Orthodoxy 101 Boot Camp! Session 1

hi this is father Barnabas Powell and I'm here with a very special video for you today we are recording our orthodoxy 101 boot camp this is several classes in just a few weeks we're doing some training and we're sharing people some basic theology of the Greek Orthodox faith the history of the church and also the how the faith compares with other expressions of Christianity throughout the centuries I invite you to enjoy session 1 we're going to try to show you each session so that you will be able to interact you're more than welcome to email questions and get in touch with us we'll be happy to help you out any way we can this is for folks who want to discover more about orthodoxy but it's also for those of you who have grown up in the Orthodox Church and you'd like to refresh some of your some of your old ideas and to help you grow in the faith as well so god bless you hope you enjoy it and so the synthesis between the uncreated and the created the transcendence of God and the imminence of God is made perfect in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and that dear ones is at the very heart of what orthodoxy is about orthodoxy is not a religious system orthodoxy is not a religious philosophy orthodoxy is an eternal attempt to make sense of Jesus Christ and to take seriously the person of Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man Jesus Christ is the center of the Orthodox faith everything else we talked about ultimately has to do with the person of Jesus Christ even our veneration of his mother is a protection to make sure we never denigrate Jesus Christ I know if you've heard this has been some new books come out and in fact there's been a Muslim scholar that's come out with a book called zealot the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth and I love one commentator it said no this guy really missed an opportunity to really deal with Jesus Christ from a from a Muslim standpoint and he didn't do that he just dealt with Jesus Christ from the old the old you know authentic Jesus kind of the Jesus the the Jesus of history model the historical Jesus model that was so so so so steeped in liberalism and rejecting everything that Jesus Christ said well of course Jesus didn't do any miracles Jesus of course wasn't God in the flesh Jesus of course wasn't born of a virgin and so all of that stuff that was impossible anyway we're just going to get rid of and all you have left is this religious zealot and so this whole discussion this once again and I don't know some of you some of them may be old enough to remember this but do you remember years ago the whole God is dead theological movement God is dead and G the historical Jesus is just this really sweet guy and wonderful fella this is this is old stuff folks it's been around forever so the argument about who Jesus Christ is is at the center of what we're going to talk about when we talk about the Orthodox Christian faith we're going to talk about the history of the faith and we're going to talk about initially in this very first session we're going to talk about why a Pentecostal pastor would become a Greek Orthodox priest we'll start off this this Orthodox 101 boot camp with a little bit of my story I was born a poor black I was born a well I mean I would be what's the guy's name Steve Martin Steve Martin fan again I'm dating myself here and these young whippersnappers they don't know who Steve Martin is but Hecate here we got it sit in my in this lamp all I need is this Lane up no no but I was born in a family that had been Baptist forever my uncle on my dad's side in the early 60s became a Pentecostal and then he went in he went on to become a Pentecostal pastor in the Church of God there are several Pentecostal movements those of you who know anything about the Pentecostal movement Pentecostal movement started in this country based on some old revival istic movements in in england called the the kazakh revivals Welsh revival in the in the nineteenth century all of that in which which birth Methodism and all of the the Methodist movement and Wesleyan movement and all those things that started coming out they saw this whole idea of holiness and all this kind of stuff and and how the Holy Spirit should be active in our lives and so on and so forth in 1901 in 1902 there was in there was a little Bible College in Topeka Kansas that they began a study on well what is the sign that the Holy Spirit is active in somebody's life and they poured through the scriptures and they saw that they spoke in tongues and so they really prayed to be able to speak in tongues and it happened in Topeka Kansas at the very same time and a little mission in Azusa Street in Los Angeles California about the same time it happened again in an african-american church there in Azusa Street in in California that began that's the modern beginning of the Pentecostal movement in the United States now the Pentecostal movement is the fastest growing of form of Christianity in the third world they just came out with a study today about one of the largest Pentecostal Pentecostal dominations the Assemblies of God are a group of people that they are growing and diversifying faster than they've ever than they've ever grown before but interestingly enough some of their distinctives are going away that not many of them still speak in tongues which I thought was kind of fascinate anyway that's the world that I grew up in I grew up in the world of ernest angley and those of you who know who he is you know that you'll know it or let's see what's the what's the guy's name rex hum bard you don't know who he is you do know who he is good outstanding those the yeah thank you brother well appreciate I'm glad I'm not by myself here you know us dinosaurs have to stick together and the guy oh goodness he was he was at Calvary Assembly of God in Orlando what's his name it sitting in horrible that when my brain goes blank like this I just don't run in that world anymore and so consequently I've forgotten some of these guys thank you Jesus