Eastern Orthodox Church

Since the last three seem to be quite poorly understood by far too many people, I mentioned in my most recent Sunday Weekly Review that my work stretched beyond biomedical science communication to incorporate citizen journalism, history and culture.

I'm writing about the Eastern Orthodox Church because a lot of Westerners mistakenly believe that it refers to the Russian church. The truth is that the Eastern Orthodox Church, one of the three major Christian denominations, is not Russian and does not represent Russia.

The Schism of 1054 was the catalyst for the final breakup of the Eastern and Western Christian churches, which were both led by Michael Cerularius, the patriarch of Constantinople (led by Pope Leo IX). The Byzantine Empire thus took the lead in the separation. The Byzantine Empire ruled over a large portion of the region around the Mediterranean Sea, which included parts of North Africa, the Middle East, and modern-day Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

The First Bulgarian Empire Christianity was also influenced by Byzantine, and after the split, