The Oldest Christian Church
When people first encounter the Orthodox Church, they often ask: Where did you come from? Are you Catholic? Protestant? Something else entirely? The answer is both simple and profound: the Orthodox Church is the original Church founded by Jesus Christ and His Apostles on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. She has never reformed, never broken away from another body, and never needed to. She is, as Saint Paul writes, "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).
The word Orthodox comes from two Greek words: orthos (right, correct) and doxa (glory, worship, belief). To be Orthodox is to hold the right faith and to offer right worship to God — the same faith and worship handed down from the Apostles through an unbroken succession of bishops, councils, and saints over two thousand years.
"The Church is not an institution invented by men, but the living Body of Christ. Her roots go back not to the Reformation, not to the medieval papacy, but to the Upper Room itself."
What Makes Orthodoxy Different?
Orthodoxy is not one denomination among many. It does not trace its origins to a particular reformer, theologian, or historical moment of protest. Its founder is Jesus Christ. Its first leaders were the Twelve Apostles and their immediate successors. Its doctrines were defined not by one man but by the entire Church gathered in Ecumenical Councils, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Orthodox Christianity holds together what other traditions have often separated: deep theological precision and mystical worship; ancient structure and living spirituality; fidelity to Scripture and rich Holy Tradition. Walking into an Orthodox church, you encounter centuries of prayer that have saturated the walls — incense, icons, chant, and the unchanged text of the Divine Liturgy composed by Saint John Chrysostom in the fourth century.
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
The Nicene Creed, recited by Orthodox Christians at every Divine Liturgy, confesses belief in "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." Orthodoxy believes she is that Church — not in a spirit of arrogance, but in gratitude and humility before the gift of God. Every Sunday, Orthodox Christians around the world chant the same prayers, receive the same Eucharist, and commune with the same saints who have gone before them. This unity across time and space is one of the most astonishing features of Orthodox life.
As you begin this year of catechesis, you are not enrolling in a course of instruction — you are being welcomed into a living community, a community that stretches from Jerusalem to Antioch to Alexandria to Constantinople to Russia to America to wherever the Gospel has been carried. The Church is your mother, and she is overjoyed to receive you.
The Church is not a human organization. She is a new life with Christ and in Christ, directed by the Holy Spirit.
— St. John of Kronstadt