I've forgotten some of the names he has a show and he's they've made fun of him about he'll wave his coat at people and they'll fall down and Benny Hinn thank you very much Benny Hinn that's the world that I grew up in that's the world that I know about and since I was a small boy the one thing that I really loved was the preachers the preachers were always the big guys for me they were always that the fellas that were larger than life and I remember when I was 9 years old I told my pastor brother holder it's a brother holder I'm going to be a preacher when I grow up and he said all wonderful that's fantastic that's great and so I did what any good little Pentecostal boy did I got the baptism the Holy Ghost and I spoke in tongues and I would raise my hands and I'd dance in the aisles and we'd shout and we'd holler and carry on and we'd be very very loud and have a lot of demonstrative worship and the music would be really driving the drums would be playing in the Hammond organ and the Leslie with the Leslie speaker would really be going strong and all of that stuff that you've seen on television and all the dogs of things before that's the world that I grew up in and eventually I went on to get a theological education which really started making me question a lot of things about my own Pentecostal background I began to fall in love with the whole idea of something deeper than just an emotional experience with God nothing wrong with emotions folks God's given us emotions but I I always explained it like this I had a fire but no fireplace and so I kept burning my house down a wild fire is dangerous fire in a fireplace that's a safe and a good thing to have but a fire with no fireplace you're running a risk what do you call a river with no banks a flood it's just you need that structure and so as I went to the theological education initially I fell in love with the classic theology of the Reformation and Martin Luther and and and swingley and and Calvin and all of those guys and I found something much deeper and something that added another nuance to my Christian experience and I really loved it and so I guess I thought I remember telling my pastor brother hold I said well brother holder I think I think I'm an evangelical now and so when I graduated I planted a church in Woodstock Georgia called Church of the firstborn and it was we had this tagline in our in our brochure in our marketing strategy we're in a Pentecostal church with event no no excuse me an evangelical church with charismatic distinctives is that fun which meant we were a comb version of the Pentecostal world I grew up in you know I would we would always make fun that the Pentecostals had their hands up like this and the Karris Mattox did this and so it's always depending on you know where you're from whether you if you're really up here then you know there you're from here from the other side of the tracks but if you're like this then you because the charismatic movement eventually crossed over into the mainstream denominations even in the Roman Catholic Church the Roman Catholic Church has one of the largest charismatic groups in the world even to this day so that's the world that I grew up in and as I began to pastor and as I began I also had a business that I that I did in Christian media where I worked with some of the largest Christian media organizations in the United States dr. Charles Stanley Jim Dobson oh goodness see there I hate it when my brain goes blank like that Dallas Texas great speaker no not Joel this was before Joel's time I remember when I remember when Joel was this high running around learning how to run a camera with his daddy his daddy I did some work for as far as daddy died but but you know the different names around here I guess focus on the family and in touch and leading the way ministries with Michael Youssef or the three that I worked with the most and it was just it was a heady experience go to national religious broadcasters and be on stage with all of these bigwigs and all this stuff and this was my world this was the world that I was growing up in and the the four spiritual laws and the two questions where we learned about evangelism explosion where our whole purpose was to make new converts in evangelism explosion we would go out and ask the two questions had you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for sure if you were to die tonight you'd go to heaven and depending on how they answer well suppose you were tonight at night you were to stand before God and God were to ask you why should I let you into my heaven what would you say and depending on their answer to that then we would go through the entire thing that we would we would learn to bring them to a decision for Christ now folks let me take something it would be real easy to make fun of that stuff and God knows I have in my past but when people are doing the best they can with what they got you don't throw rocks at them you thank God for them because let me tell you something the Pentecostal world that I grew up in taught me the name of Jesus they taught me to love God they taught me the scriptures Sunday school year after year after year where I know the Bible folks I had a guy when I was in the greek orthodox seminary tell Oh Barnabas I wish I knew the Bible as well as you because I mean I can quote whole chapters of the Scriptures what a gift how you going to say thank you to those folks for that it's a wonderful thing but I confess to you brothers and sisters rockin on in the ministry and watching my church begin to grow and watching us about to launch a TV ministry ourselves and all of these things that are going on in my own world and yet my own soul I sensed something was still not fully matured and I remember telling my dad I said dad listen if this is all there is to this not going to make it and so as I began to study more and I began to think me and my best friend rod Loudermilk who was also a Pentecostal pastor we would get together every Thursday and do something that no Pentecostal would ever do admit to we would