Understanding Orthodox Church:Further divisions in the West

Further Divisions in the West During the centuries after A.D 1054, the growing distinction between East and West was becoming indelibly marked in the history.

The Eastern Church (Both Oriental and Byzantine Orthodox Churches) maintained the full stream of New Testament faith, worship, and practice-all the while enduring great persecution from both Islamic forces and also from her western counterpart.( See the crusades, I will narrate about crusades latter).The Roman Catholic Church(Western Church) bogged down in many problems. Then, less than five centuries after Rome committed itself to its unilateral alteration of doctrine and practice, another upheaval occurred-this time inside the western gates. Although many in the west had spoken out against Roman domination and practice in earlier years, now a little-known German monk Martin Luther inadvertently launched an attack against Roman Catholic practices which ended up affecting world history.

His list of Ninety Five Thesis was nailed to the Church door at Wittenberg in 1517, signaling the start of what came to be called the protestant Reformation. Luther had intended no break in Rome, but he could not be reconciled to its papal system of government as well as other doctrinal issues. He was excommunicated in 1521, and the door to future unity in the West slammed shut with a resounding crash. The reforms Luther sought in Germany were soon accompanied by demand of Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, John Calvin in Geneva, and hundreds of others all over Western Europe. Fueled by complex political, social, and economic factors in addition to the religious problems, the Reformation spread like a ranging fire into virtually every nook and cranny of Roman Catholic Church. The ecclesiastical monopoly to which it had grown accustomed was greatly diminished, and massive division replaced unity. The ripple effect of that division impacts even today as the Protestant movement continues to split.

If trouble on the European continent were not trouble enough, the Church of England was in a process of going its own way as well. Henry VIII, amidst his marital problems, replaced the Pope of Rome with himself as head of the Church of England. As a decade followed decade in the West, the branches of Protestantism continued to divide. There were even branches that insisted they were neither Protestant nor Roman Catholic. All seemed to share a mutual dislike for the Bishop of Rome and the practices of his Church, and most wanted far less centralized forms of leadership. While some, such as the Lutherans and Anglicans, held on to certain forms of liturgy and sacrament, others, such as the Reformed Churches and the even more radical Anabaptists and their descendants, questioned and rejected many ideas of hierarchy, sacrament, historic tradition, thinking they were freeing themselves of only Roman Catholicism.

To this day, many sincere, modern, professing Christians will reject even the biblical data that speaks of historic practices are “Roman Catholic”. To use the old adage, they threw the baby out with the bathwater without even being aware of it. Thus, while retaining in varying degrees portions of foundational Christianity, neither Protestantism nor Catholicism can lay historic claim to being the true New Testament Church. In dividing from the Orthodox Christianity (Eastern Christianity), Rome forfeited its place in the Church of the New Testament. In the divisions of the Reformation, the Protestants-as well-meaning as they might have been –failed to return to the New Testament Church. Knowing Our Sister Churches With the reformation Movement of 16th Century led by Martin Luther, a lot of the Christians of Western Europe protested against the teachings of Roman Catholic Church and they moved out of Roman Patronage. Their Churches were called by the name the Protestants.

Lutheran Church, Reformed Church, Anglican Church, Presbyterian Church and Methodist Church are the major Protestant Churches of the world. From the Protestant Churches, by the end of the 19th Century or at the beginning of the 20th century a lot of Pentacostal Sectarian groups came into existence, and do not have a sound theological basis.

In India we may find representative of almost all protestant groups and new Sectarian Groups. Some of them stay in alliances like the Church of South India (CSI) and the Church of North India (CNI). Even though the Mar Thoma Church is not a member of these alliances it has communion with them as a Protestant Church. Mar Thoma Church is theologically protestant and traditionally a Eastern Church. We can conclude that, we can classify the Christian Church all over the world in to three Groups under the title Orthodox, Catholic and Protestants. All the denominations come under any of these mentioned groups. With the advent of colonial age the churches of the Western colonial rulers spread in many countries of the world. Thus we have 970 Catholics and 470 million Protestants in the world today. About 275 millions Christians of the world belong to Pentecostal sectarian groups. The Oriental Orthodox Family Comprises of the Churches of Egypt, Ethiopia, Eretria, Syria, Armenia and India. There are Churches in Russia, Greece, Rumania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Check Republic etc which belong to the Byzantine Orthodox Family.

Altogether, the Eastern Orthodox Family make up 220 million of the world

Next : Coming together of Churches…

Fr.Thomas Philipose

St Mary’s Orthodox Church, Aurangabad