his rule over all the nations, ushering in an age of universal justice and peace. However, it is the New Testament that provides the theological angle from which innumerable references to Old Testament texts are freely and variously cited as messianic, that is, texts that prefigure the good news of God’s promised salvation, fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus and the life of the early church, including the preaching of the gospel itself ( Rom. 10.8 / Deut. 30.14, LXX ). |
| The Romanian Orthodox Church is an institution of apostolic origin. The Christian faith was known south of the Danube river, in the regions inhabited by Illyrians, Thraco-Dacians, and Greeks (today’s Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece), as far back as the second half of the 1st century, through the preaching of St. Paul and his disciples. More specifically, Christianity was spread through the preaching of the Apostle Andrew in what is today the Romanian province of Dobrogea, which, after the administrative reform of Diocletian, was called Scythia Minor. In local traditions St. Andrew is called the “Apostle of the wolves,” which is historically significant in a context where the ethnic symbol of the Dacians was the wolf’s head. In the northern part of the Danube river, in Dacia, which in 106 became a Roman province after being conquered by Trajan, the new faith arrived in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries, brought by merchants, colonists, and the soldiers of the Roman army who were settled in the newly occupied territory. After the retreat of the Roman legions to the south of the Danube (271) and later, after the promulgation of the Edict of Milan (313), through which Emperor Constantine the Great granted liberty for Christians, the new religion expanded. Significant Christian archeological evidence discovered in the northern territories, as well as all the words of Latin origin in the Romanian language which define fundamental notions of the Christian faith, stand as proof of this expansion. During the 4th century there also existed, on the eastern borders of the Danube, several diocesan seats such as Singidunum, Viminacium, Bononia, Ratiaria, Oescus, Novae, Appiaria, Abritus, and Durostorum, whose bishops took care of the spiritual needs of the faithful north of the Danube, too. There was a metropolitan seat at Tomis in Scythia Minor (today, Constanta) with as many as fourteen dioceses, active in the 4th century and led by diligent bishops (Bretanion, Gerontius, Teotim I, Timotei, loan, Alexandru, Teotim II, Paternus, and Valentinian). According to the historian Eusebius of Caesarea, a Scythian bishop was present at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea (325) and other bishops who followed him took part in the works of the subsequent councils, as well as in the christological disputes of the time. There are also indications of the existence of diocesan seats in other towns. Well- known theologians from Scythia Minor are St. John Cassian and St. Dionysius Exiguus. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Finland, Autonomous Orthodox Church of SERGEY TROSTYANSKIY Finland has a long and dramatic church history. Orthodoxy’s presence in Finland can be traced back to the late 11th century, as contemporary archeological explorations suggest. The 12th century, in turn, was marked by very significant activities of merchants and monks from Novgorod in Karelia (a region which is now divided between Russia and Finland). The missionary activities of Russian and Byzantine monks played a key role in the introduction of the Orthodox faith to the Finnish people. The greatest and most glorious signs of Orthodox presence in Finland are traditionally associated with its monastic communities. The Valamo (in Russian, Valaam) monastery, which was founded in the 12th century, stands out as among the most important of all. Among the other monastic communities, the Konevitsa (Russian, Konevets) monastery, established in the 14th century, and the monastery at Petsamo (Russian, Pechenga), set up in the 16th century beside the Arctic Ocean, are also distinguished as the great centers of Orthodox spirituality. The Orthodox presence in Finland up until the 20th century was primarily localized in the region of Karelia, a territory that was subjected to a number of regional wars (between Novgorod and Sweden, and later between Russia and Sweden). Thus, Karelia, as the spiritual heartland of Orthodoxy in the North, tended always to be caught up in political turmoil and suffered enormously during its history. Even in the 12th century the Valamo monastery experienced several Swedish invasions. In the 16th and 17th centuries the struggle over Finland between Russia and Sweden brought more instability, and the destruction of the monasteries followed, causing the majority of the Orthodox population to flee to Russia as the western parts of Karelia were occupied by Sweden. Those who remained on these territories were generally forced to convert to Lutheranism. In the 18th century, Tsar Peter the Great took control once more of some parts of Karelia, including the most significant sites around Lake Ladoga. Since then, Orthodoxy was restored and the Valamo and Konevitsa monasteries were rebuilt. This period was characterized by many spiritual and material restorations of the Orthodox faith in Finland. At the beginning of the 19th century, when Finland had become a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, the Orthodox population there once again increased significantly as many merchants, soldiers, and others moved to Finland from Russia to settle the new territories. Many churches and chapels were built at that time to accommodate settlers. In 1892 an independent diocese of Finland was established in order to serve the multi-ethnic Orthodox population, which included Finns, Karelians, Skolt Saame, and Russians. |
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