get together and drink a beer and that was just completely and totally that you you might as well shoot your mama a drink of beer I mean that's good we were teetotalers and but we would get together to drink a beer and talk about the theological books that we were reading and I remember telling him one time I said you know rod I keep coming across because we both love church history I said Ron I keep coming across these Orthodox people who are they he said you know I don't know I said what do you think they made it do you think they survived maybe they didn't make it he said I don't know I've never really met any of them I said well because I keep coming across them and some of the stuff that they say and how they talk about God and how they how they kind of have how their attitude is towards God really does it something's ringing true inside of me about this and about that time I met a man who had just come back from a missionary trip to Russia he was a Pentecostal pastor and he had gone to Russia with a group of Presbyterians interestingly enough the frozen Chosin I don't know how in the world this Pentecostal got hooked up with the frozen Chosin but but that's another nickname we had for them but we we he was talking to me in and and he was telling me these stories about how he he came across this church that was built in the 14th century and he said he it was just overwhelmed with a sense of of rootlessness that he had no idea because the fact is we knew a lot about the Church of the book of Acts we knew a lot about the Church of the book of Acts we knew a lot about the church throughout the New Testament period and bringing up to the time that st. John the last apostle when he died we knew a little bit about the Protestant Reformation and about how Martin Luther broke away from met Antichrist group called the Roman Catholics and but then we knew a lot about what was going on in the Pentecostal world because that was the world that we ran in but there were literally 15 centuries that we had absolutely no clue about the only thing we could get out of some of our teachers was well they went into apostasy don't pay any attention to him to God till until Luther rescues the church in the 15th century 16th century they were apostate idolaters and that man I kept I kept scratching my handsome but didn't the Lord promised that he on this rock he'd build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it didn't you're not saying the Holy Spirit dropped the ball are you you're not saying God couldn't hold on to it you're not saying that are you oh no no no no always a little pockets oh okay okay there were always little pockets of folks who saying I'll fly away and read the four spiritual laws and passing out tracts on Saturdays maybe not I don't know but but the point was he was telling me this story about how he really it really hit him his rootlessness in his own in his own Christian walk and he said he laid his head against this 14th century church and just began to cry like a baby and then he told me something else a man's name in fact he's now the senior pastor of a church in Nashville Tennessee and he told me about a dream he said he said I'm going to tell you something that I've not really told hardly anybody I had a dream and I was in Canada when I was a missionary in Canada and I walked in in this dream I walked into this big stone church and when I walked into this church there were there were pictures all over the wall and up in the front there were a group of men dressed all in black with black hats and they were in black and they were singing they were he said the music was absolutely unbelievable this all in his dream and he said I could just sense that the presence of God was thick in the room he saw I started making my way up closer to them and as I was getting right there up to them one of the men turned and it was an old man he turned and he looked at me in the face and with a quizzical look on his face he looked at me and he said where have you been and my buddy woke up they said begin to tell me that story and really kind of like I say what is it about this why is this exciting to me what what what is what's plugging in here and this guy told me about a group of a group of evangelicals that were looking at the Orthodox Church I said I've heard them I read about them are they around still oh yeah and they gave me a book called the Orthodox Church by Bishop Callisto swear dr. Timothy where and I just devoured that book and I began a series of readings me and rod begin a series of readings this happened in the early 90s and by the time November of 2001 came around we had spent almost 10 years studying and looking at this there was a time when I thought well what I'll do is I'll mix the two together will have a Lord's Supper every week and we'll still do our Pentecostal stuff but we'll add some orthodox hymns and I'll put some icons in the church so I was the only Pentecostal Church in Atlanta that had an icon of Christ in the Theotokos behind the pulpit mommy was Pentecostal when we something happens something gods move and got it move on it got to do it right then so we've tried that for a little while and that was well it just didn't go it just didn't fly you know when you're neither fish nor fowl I mean a bird what is the old saying a bird can fall in love with a fish but where would they live and so by the year 2001 by November of 2001 we approached the the Orthodox Church and 20 families and myself and my best friend rod and his family we all became Orthodox we entered the church in November of 2001 and then three months after we converted to the faith we found out rod had a brain tumor rod had been my friend for about 25 years my best friend and in 18 months I watched my best friend lose his ability to read his ability to write and his ability to think more than three or four seconds ahead we went through surgery we went through we went through chemotherapy we did everything and it helped for a little while and then we found out that after we got the tumor out there was another