What is the Orthodox Church?

The Orthodox Church is the one Church founded by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. Orthodox Christians believe that in the course of 2,000 years, the Orthodox Faith has neither added nor taken away from the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 The Orthodox Church is today a federation of self-governing churches which share a common faith, a common liturgical and sacramental tradition, and a common history beginning at Jerusalem in approximately 33 A.D.

The First Thousand Years...

Orthodox Christians have lived by their faith in every generation since the 12 Apostles carried the message of Salvation to the ends of the world after their instruction by the God Man Jesus Christ. Christians met in secret in the first centuries and often faced the ultimate price for their faith, suffering unspeakable tortures and deaths, becoming martyrs (witnesses) of Christ and Him crucified. Orthodox Christianity was eventually embraced by the Roman Empire, first by Constantine in 313, shortly thereafter becoming the official state religion of the Empire. Once Christianity became prominent in society, many Christians felt the need to go to places like the desert to live out their faith as it had become too easy to be a Christian in name only in daily life. The founding of many of the first monasteries also occurred in these centuries so that men and women could live out their faith with all their lives.