Sunday, January 30, 2011

Does the Orthodox Church is Byzantine?

                    




In response to the misconception from some who says that the Orthodox is not a Byzantine; and Byzantine a thing from the history,

I would to provide the fact that that through
a set of scientific researches confirmed  that  Byzantine is still and representative  in  Orthodox:


Definition
- First of all, the Byzantine is an adjective to the Orthodox Church;
- Orthodox Church, Orthodox Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Church, Eastern Orthodox derived from the Byzantine Church and adhering to Byzantine rites,

Historical Fact
John Chrysostom was Patriarch of Constantinople "Byzantine", where Patriarchate of Constantinople still alive until this moment which headed by Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of Constantinople, the New Rome”, which indicates that the Byzantine is continuous, and this refutes the allegations that Byzantium is over, and stresses that the Orthodox is Byzantine.

Liturgy and Tradition
The existance  of  the  Holy tradition in the Orthodox  Church  goes back to the two  oldest Divine Liturgies in the  history  of  the  church:
The first one is to St. Basil the Great (379 A.D), Metropolitan of Caesarea in Cappadocia; where he  reformed the Liturgy of the Church, which called the Byzantine service,

Basil’s goal is the streamlining of the services to make them more cohesive and attractive to the faithful. He also worked to reform the clergy and improve the moral life of Christians.
The most important work attributed to him is the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil. He took as his basis the Liturgy of St. James, as well as some liturgical elements recorded in the Apostolic Constitutions.

Saint Basil's liturgy was continued by John Chrysostom Patriarch of Constantinople who wrote new "shorter" prayers for the Divine Liturgy, as well as other prayers. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is the most common form of the Liturgy used in the Orthodox Rite, and his Catechetical Homily is an important part of the Byzantine Paschal Vigil.
From here, all evidence indicates that there is no separation between the Orthodox and Byzantine; this confirms that the Byzantine is an Orthodox in all its components.
 

The prayers and liturgical service, used by most of the Eastern Churches, including Syriac, is taken from Byzantine liturgy, with some distortion.


Editor: Rev.Spyridon Tanous
Orthodox Patristic Church- Sweden
Ἐκκλησία τῶν Γ.Ο.Χ
www.christ-prayer.org