one growing behind it and at that time I had already converted the faith and moved to Fort Lauderdale Florida and I got a phone call from rods wife saying Barnabus rods not going to go back to the doctor and he's tired I said okay I'm on my way and when I got there on a Monday he smiled at me and said hey buddy I sure do love you and I told him I loved him and he said you know this is really great rod I confess to you I don't know what the universe looks like with you without you in it I've never I don't know we've been friends for so long and I mean we were as we were we were brothers we was a mentor to me he was he was a little older than I am so and you know he was a father figure to me was my best friend we had just been companions this whole time and really really really close friends our families were close all this kind of stuff and he said something to me that I'll never forget he said no no this is great I said well brother I'm I could use some sunshine he said isn't it wonderful that I get to die in the arms of the church and for me that began to set up a series of questions in a series of exploring my own heart in my own life and my own theology that what is it what is so large about this what is so encompassing about this journey to orthodoxy what is so encompassing about taking seriously 20 centuries of Christian faith and not just the Christian ideas but the Christian people and having a tangible and organic and ontological connection to those men and women as they have marched through history what is it about that that brings such comfort even in the face of our own imminent mortality rod slipped into a coma on Wednesday Friday he was with the Lord that Saturday we had his funeral and as we do in the Orthodox Church we sang him home because of the my journey to orthodoxy and if you want to call this my own personal testimony I guess that's fine but I wanted to begin our work on this boot camp by telling you a little bit about my own journey that what gripped me about orthodoxy was the serious way this theology spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ the serious way this theology spoke about God the serious way this theology spoke about worship and about living a rhythm of life instead of these Punk till your moments in life where I get saved and I Irie get rededicated or I get in all of these punk till your moments rather than just focusing on these Punk till your moments where the blast of power comes and poof something wonderful happens the Orthodox faith was asking me to think about life as a rhythm of life and a process of life and a journey and an ever-growing journey of knowing God it was introducing my Christian faith to simply hell insurance I never forget when I was talking to a lady dear sweet the Baptist lady about this and I told her I said dear your relationship with God is in some kind of contractual relationship where you will you sign on the dotted line and God signs the other way and now you God has to let you into heaven it's just that's just not the way the churches ever ever ever thought about their relationship with God I said at the root of most of our problems is the reduction of our relationships to contrast to some kind of legalistic thinking try that on your spouse see how well that works out for you your own relationship with your husband and your wife is much deeper and more nuanced and more beautiful and more ontological than just a contractual arrangement why do you think it's so easy for modern culture to break marriages now because they've reduced it to a contract and it's never meant to be that way it's meant to be a growing intimacy and a relationship with God and marriage is supposed to be an icon of that kind of relationship so for me my journey to orthodoxy was the opening up I describe it like this that I had lived in this huge and massive mansion my whole life I had lived in one of the closets and then somebody forgot to lock the door and I got out and found this huge house that I didn't even know about rooms I'd never even thought about in this massive faith that had survived for 20 centuries the earliest centuries without a printed Bible and it come to offer me the collective wisdom of twenty centuries of Christians experiencing life in God and the Holy Spirit says I got this treasure for you here let me get this right here here spend the rest of your life unpacking this and now that's what I'm doing and so as we talk about this orthodoxy 101 as we talk about orthodoxy I want you to understand that it is certainly intellectual there are certain there certainly information we're going to give you you're going to get some facts and you're going to get some figures you're going to be exposed to ideas that perhaps you've never heard before but ultimately at the heart of this this is ultimately about making your relationship with Jesus Christ more authentic deeper more well-rounded and ultimately more mature because my world in the Christian kindergarten listen there's nothing wrong with kindergarten folks nothing wrong with kindergarten you've got to have it but if you're 30 and still playing in the sandbox that might be a symptom of some challenges so kindergarten is wonderful but you can't stay there and I would venture to say that the vast majority of many women it certainly was true for me I even like I told you I told my dad after dad if this is all there is to it I'm going to be in real trouble I'm not going to make it I'm going to have to something have to have something in fact I told him whenever I found the orthodoxy and when I we're never we converted to oil the Orthodox faith I said dad I finally found a theology large enough for the dignity of the human soul I finally found something I'm not going to find the borders to in my lifetime I'm not going to finish this I'm just not I'm not going to finish it it's something large enough to keep my attention at its peak for the rest of my life you'll always be more to learn and so for me that is the heart of what we're going to talk about in orthodoxy 101 those of you who have