The Orthodox Church is an Historic Church

 

Are you interested in Orthodoxy?

You are not alone. Each year the number of Western Christians finding a secure, stable and transforming life in Orthodoxy is growing. The British Orthodox Church is made up almost entirely of converts from a wide range of Christian backgrounds, other religions and no faith at all. We have all come together to find the fulness of the Christian life in Orthodoxy.

We are very glad that you have taken the time to visit our website and we hope that these resources will help you understand a little more of what Orthodoxy is all about, experience something of our spiritual life, and even discover how you can be a part of real Christianity for yourself.

Orthodoxy has so much to offer the modern world. It has a stability of faith and doctrine that rejects our preoccupation with the immediate. Orthodoxy does not change its moral base to reflect the mores of those around us, rather it demands that we ourselves be transformed day by day. So the practice of any form of homosexuality, or indeed the practice of heterosexuality outside marriage, is not condoned. There is no agitation for the ordination of women. The Bible remains the central pillar of Church teaching, and the traditional doctrines about Christ are vigorously defended. Our life in the Church has the aim of transforming us, we do not seek to make the Church merely reflect our own spiritual mediocrity.

If you have any questions then please make sure you ask them. We will do our very best to support your spiritual pilgrimage as best we can.

 

Those of us who are privileged to be members of the British Orthodox Church within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate believe that Orthodoxy represents no more and no less than REAL Christianity. It is that fulness of life and faith that so many of us spend all our lives searching for.

Orthodoxy is an Historic Church

The Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Christ and established by the Apostles. And history supports this claim. Pope Shenouda III, the present senior bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate is the 117th direct successor of St Mark. He stands in an historic continuity with the past.

It is a matter of fact that the Baptist Churches had their origins in the 16th century. The Methodist Churches began in the 18th century. Most of the smaller Evangelical Churches were created in the 19th or even 20th centuries. Even the Anglican Church can be said to be rooted in the controversies surrounding Henry VIII in the 16th century.

But Orthodoxy knows of no such modern beginnings. Every canonical, that is genuine, Orthodox Church in the world can trace its direct origins back to the Apostles. Pope Shenouda consecrated the British Orthodox bishop Seraphim as a Metropolitan in the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate and made the British Orthodox Church a constituent of that ancient and Apostolic Church. We know the names of all of the bishops stretching back from Pope Shenouda all the way to St Mark. There are no gaps.

There are many good qualities in the many different Christian groups and movements, but if there is no historical continuity then they represent something OTHER than the Church which Christ founded.

Some modern Christians avoid the need for historical continuity by insisting that the Church must have fallen into error and confusion and that it was only restored when their particular group was founded. But this makes a nonsense of Christ's promises:

"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth." John 16:13

and

"I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt 16:18

How can we say that we believe the Bible is the word of God when we deny its plain sense? It is not possible to say that the Church of the first centuries fell completely away from the truth and at the same time say that we believe 'the gates of hell shall not prevail'. If the first Church was so very wrong that it cannot be called the Church then quite clearly hell did prevail and the Holy Spirit failed to lead those believers into 'all truth'.

Is it reasonable to suggest that Christ left the Church in ruins for 1500 years until Martin Luther? or 1600 years until the Anglican Church was established, or 1700 years until the Wesleys? Or 1800 years until the Plymouth Brethren were formed? Or even 2000 years until the latest and most modern prophetic Church was established. All with a new take on what 'real Christianity' stands for, all separating from existing groups, all adding to the confusion of the Christian world.

Is it reasonable to suggest that though there was virtually one Christian faith for the first 1000 years, it is in fact the 21st century with 35,000 denominations, all teaching something different, which has at last been guided into 'all truth'?

Occam's Razor is the principle that generally we should take the simplist solution to a problem as being the most likely. Applied in this case Occam's Razor says that the faith which was universally held for 1000 years with very few schisms or divisions or disagreements, and which has a direct historical continuity is much more likely to be the Church which Christ founded than one started only a few hundred years ago, or even a few years ago, and which adds to the number of competing groups rather than brings unity.

Believing that Orthodoxy represents the Church Christ founded fits in with the facts of history.

i. It preserves continuity with the past and looks to the Apostles for its origins. There are no modern origins. Even the British Orthodox Church is rooted into a community which traces its history back to St Mark.

ii. It does not require us to believe that the Church which Christ founded very quickly fell into error and heresy. Such a view denies the plain teaching of the Bible.

iii. It offers a unity of faith rather than the confusion of 35,000 modern denominations all claiming to hold the truth.

iv. Orthodoxy is plainly a traditional faith and can be shown to have carefully preserved what has been taught from the beginning. If Orthodox monks in Egypt still dress as they did in the 4th century then it suggests that they would be most unlikely to change the more important aspects of faith such as what is actually believed.

v. Most other Christian groups tend to stress one aspect of faith - the Bible, or the Holy Spirit, or Good Works. It is only in Orthodoxy, as the original Church, that all of these elements are found in harmony. Orthodoxy is Biblical, Charismatic, Charitable etc. But these are not elements which take over the Church, rather they find their right place.

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