The original Christian Church, founded by our Lord Jesus Christ, was well established in the first centuries. All of its five major centers, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, each had its own Patriarch, or first bishop among equals. These churches, referred to as a Pentarchy, from the Greek penta - 5, archia - rule, thus the Rule of 5, were united for more than 1,000 years. From Ethiopia to Ireland, as far as parts of India, the Church was united under one God, one Faith, one Holy Spirit, one theology, one Church!

       In 1054, the Great Schism divided Rome from the other four Patriarchates mentioned above. (Time line). The other four major centers began to be called the Orthodox, meaning "right-worship," Christians, while Rome doubled down on its supremacy by calling itself the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic meaning "universal," thus claiming that only through the rulership of the Roman Papacy was the Universal Church to be found. It's interesting to note, however, that out of love for their fellow man and patience in Christ the other four Patriachates still maintained some ties to the Roman Church, speaking the truth in love by chiding them for their heresies of the filioque, believing that the Holy Spirit comes both from the Father and the Son, Papal supremacy, which is the claim that the Pope is the head pontiff without equals, and various other liturgical abuses still found today in the Roman church. This changed in 1204, when Roman Catholic mercenaries, knights, and even armed monks and priests, stormed the city of Constantinople, stealing vast amounts of wealth, killing Orthodox priests and layman, and not even sparing women and nuns from defilement. After this, the Orthodox Churches woke up to the spiritual delusion that the Papacy was under and officially cut themselves off.

       Many changes took place in the west that eventually brought about another division, the Protestant movement, which originated in the 1500s in the fractured princedoms of the Holy Roman Empire, in what is now modern day Germany. Sadly, in the West, so many things about Christianity have been changed and lost, with no sign on the horizon of a return to the Truth that Christ preached, which only the Orthodox Church has today.

       Meanwhile, throughout these tumultuous periods of religious change and upheaval in the West, the rest of the Christian world, the Orthodox Church, has remained steadfast in its traditional beliefs in the face of invasion by Muslims, persecutions by non-Orthodox Christians, and even in the grip of the satanic powers of communist revolutionaries. We still venerate the saints and their icons, receive the Holy Body and Blood of Christ at the ancient Liturgy, confess our sins to our confessor priests, and try to live every day in a state of repentance, awaiting the time when we will inevitably meet our Lord Jesus Christ, fearful of our seemingly unending sins, yet hoping in His boundless mercy.
  As it's not possible to explain nearly 2,000 years of the Orthodox Church and her history in just a few paragraphs, please feel free to contact us @ info@cullmanorthodox.com