your road to Byzantium you can look at that I'm going to take another 15 minutes if if you will be patient we'd be in a patient for 15 more minutes is that okay the mind cannot conceive what the seat cannot endure and I want to make sure I remember that okay I want to try to finish it I want to try to do chapter 1 basically you've already heard our story by the way any questions about my story something I didn't cover that you wanted to hear about I will tell you this I kept some friends I lost most men that I had been friends with my whole life in the Pentecostal world rejected me it won't have anything to do with me they now consider me a heretic family members most of my close fam they are okay now but there are family members who won't have anything to do with me dad is okay he's confused he doesn't know why no well I've done this he told me he said son you were going to be famous you were going to be famous you were going to be on TV you were going to be bigger than Charles Stanley and you were going to be bigger than then Chuck Swindoll that was a guy's name Chuck Swindoll and I said I know dad but God rescued me before that happened and he didn't understand that but but he's okay now but there are folks that have rejected me completely and considered me a heretic okay that's just life that's what it is I still would have done anything else I guess so I'm a priest now for heaven's sake because I guess I'd have to say that but I think some of them my other kind of some of you other conference would probably say the same thing yeah well yeah it's it's yeah exactly it's sola scriptura cannot survive there's a great roman catholic theologian who said that to be deep in history is deceased to be protestant to be deep into history's to cease to be protestant i think that's probably true to a certain extent although i will say that's I know Protestant scholars and theologians who do take history seriously they just simply have a different way of looking at things and this ultimately dear ones you're going to need to hear this from me as well this is not about being right or wrong okay when we're talking about Orthodoxy and this is a thing that we had to learn because we had to orthodoxy is going to challenge your concepts and your mindset this is not about being correct or incorrect this isn't about being right or wrong this isn't about fine finally finding the right church because I'm going to tell you one thing the Orthodox Church is filled with some really wacko people I mean there's just just just some they just I mean it's it's it's it's a group of people and groups of people can have some real bad apples in them well I mean if you if you're looking for a place with no bad apples see you good luck with that it's not going to happen we're not talking about being we're not talking about being correct or incorrect we're talking about being mature we're talking about being full we're talking about taking the plethora and the witness of the Holy Spirit for 20 centuries consistently corrupt and and fully in our attention we're not going to ignore anything it's out it's about whole and complete and mature and grown up that's what this is about folks it isn't about being correct if it's about being correct none of us are Orion because only God you know what this would what does the scripture say let God be true and every man a liar let God be true in every man a liar this is not about all we're just so much better than all of you other people it's just not the case it's just that we are not going to ignore what is obviously historical truth we're going to process it you may process it differently that's entirely up to you I'm just saying from the orthodox standpoint this is what we believe and this is what we're going to talk about in orthodoxy 101 from the orthodox standpoint this is how we interpret the information that's available to every one of you especially now on the internet heavens you can get on the internet i got a buddy of mine just now looking into the orthodox church and he was sitting they sent me 15 articles today father what about this one Oh father what about that one are you getting all this on the internet man I'm just on the internet I'm just going crazy all of the information is out there you don't have to be ignorant you can know this information it wasn't done in a corner nobody's got any secret information that nobody else has been told about except us we're not Gnostics all this information is out there this is how we interpret the information is that fair but it isn't about being correct or incorrect isn't about being right or wrong it is not being in the right church and you getting out of the wrong Church that's just not the issue guys this is about loving God with all our heart mind soul and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves how do you do that this is how the Orthodox Church has answered that question all right what is the Orthodox Church those of you who are fans of jr. are talking and the Lord of the Rings and all of that stuff you'll remember the story of tree beard and merry and pippin merry and pippin come across Treebeard the int which is a tree there tree creatures and the int wants to know what who merry and pippin are what are they well we're hobbits hobbits is that what you call yourselves or what other people call you well you're not in any of the old lists and of course they respond yeah us hobbits we always get left off the old lists and then they finally asked him they asked Treebeard what is his name oh my oh now come down not so hasty you call yourselves hobbits but you are hasty folks I see said Treebeard I'll call you merry and pippin if you please for I am NOT going to tell you my name not getting any rate a queer half knowing half humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes for one thing it would take so long it would take a long while my name is growing all the time and I've lived a very long time so my name is like a story real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language it takes a long time to say