Eastern orthodoxy

Did you know that every year 300 million people celebrate Easter at a different time from the church in the West? Did you know that 300,000 of them actually live in Britain? The Eastern Orthodox Church lives on . . .

The 'Byzantine Tradition' stretches from Russia through countries like Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, all the way down to Greece and Cyprus.

Byzantium, another name for Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, was, and still is, the capital of the Orthodox Church, despite Turkish occupation since 1453. The Patriarch of Constantinople is the titular head of the Orthodox Church but does not have the absolute power which the Pope has over the Roman Catholic church.

Sadly, however, that is where the differences stop. In fact, one could go so far as to say that any criticism levelled against the Church of Rome can equally be applied to the Eastern Orthodox church (apart from the doctrines of the infallibility of the Pope and clerical celibacy).

Parting of the ways

The Roman church and the Orthodox church were one and the same up until 1054 when they excommunicated each other, more for political rather than doctrinal reasons. By then, the church was already steeped in idolatrous worship of Mary, the saints and 'holy relics'. Even to this day, they believe in apostolic succession, trans-substantiation, prayers for the dead (although they do not teach purgatory), and salvation through the seven sacraments and other 'good' works. Like the Roman church, the Apocrypha is regarded as canonical and is used to justify prayers for the dead. They also hold tradition as an equal authority to the Bible, the best interpreter of which is the church hierarchy.

Indeed for those who are familiar with Romish mariolatry, the following Orthodox addresses to Mary should not come as a surprise. She is called 'All Holy One', 'Mother of God', 'Mediatrix', 'Immaculate', 'Pure One', 'the True Vine', 'Jacob's ladder' (sic), 'Burning Bush' (sic), 'Rod of Aaron' (sic), 'Bride of God', 'Daughter of the King', among other titles. Psalm 45.10 is given as Scriptural proof that she is the Queen of Heaven, and Ezekiel 44.1-3 for her eternal virginity. In the liturgy for the veneration of Mary, she is asked to 'redeem and save us'!

Paganism?

This is not to say that the Orthodox church do not have their own idiosyncratic practices, for they have embraced Greek paganism and dressed it up as some 'Christian' ritual. For example, as part of the memorial service, the relatives of the deceased prepare a special dish made of wheat, called 'Kollyva', to be eaten by friends and relatives. Ancient Greece had a similar tradition where a similar dish, 'panspermia', made from a selection of grains and seeds, was offered to the dead, the living and the god Hades.

Another strange practice is to make a waxen effigy of the part of the body which needs healing and offer it to a saint, just like ancient Greeks would to the temple gods and goddesses. And so the great human concerns of birth, death and fertility are nothing but pagan practices: the use of marriage crowns at weddings, the placing of money in a grave (cf. a silver coin for the god Charon) and the funeral meal.

Ironically, although the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation was sparked off by the flight of Greek scholars to the West after the conquest of Constantinople, the Orthodox church herself was never blessed with a similar experience... Well, she could have been, had not the Catholic Jesuits, with the Pope's blessing, caused the murder of Patriarch Cyril Lucaris in 1638. This Eastern 'Luther' who taught salvation by faith, election, and sufficiency of the Scriptures and opposed the worship of the saints and the doctrine of trans-substantiation, was regarded as a threat to Rome. After his death, successive Patriarchs condemned him as a heretic and, to this day, evangelical Christians are still being persecuted by the Orthodox church.

Mystical attraction

It is no small wonder, especially to born-again Christians who have come out of the darkness of Orthodoxy, to see people born and brought up in a traditionally Protestant country converting to the Eastern church. In a little chapel in Guildford, I witnessed English people bowing down in front of icons, kissing them and lighting candles. It seems that these people experience a sense of holiness and spirituality by performing these rituals. There is an atmosphere of awe which is almost hypnotising, as the priest and choir chant the liturgy. It is these mystical experiences in Orthodoxy which attract some Westerners seeking a spiritual dimension to their lives. To them, emotions and feelings are more important than the divine truths taught in the Bible. As all true Orthodox Christians, they believe that theirs is the church founded by Jesus and his apostles, and has continued from generation to generation by apostolic succession. It was the Roman Catholics and Protestants who deviated from the truth.

What then is their attitudes towards other churches? Although some of the stricter ones, the Old Calendarists who still abide by the Julian calendar, regard all other churches as heretical, the main body of Orthodoxy is pro-ecumenical, seeking the unity of the church. In 1967, partial reconciliation was achieved when the Pope and the Patriarch signed a mutual agreement to cancel the excommunication of 1054. Since then there has been constant dialogue between the two parties, and it is now permissible for a Catholic to receive communion in an Orthodox church if he or she is not near a Roman Catholic church, and vice versa.

Of the 250,000 Greeks living in Britain, most of whom are of Cypriot origin, the majority cling on to their Orthodox faith as part of their national identity, for to be Greek is to be Orthodox. But it is estimated that there are about 100 people, mainly of the second or third generation Greeks, who are of the Protestant faith. Although they attend English evangelical churches, some of them are also members of the Greek Christian Fellowship.

Greek believers

Back in the 1950s, a group of approximately 30 Greek evangelical Christians formed a Greek-speaking fellowship at St. Peter's, Vere Street, London W1. Some, mainly Greek-Cypriots, were permanent residents of this country, while others were students. Various people ministered to them, including some students from the European Missionary Fellowship, but there was never a full-time pastor. Eventually, the dwindling numbers meant that the meetings ceased altogether by around 1980. It was not until the arrival of a Greek evangelical student in 1983 that the meetings were reconvened.

The group aims to preach the gospel to those whose first language is Greek and whose command of English is insufficient for them to attend a service in English, a work which is sadly ignored by the many missionary societies in this country. We work under the umbrella of the local church (we are now based at Tollington Park Baptist Church), providing the Greeks with the opportunity to listen to the gospel preached in their own language. Our main obstacle is the fact that Greeks think they are Christians already, having been baptised as babies into the Orthodox church.

Please pray that God will pour out his Holy Spirit on us, and that many will turn from their blindness into the True Light.

For further information on the Greek Christian Fellowship in the UK, visit http://www.bethelwimbledon.com/gcf.htm

© Evangelicals Now - May 1998
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