Dualist sects
The Bulgarian priest Bogomil whose name is Bulgarian for Theophilus , in the first half of the tenth century, fostered a form of dualism related to the more aggressive Paulicians, a dualistic sect which originated in Armenia in the seventh century. The Paulicians believed that the material world was the evil creation of Satan, with only the soul being created by God. The Bogomils themselves rejected manifestations of non-ascetic life such as sex, marriage and consumption of meat and wine. They...
Immigration and church development
The second significant factor to contribute to the foundation of the Orthodox Church in the United States was the waves of Orthodox immigrants entering the country from the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. Arriving from Greece, Asia Minor, Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East, these immigrants established parishes and constructed church buildings. A number of the earliest parishes began as pan-Orthodox communities containing immigrants from various ethnic...
The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity
except for editorial material and organization 2007 by Ken Parry 350 Main Street, Maiden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Ken Parry to be identified as the Author of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,...
The Standing Conference
The movement towards greater cooperation and unity among the Orthodox jurisdictions found renewed expression in the establishment of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America SCOBA in 1960. Under the leadership of Archbishop Iakovos 1911-2005 of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, SCOBA initially brought together the representatives of eleven jurisdictions. Although SCOBA remained a conference and not a formal synod, many came to view SCOBA as a first step towards greater...
Early Christianity in the Balkans
Many historical sources testify that Bulgarian Christianity has its roots in the early Christian communities and churches in the Balkan peninsula, through their influence on the local population and their evangelizing missions among the various groups of settlers. Thus the lands which in 681 became part of the Bulgarian state saw a continuous advance of Christianity between 33 ce and the sixth century. From the fourth to the sixth century the Constantinople Patriarchate stepped up its...
Canon Law for the Third Rome the Reform Programme of the Josephites
Up to the fifteenth century Russia had no canon law except the Byzantine one. This was naturally because the Russian Church was a part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which was headed by metropolitans mostly Greeks appointed by the patriarch. As to secular law, Russia had two systems existing in different fields the Byzantine law, which was used only for ideological purposes, and the local customary law, which was the actual norm of Russian justice. This system had been broken by the...
Establishing a National Church
Patriarch Gregory V's excommunication of the Greek revolutionaries 1821 was not simply an indication of his conservative and highly autocratic administration it entailed the presumption that the slightest fragmentation in patriarchal jurisdiction would create a domino effect throughout the Balkans and would lead back to the chaos of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In 1766-7 the archbishoprics of Pec and Achris were annexed, with the endorsement of the sultan, to the Patriarchate of...
The Rift in the Church
The date 10 November 1989 marked the beginning of far-reaching democratic changes in Bulgaria. At long last the direct interference of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the affairs of the Church came to an end, but, as if by force of habit, subsequent governments have kept alive the practice of behind-the-scenes meddling. Under the government of the Union of Democratic Forces UDF and Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov a frontal attack designed to tear apart the Church was launched. The executioner of...
Rituals
The Armenian Mashtots The Ritual Book associated with the name of Catholicos Mashtots I Eghivardetsi 897-8 contains the principal sacraments Khorhurd, 'mysteries', is the word used . The Mashtots has three formats 1 P'ok'r Mashtots Small Mashtots which contains the sacraments and rites performed by the priest baptism, confirmation, marriage, burial, blessings 2 Mayr Mashtots Mother Mashtots contains the rites performed by bishops ordination, awarding doctoral and pastoral staffs, consecration...
Hesychasm
The basis of Hesychasm from hesychia, meaning tranquillity or stillness derives from centuries of monastic experience of contemplative ecstasy, rooted in the continual recitation of the Jesus prayer, but it became more of a formal concept in the fourteenth century. The Hesychast is typically one who has renounced the world and family ties, devoting his or her life to God with complete obedience and simplicity. Superficially, this is the mode of living of all religious Justinian's Novella 5.3...
Maronite Catholic Church Opv
The three exempt orders of men are 1 the Lebanese Maronite Order, 2 the Congregation of Saint Anthony the Great Antonines and 3 the Mariamists, or Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The congregation of the Lebanese Missionaries of Kreim Kreimists also exists. The first three are seventeenth- and eighteenth-century configurations of earlier Maronite monasticism, while the Kreimists date from 1865. The Maronites have a larger number of female communities in addition to counterparts of the...
The eucharistic liturgy
The principal Ethiopian liturgy is the eucharistic Mass or qaddase, for the celebration of which two priests and at least three deacons are required, and which runs for several hours and is conducted mostly in Ge'ez with only the readings and nowadays certain portions of the liturgy in the vernacular. The first part of the Mass, which retains the form of the ancient Mass of the Catachumens, includes recitations from the Psalms, chanted prayers and usually four readings, from the Pauline...