our name 20 centuries we've been in existence with our roots deep in the Semitic and Jewish mindset of the patriarchs and the prophets rod writes my first attempt to summarize Eastern Orthodoxy were quite frustrating and I was truly tempted to say forget it you aren't going to learn what Eastern Orthodoxy is by reading this short essay in fact all the books ever written on the subject cannot tell you what orthodoxy is truly there is only one way to know orthodoxy and that's to live it even then it takes a lifetime short of that you will have to be content for now at least for it to learn a few facts that may confuse you more and a lot more than enlighten you I think that's really true that's a chance that you take but in beginning this study you see it takes a long time to say our name and our name is growing all the time names should tell a story as Treebeard said if it's true there are some hurdles to understanding orthodoxy especially those of us who have been shaped with the Western mindset that is much more that leans much more towards analytical and juridical view of the truth those of us who have been raised either in Roman Catholic or Protestant world the vast majority of all of the pedagogy in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire have been shaped by this Roman logic that is not bad it's just not enough in our opinion the biggest difficulties to understanding orthodoxy is the mindset of Western Christians they have as a result of Western cultural conditioning education and philosophical understanding another difficult obstacle to overcome is the prejudices that we have a condition that will result or influence us from birth for instance many of us in fact for me one of the things that I struggled with early on in my journey to orthodoxy was something I called Roma phobia that looks Roman Catholic to me they call their priest Father they must be Roman Catholic well I don't know much but I know I ain't no Roman Catholic and so that whole prejudice that I had in my mindset into my thinking had to be challenged as I began to learn more and more about the Orthodox faith so those are the prejudices that you'll run into and the conditioning of the West how to how we understand Scripture is conditioned by our by our mindsets and that will be challenged and it will be a challenge as you begin to study the Orthodox faith but what do we call ourselves Orthodox Christians call their church the Church of the father's page 14 meaning the Apostles and the early leaders the Church of the seven councils the seven great ecumenical councils of the first millennia of the church you see brothers and sisters the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ has never been denominated except in the last few centuries the church for the first century was one Church across all kinds of the Roman Empire Eastern Western Empire and even into other places the church was one the church was the Church of the father's the Church of the seven councils the Eastern Orthodox Church or simply Orthodox the word Orthodox comes from two eeeek words ortho and Volks up literally meaning correct worship right worship right belief or even more importantly right glory or correct glory giving proper glory to God so that is how the church knows herself that's how she talks about herself terms such as Greek Orthodox or Antiochian Orthodox or Russian Orthodox refer to Orthodox Christians attached to ancient Patriarchate's and not to orthodoxy as a whole somebody asked me for Barnabas what's the difference between the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox I said the pastry's we serve at our festivals that's it everything else is the same Greek Orthodox Christians Russian Orthodox Christians Antiochian Orthodox Christians Syrian Orthodox Christians Serbian Orthodox Christians Romanian Orthodox Christians are all Orthodox Christians they're all invited to come to the Eucharist together we're all in communion with one another it's one church serves such as Russian Orthodox refer to members of national churches that are autocephalous or self-governing they have a patriarch today the largest concentration of Orthodox Christians is in Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church is by far the largest grouping of Orthodox Christians in the world when did Orthodoxy begin the Orthodox Church traces its roots to Christ and the Apostles originally there was only one church and it consisted of all Christians everywhere they called themselves believers they called themselves disciples or Saints others outside the church called them Christians to make fun of them little Christ's in Acts chapter 11 verse 26 the Roman Empire was primarily an imprint and Empire of cities and this determined the structure of the early churches each city had a community of believers with the bishop with presbyters or deacons and priests and deacons and eventually there were five centers of Christianity Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem and there were five Patriarchate's or major bishops in those central churches interestingly enough the earliest of Christians simply called their movement the way which feeds this whole notion that this faith is a lifetime journey it is a rhythm of life not a set of precepts that I check off on a box and say oh I must be Christian because I agree with that statement I agree with that statement I agree without the statement I agree with that statement that's too small folks not nothing wrong it's nothing wrong with that but it's not big enough in 1054 Rome the single major Christian Center in the West officially separated itself from the eastern part of the Christian community by excommunicating the patriarch of Constantinople over doctrinal differences and more actually more political stuff than anything else although both the Pope of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople have a limit have eliminated and lifted these excommunications in the early 20th century it happened in 1964 on the surface it was because of Rome's insistence on