What is Orthodox Christianity and what was the Schism?

Answer 1

Orthodox Christianity is the eastern branch of Chistianity with Istanbul, Turkey the centre of their religion. They broke off from the Roman Catholic Church over

1200 years ago over the infallibility of the Papacy which they didn't recognize. In doctrine and rituals, there is virtually no difference between the two. The

Orthodox are concentrated in Russia and Southeastern Europe like Bulgaria and parts of the old Yugoslavia. There are around 200 million Orthodox Christians vs over 1billion Roman Catholics. Interestingly, a man who wants to be an ordained Priest as is married, can remain married and become a priest-unlike the Roman Catholic Church. One of the primary problems of this faith is that they spend very little time evangelizing and hensce their numbers continue to decline. There are over 2 million members in the U.S. which hasn't changed in over 20 years! They were horribly persecuted under Stalin but have made a comeback since the communists were thrown out in 1991. The Russian Orthodox church is the established church and receives special subsidies from the government. The leader of the Orthodox Church is the Holy Primate in

Istanbul-used to be Constantinoble. There is a cathedral where he resides. He is comparable to the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Orthodox view:

The Christian Church was founded by Jesus Himself in the year 33 AD, on the Day of Pentecost. According to Orthodox Christian beliefs, the Orthodox Church is the one church that was established in Jerusalem in 33 AD and continues to exist to this day without any changes to its dogmas and beliefs.

Both the Orthodox and Catholics claim to have started at the same time, when there was no such thing as 'Orthodox' or 'Catholic' or 'Protestant' and there was only the Universal Christian Church. So both the Orthodox and Catholics shared a common foundation for the first 1,000 years of their history.

However, from the year 1054 AD, which is regarded as the Great Schism (or split) in the Universal Church, the two have been known by the names of Orthodox and Catholic.

The Orthodox Church states that the Roman Catholics split from the body of the Church mainly because of Papal claims of supremacy over the Church, and unauthorized change to the Nicene Creed (the 'filioque' clause), which was not accepted by anyone else at that time.

For most of the centuries, the Orthodox Church was the largest church in the world, until 1453 AD, when Constantinople fell to the Turks, as the West watched and did nothing to help. This event caused Islam to spread in Europe.

The Roman Catholics also conducted Crusades and Inquisitions to increase its membership, but the Orthodox church has never had crusades or inquisitions. The Fourth Crusade in 1204 AD resulted in the Catholic crusaders destroying Constantinople and killing much of the Christian population. It never fully recovered from this event.

Prior to this, the Orthodox church was the first to evangelize successfully, particularly in Eastern Europe, and this resulted in its large numbers all over the world. This was long before any Protestant groups existed. Although its numbers are now approx 300 million, it cannot keep up with the number of Protestants and others who want to become Orthodox, particularly in the USA, South America, Africa and numerous other countries, where there has been a huge revival and desire to return to the original New Testament church.