What is the orthodox church?
A very brief introduction
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The word Orthodox was coined by the ancient Church Fathers, writers from the first centuries of Christian history. It is a combination of two Greek words, orthos and doxa. Orthos means “straight” or “correct.” Doxa can mean “glory,” “worship,” or “doctrine.” The word orthodox thus separates the Church from other groups that promote false teachings about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, salvation, and the Church. Those groups were called “heterodox” or “heretics.”
On the day of Pentecost (c. 33 A.D.), the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in Jerusalem. After witnessing the Apostles’ preaching, 120 believers gathered to create the first Christian church. Not long after this, Christ’s Disciples continued their missionary efforts throughout the world, starting churches in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Constantinople, and elsewhere throughout the eastern Roman Empire. These churches were, and still are, what we now call the (Eastern) Orthodox Church.
The Orthodox Church was and is the original Christian Church. She wrote, compiled and canonized the Holy Scriptures. She formulated the dogmas of the Faith into one ecumenical creed that all Christians believe. And she preserves the Traditions passed down to her by the Apostles themselves, remaining largely unchanged to this day. In other words, the Orthodox Church has an organic and continuous nearly 2,000-year history spanning from the Apostolic Age to the present. Every Christian community in existence can trace their history back to the Orthodox Church.