the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome or the Pope actually east and west had been growing apart for centuries linked both linguistically and culturally when the western part of the Empire fell the only strong center of civilization was the Roman Catholic Church the eastern Roman Empire continued until 1453 brothers and sisters so there were Romans in fact do you know what they call the Greek Orthodox Christians in Constantinople today Romans that's what they're called they're called Romans the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople in Turkey today are called Romans because the Eastern Empire lasted until 1453 okay for a thousand years there was only one church then in 1054 one of the five patriarchs insisted on being the boss of everybody the other four patriarchs said listen we've always agreed you're the chairman of the board we've always agreed that you're first among equals but you're among equals and that means you only get one vote like the rest of us the Roman Pope said no you're going to everybody gonna do what I say and the four other patriarch said that's not that's not we have never understood our relationship this way we're going to have to part company and so Rome when it's way and the four patriarchs are still together even to this day in 1517 the Western Roman Catholic Church split again as a result of the Protestant Reformation the Lutheran's and the Reformers Calvinists and others in turn broke away to form their own bodies from each other and decided for themselves what they should believe and teach today in the United States there are more than 40,000 different Christian denominations by the year 2050 - a study just recently came out there will be over 200,000 different Christian denominations in the United States on average there's a new denomination starting in this country every two weeks I cannot believe that that's what Jesus meant in John 17 when he said father let them be one like you and I are one I just can't I that can't be what was intended so how is the Orthodox Church governed the Orthodox Church their Orthodox churches are Episcopal that means they're under the guidance of bishops they are also conciliar they're governed by church councils and they are Congregational since they believe that the Holy Spirit speaks through the whole church there have been times when bishops have made decisions that the laity disagreed with and the laity one in the Orthodox Church so the Orthodox Church is Episcopal conciliar and Congregational all at the same time and all three of those characteristics keep the others in check so that it is an overly congregational that it reduces down to just and Jesus got our own thing going one of the one of the Eastern Orthodox theologians told the Anglicans when they when they asked him said how do we get rid of our latent Protestantism in our Anglican Church he said abandon your Roman Catholicism so all of this Western this Western thinking has has ad has made these things separate Episcopal conciliar in Congregational but in the Orthodox Church it's all held together today the Orthodox Church is comprised of churches categorized loosely and unofficially in five ways first there are the ancient Patriarchate's - Rome Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem and Constantinople all four of those Patriarchate's still exist all four of those Patriarchate's still have churches that are that that look to them all four of those Patriarchate's are still operating in the world the patriarch of Constantinople is called the ecumenical patriarch since he chairs the Council of any pan Orthodox gatherings and he has primacy but primacy in the Orthodox Church is a primacy of Honor not a primacy of government it is a primacy of Honor this is a family folks and we take that into account patriarch of Constantinople is historically responsible for churches of Turkey Crete and often referred to as the diaspora churches churches that are outside of the Empire's borders the patriarch of Antioch is historically responsible for the churches of Syria Lebanon Iran in Iraq and even Antiochian churches here in the United States patriarch of Alexandria historically responsible for the churches of Egypt and the rest of Africa the patriarch of Jerusalem historically responsible with the churches in Israel in Jordan the second category of Orthodox churches include national churches these are churches that are autocephalous or self-governing they have their own patriarchs but they are not there they're there they're not as ancient as the four Patriarchate's that we just talked about Russia Cyprus Greece by the way Cyprus is a is it has its own Patriarchate its own elects its own Archbishop because st. Barnabas was found there with a copy of the gospel that he had written with his own hand on his chest and so the Empire declared the Church of Cyprus self-governing they picked their own guys anyway Greece Bulgaria that's free won't cost you anything Romania Serbia Albania Georgia Czechoslovakia Poland Sinai and now the Antiochian churches in the United States and the Russian Orthodox Church has more people than any of the other Orthodox churches combined the third category includes missionary churches Korea Uganda Kenya China Australia Western Europe South America and parts of North America fourth category consists of churches of the the aspera mainly ethnic churches the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese which we are part of is probably the most prominent of all of the the aspera churches we look to the ecumenical patriarch as our as as our main ecclesial authority in our church and then of course there's Japan Finland and Macedonia and then there are groups that are journeying towards orthodoxy some of the continuing Anglican churches will we won't talk too terribly much about that I want to leave you with the major characteristics of how the Orthodox Church understands herself and these major characteristics are one Holy Catholic and apostolic the Orthodox Church says that she is one Holy Catholic and apostolic these are