And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18
The “Church” is mentioned in the Creed, specifically a Church that is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” Let’s quickly examine each word.
One means unified. It’s hard to imagine that God is happy that there are nearly 40,000 different expressions of the Christian faith. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church both lay claim to being the original church founded by Christ and the Apostles. We know that the Orthodox and the Catholics split from one another in 1054, at the Great Schism. In 1517, Martin Luther began what is now known as the Protestant Reformation, when he broke away, in protest, from the Roman Catholic Church. Every “Protestant” church has been born in “protest.” The last fifty years have seen the Christian world flooded with “non-denominational Protestants,” people who have set up “churches” that are completely independent of one another. They don’t have any polity or central governance, no set of rules or canons or theology. We’ve created, and continue to create, disunity when it comes to the Christian church.
Holy means set apart. The Church (now speaking of the Orthodox Church) is set apart from all other organizations and groups as the entity whose sole work is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. Everything we do in the church must have this as the ultimate aim. The church is not just another organization or club. It is an organism, like a body, which breathes, grows, sometimes gets sick, recovers, achieves, etc. When we join the Church, we become part of that body and we enjoin ourselves in the sacred mission of the Church, which is to make disciples. The church does lots of other things, including things that are fun and promote fellowship, but the end goal of the church is not to make us feel good or entertain us. The goal of the Church is to offer us a place to learn about the Lord, to worship Him, and to be empowered to serve Him and bring others to Him.
Catholic in this case does not mean “Roman Catholic,” it means “universal.” “Catholicity” implies a sense of connectedness. You can go to any Orthodox Church in the world and feel comfortable, because the worship and practice is the same the world over. Priests are connected to bishops, and bishops are connected to one another. If a person says “I want to create my own ‘church’ in my house, or even build a church, decorate it with icons and celebrate ‘liturgy’ in it,” the first question would be “which bishop are you connected to, where is your catholicity? And if the answer is, “we are not connected, we are an independent church,” then this group might function as a “church” but it wouldn’t be an Orthodox Church.
The Orthodox Church is open for anyone who wishes to join. In order to join the Church, one must be baptized and Chrismated (more on this in the next reflection), and in order to be brought into the Church via baptism or Chrismation, there is a required period of study, where one is a catechumen. The Orthodox Church does not have open Communion, that is, one has to be Orthodox in order to receive Holy Communion.
Apostolic means that we trace our foundations to the time of the Apostles. Our bishops have “apostolic succession,” meaning they trace their lineage to the Apostles. One cannot appoint himself a bishop. In order to become a priest, one must be ordained by a canonical bishop. There is no self-ordaining. And in order to be a bishop, one must be ordained by at least three bishops, demonstrating the catholicity and universality of the church. One cannot appoint himself a bishop, but rather must be affirmed by many bishops. There are pastors who have named themselves “bishops,” and one can get “ordained” on line, but these things are not Orthodox, they run completely counter to the Creed. I am a priest because I received ordination through the laying on of hands by a bishop who is in the line of apostolic succession.
We don’t “believe” in the church per se. We believe in the Holy Trinity. However, we believe that the Church is necessary in the life of each Christian. We exist in community. As the saying goes, one Christian is no Christian. Every Christian must be connected to a community—for encouragement and accountability. If a person was left on a deserted island for twenty years with just a Bible and no other human contact, he would finish the 20 years not believing in Christ. Why? Because each person has moments of doubt and struggle, and without encouragement and direction, one can easily go astray. Second, we are to serve one another. Part of the way we understand Christ’s love is by loving others and serving them. Living alone makes this impossible. Even the most isolated of monastic hermits still comes back to a monastery for encouragement, direction and community.
The Church is necessary because it is only in the context of a Church community where one can receive the Eucharist. The priest might be the head of the community, but even he cannot receive the Eucharist outside the context of a “community.” If no one comes for the Divine Liturgy, there can be no Divine Liturgy, as there is no “private Communion.” Even when the priest takes Holy Communion to someone who is sick, there is still community, even if at that moment it is a community of two, the priest and the patient.
The Church is also not a building, but a community. The word “ekklesia” is used 113 times in the New Testament and each time it refers to a community of believers, not a location or a building.
In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains; for lo, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do”? The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test, the children of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates him that loves violence. On the wicked He will rain coals of fire and brimstone; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face. Psalm 11
We believe in the oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolic link of the church, as well as the necessity of the Church to guide us to salvation.
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