The medieval period
The history of the Ethiopian Church in the years following the waning of Aksum's political power in the later sixth century is little known. The rise of Islam, and loss of Ethiopian control of the Red Sea coast, as well as economic factors all led the Christian kingdom to move its focus progressively further south into the Ethiopian highlands. Ethiopia's relations with the nascent power of Islam are supposed by Arab historians to have been excellent. The Ethiopian kingdom was placed in Muslim...
Music
Armenian religious or sacred music is contained in the following books Sharaknots Hymnal , Gandzaran Canticles , Manrusmunk' Collections of anthems, and introits and Tagharan Chants . The sharakans literally, 'row of pearls' are arranged in canons proper to the several days of the church year. The word derives from the root shar or shark' denoting order or sequence, and each canon is divided into rhythmical sections intended to be chanted after or instead of certain psalms and canticles, and so...
Diaspora
A diaspora presence for the Coptic Orthodox Church is a twentieth-century development, for there was little emigration before this point. Colonialism - occupation by French and British forces in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - created favourable conditions for some Copts, who travelled to Europe for study and work. But this did not lead to permanent overseas communities. The emergence of a Coptic diaspora comes with the 1952 socialist revolution led by Gamal Nasser, which...
Women and Womens Expectations
Serbian Orthodoxy, as the combination of Christianity and Serbian traditional culture, accepts and supports the traditional patriarchal order, with women having a clearly defined place and role. This implies a strict role division between the genders, with the subordination of the woman to the man, and her inferiority in a physical and intellectual sense. A woman's place is secondary in every respect, and because the woman is repenting the sin of her original ancestor, she may rescue herself...
Collapse of the State Church in 1917 and its Consequences
On the eve of the revolution the organization of the Church was controlled mainly by two powers, the secular and the hierarchical. The supreme control belonged to the secular state authorities, that is, the tsar through the Oberprokuror. Because of the personal piety of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II r. 1896-1917 and his family, the state authorities were often influenced by nonconformist individuals who, unlike the members of the Synod, understood the real needs of the Orthodox Church. Thus...
Miaphysitism
Miaphysitism is a term applied retrospectively to a doctrinal schism originating in the early fifth century. The doctrine alleges one nature only in Christ, and was thus in direct conflict with the Chalcedonian teaching of the dual nature of Christ. It should be noted, however, that the extreme form of this doctrine advocated by Eutyches was denounced not only by Chalcedonians but by non-Chalcedonians as well. The title Miaphysitism rather than 'Monophysitism' is now used as the more accurate...
The Reforms of Peter I and the Synodal Period of the State Church 17001917
Interruption of the autocephaly 1700-21 Tsar Peter I 1672-1725 , tsar from 1682, started his church reforms in 1698 and abolished the patriarchate to make the church organization more controllable. At first Stephen Yavorskij had been appointed the locum tenens 1700 the Moscow See was without an incumbent and Peter was looking to maintain this situation. His first solution was to subordinate the Russian Church to the four Eastern Patriarchs. As early as 1701, at the consecration of the first...
Last things heaven and hell
The statements of the Nicene Creed are the core of Coptic eschatology 1 Christ will come to judge the living and the dead 2 we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. But Coptic theologians have also implied that there is a preliminary judgement for each soul after death, as in Shenoute's De iudicio Shenoute 1996 . This preliminary judgement leads the righteous to paradise to await the resurrection and the last judgement. Until recently, a special church service took...
Notes on Contributors
David Appleyard is Professor of the Languages of the Horn of Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research interests focus on the Semitic and Cushitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has published extensively and among his recent articles is 'Definite markers in modern Ethiopian Semitic languages', in G. Khan ed. Semitic Studies in Honour of Edward Ullendorf 2005 . Dimitri Brady teaches in the Department of Adult Education for the City of...
History and its Discontents
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 was the most traumatic event in the history of Eastern Christendom and yet it created possibilities for the Church that had never existed before. The political power given to the patriarch by the Ottoman sultan was instrumental in establishing the operational agenda for the Church for centuries to come. The fall had in itself an element of irrevocability Christian Constantinople would eventually be transformed into Muslim Istanbul and the first patriarch set...
The Romanian Orthodox Church in the Modern Period 18211918
The 1821 revolution led by Tudor Vladimirescu in Vallachia led to the overthrow of the Phanariot regime in the principalities of Vallachia and Moldavia. The revolution set in motion the modernization of the Romanian political, economic and social structures. In 1859 Vallachia and Moldavia were united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza 1859-66 . The name Romania was officially adopted in 1862. The country became a constitutional monarchy in 1866, under Prince King from 1881 Charles I of...
The Medieval Bagratid Period
With the definite expansion of the K'art'velian Church beyond lands inhabited primarily by K'art'velians in the tenth and eleventh centuries, we can begin to speak properly of the Georgian Church. The growing prestige of the Church attracted the Bagratids' constant attention. Potentially, the Georgian Church was as much a powerful ally as it was a dangerous rival. When the Catholicos Melk'isedek petitioned for tax immunity around the year 1031, King Bagrat IV r. 1027-72 had little choice but to...
