The Eastern Churches: A Historical Overview
Little is known about the Eastern Churches, and they can seem unfamiliar. Yet they carry a form of Christianity born in the Holy Land and handed down from the Apostles themselves.
I have found that little is known about the Eastern Churches, and to many they can seem confusing or unusual. When we speak of the Eastern Churches, we are speaking of a form of Christianity that was born in the Holy Land and spread throughout the Middle East and Eastern Europe. These Churches were founded by the Apostles, and in time came to be recognized as Orthodox and Catholic. (I trace those distinctions in Understanding the Eastern Churches.)
From Pentecost to the Nations
After Jesus rose gloriously from the dead, He remained with His Apostles and disciples for forty days before ascending into heaven. He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete (Acts 1:4–5). Ten days later, as we read in Acts 2:4, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. That was the beginning of the Church’s mission, filling them with the courage to proclaim the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection.
The Apostles were devout Jews, and they continued to pray and to offer sacrifice at the Temple. But they also broke bread in their homes.
Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.
That phrase, the breaking of the bread, became our word for the Eucharist. The Apostles and the many Jews who accepted Jesus did not believe they were converting to a new religion; they were embracing the fullness of their own faith, remembering that the Lord came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. (I say more about those Jewish roots in The Most Holy Trinity.)
From Pentecost onward the Apostles traveled throughout the known world, preaching first to Jewish communities in the cities of the Roman Empire. As the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul’s letters record, they often met resistance and were expelled from the synagogues. Yet whole communities sometimes accepted Jesus, and afterward built altars in their synagogues to celebrate the Eucharist once their usual service had ended. In time the greater harvest came from the Gentiles, and the clear separation of Christianity from Judaism arrived with the fall of Jerusalem after the last Jewish revolt against Rome.
The Faith Takes Root in Many Cultures
As Christianity grew, it took into itself the gifts of every culture it met, and this shaped the Eastern Churches in beautiful and distinct ways. The Church helped to Christianize the Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Arabs, Ethiopians, Armenians, and Slavs — and each people gave something of its own.
- The Greeks, the pioneers of philosophy, led the Church in their region to think philosophically.
- In India and Ethiopia, local cultures shaped the Churches through chant, sacred art, and their own ways of approaching God.
- The Church in Antioch wove typology and poetry into her theology to speak of the hidden mystery of God.
- The Roman Empire’s love of law left its mark on the Church in Rome, and on the Western emphasis on order and law.
This is the same Church spreading and adapting from city to city, as I describe in The Spread of Christianity.
How the East Sees Salvation
The Eastern approach to salvation dwells less on our sin and more on God’s love for us. As St. John reminds us, the good news is not first about our love for God, but about His love for us.
1 John 4:10In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins.
We are seen as created good, though fallen through original sin, which wounds our relationship with the Creator. Baptism is a Mystery that restores us to our original image and likeness, granting eternal life and a share in the divine nature. St. Paul teaches that through baptism we are joined to Christ in His death and resurrection, so that we may walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). The Eastern Churches recognize seven sacraments — we call them the Mysteries — through which God works our salvation.
Notice that the focus rests more on God than on ourselves. He is restoring us to our former glory, and our part is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and to keep saying, “Thy will be done.” (That surrender is the very path to the purpose God has for us — see Purpose in Life.) The three great Sacraments of Initiation — Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, and the Holy Eucharist — welcome us into the family of Christ, empower us with the Holy Spirit, and nourish us with the Body and Blood of the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, do not think of the Eastern Churches as strangers. They are our own family in the faith, keeping watch by the very cradle where the Church was born. Give thanks for this ancient inheritance, and let it draw you closer to the God who loved us first.
Chorbishop Don Sawyer — known warmly as Abouna Don — has spent a lifetime teaching the faith. His gift is making the rich tradition of the Church feel like a conversation across the kitchen table.