the characteristics of how the Orthodox Church understands herself she understands herself as one the church is not denominated it is one just as Jesus Christ is one so the church is one because the church as the Apostle Paul says is the body of Christ the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians said it best the hand cannot say to the eye I have no need of you we in this century cannot say to Christians that have lived before us we have no need of you we can't say that and so we don't the church is one she is not denominated she has not different branches the church is one there is only one church . . end of discussion there is only one church Oh father who's in and out of that church sorry guys I'm in sales not management get those memos so the church is one the church is holy that means that is not this holiness is not some magical entity holiness is a state of belief if something is holy it is set apart for a specific use I use several illustrations over and over again the chalice that we use for the Lord's Supper every Sunday if we run out of cups in one of our social events somebody doesn't say to father about it father Barbara's run to the altar get the chalice we're out of cups we need some more cups can you bring the chalice and let's use that for the coca-cola - no no the chalice is holy that doesn't mean it has some kind of mystical character know that chalice is only used for one purpose and one purpose only forever when it stops being able to do that purpose it is melted down and so the church is holy it doesn't mean that it has some kind of mystical character certainly is mystical but it the whole when we say the church is holy it doesn't mean that the church doesn't drink smoke or chew and doesn't go with girls that do doesn't go that doesn't mean that the church doesn't go - picture shows and and hang out in baldie places that's not what it means holiness is the church is exclusively for Jesus Christ period full stop it is had the body of Christ has one use and that is to glorify God that's it that is the holiness that the church is the church is holy the church is one the church is holy and the church is Catholic now what does the word Catholic mean whole universal what else when you hear the word Catholic what do you think of that's what you think of automatically our prejudices are are who we are it says what it is the word Catholic comes from the Greek word catholicos it it was never it's like the word hallelujah and like the word Amen the definition is too big to translate so we don't we just transliterated into whatever we're moving it in and so because even in Latin they couldn't really define fully the meaning of the Greek word catholicos so they simply adopted it and latinized it so we have the word Catholic even into our own language today same way with the word hallelujah Alleluia is a Hebrew word it means huge things it's the whole books have been written about what the word Alleluia means and the word Amen is a Hebrew word but we bring it over because it means too much to simply reduce to some quick definition cathodic all says the same way cathodic also means according to the whole it means it's healthy it's well-rounded its full its complete its mature it's everywhere that is what Catholicos means it is full well-rounded it is the idea that Jesus meant when he said that he would send the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit would lead us into those of you who are biblical scholars he would lead us into all truth that's the concept of the church being Catholic it's whole it's complete so the church is one Holy Catholic and finally it is apostolic that means that the Orthodox Church understands herself to be the inheritors of the teachings of the Apostles and that they have been committed and they have preserved without chain of the Apostles since the day of the Apostles that's how the Orthodox Church understands herself the Orthodox Church understands herself as one she understands herself as Catholic she attends herself as Holy and she understands herself as apostolic that's how the Orthodox Church understands herself when the Orthodox Church talks about herself when the Orthodox Church describes herself this is the way she thinks of herself she is one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church ecclesia the gathering questions comments thoughts responses again in this discussion brothers and sisters we are not asking you to agree with these statements we are asking you to simply hear this is how the church understands herself that's it's entirely up to you what you what you do with it's this information it's cool it's okay you're free unique and unrepeatable being and you're free to choose and that's okay but if we're going to be authentic if we're really going to be honest this is I'm going to be honest with you about what the church how she thinks about herself and this is the way when she thinks about herself this is the way the Orthodox Church thinks about herself this is how she understands herself as one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church okay so that's at session one it is fairly intense and I know that we do we throw a lot of information at you really quick enjoy the video as many times as you need to email me with questions you can certainly do that at Fr Barnabas VAR na bas at-sts r ni org it's right there on the screen you're more than welcome to email us any questions that we have we'll do the best we can to answer your questions and we'll even say I don't know if we don't know so looking forward to sharing with you all of these sessions of our orthodoxy 101 boot camp please feel free to share these videos with others that that you may believe may find them interesting and we look forward to seeing you next time god bless

Channel: Faith Encouraged TV

Views: 90,126

Rating: 4.8890815 out of 5

Keywords: Orthodox, preaching, homily, convert, liturgy, Orthodox Christianity (Religion)

Id: QwxmQtnub50

Length: 56min 53sec (3413 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2013