Illustrations
Plates illustrating chapters 18 and 19 are collected between pages 384 and 385 18.1 Church of St Symeon the Stylite, Oal'at Sim'an, Syria, c.476-90. Exterior view from the north-east. 18.2 Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, 532-7. Exterior view from the south. 18.3 Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, 532-7. Interior view facing apse. 18.4 Deesis, mosaic, c.1261. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, south gallery. 18.5 Emperor Justinian, chancel mosaic, San Vitale, Ravenna, c.546-7. Detail of larger panel of...
References and further reading Qdm
Alivizatos, N. K. 2001 The Uncertain Modernisation and the Vague Constitutional Reform in Greek . Athens Polis Publications. Arkadas, D. and Mpekridakis, D. I. 2001 Cruel Discourse, Chapters of Toxic Theology in Greek . Athens Exantas. Becker, H. 1950 Systematic Sociology. New York Wiley. Brendon, P. 2001 Winston Churchill A Brief Life. London Pimlico. Cavafy, C. P. 1975 Collected Poems, trans. E. Keely and P. Sherard, ed. G. Savidis. London Chatto and Windus. Clogg, R. ed. 1983 Greece in the...
The Earliest Traces of Arab Christianity
In his Letter to the Galatians, St Paul mentions that after his conversion experience he 'did not consult immediately with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus' 1 16-17 . It is attractive, and not entirely implausible, to imagine that he went to friendly fellow believers in the hinterland east of Damascus, or even went there to preach before any of his great missionary journeys. But this brief...
The divine office and horologium hours
Other liturgical offices, which also require the participation of dabtaras, are celebrated in cathedrals and major churches on special feast days of the liturgical year. There are three categories of such services wazema, or solemn vespers, lasting four to five hours on the eve of feast days mawaddas, the night office before Sunday and sabhata nagh, which corresponds to matins and lauds in western tradition. Additional offices may also be performed during special periods, such as Lent. The...
Mircea Pacurariu
Over two thousand years ago, the present territory of Romania was inhabited by Geto-Dacians, the northern wing of the Thracian people. In the second century bce the Geto-Dacian state reached the height of its political power, after which came a decline. The Roman Empire gradually conquered some territories in the Balkan Peninsula, and made them Roman provinces Illyricum 59 bce , Pannonia 9 ce , and Moesia 15 ce , which was later divided into Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior. In 46 ce, the...
Theology and Spirituality
According to the Armenian Church the Orthodox faith is that Our Lord Jesus is perfect in his godhead and perfect in his manhood. He is God Incarnate. Catholicos Nerses IV Klayetsi 1102-73 , in his Encyclical Letter says The Son is begotten of the nature of the Father, but outside time. His begetting is not in the manner of the birth of man, subject to passion and transitory . . . Rather he is begotten like light from light, fire from fire, for they do not become foreign to each other in...
The Impact of Arab Conquest
The conquest of Egypt began a long period of change for the monastic movement. Both Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian monasteries existed in the early seventh century. After the conquest, the two main groups continued to compete, now using the Muslim authorities to strike at opponents when this was feasible. As the Christians of Egypt were increasingly pressured by Muslim rulers through taxation and land confiscation, leading to conversion in many instances, the monasteries became even more...
Priesthood and Hierarchy
The basis for the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs is the text called The Laws of the Kings, or Fatha Nagast, a translation of the Arabic Nomocanon by the Coptic scholar al-'Assal, and the highest body of the Church is the Holy Synod, or Qaddus Sinodos. The highest office in the Church is that occupied in the past by the bishop or metropolitan appointed by the See of Alexandria. The office nowadays carries the title of Patriarch. The Ge'ez term abuna, sometimes shortened to abun, literally...
Breviary
The Armenian Breviary called Zhamagirk' Book of Hours contains psalms, collects, prayers and hymns of the canonical hours. The present Armenian office has seven hours Gisherayin zham Nocturns Night Hour Aravotean zham Matins Morning Hour Arevagali zham Prime Sunrise Hour Chashou zham Typica Midday Hour Erekoyan zham Vespers Evening Hour Khaghaghakan zham Peace Hour and Hangstean zham Compline Rest Hours. The number seven is a mystical number and recalls the words of the psalm, 'I shall bless...
Angels Michael versus Satan
The existence of angels and demons, archangels such as Michael and Satan, the prince of the powers of the air Eph. 2 2 , is affirmed in most Christian traditions. But the meagre biblical statements have been substantially developed in the Coptic tradition. Four archangels Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Suriel are honoured and Michael receives particular attention as the angel who takes over the duties of the fallen Satan. The Book of the Investiture of St Michael survives in several Coptic...
Preface
The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity provides readers with an opportunity to gain an overview of the different traditions that make up the vast but somewhat neglected field of Eastern Christian Studies. The chapters in this volume offer a wide range of material relating to the histories, theologies, and cultural expressions of Christian communities still largely unknown to those outside them. It offers a chance to compare and contrast the variety of traditions that constitute what...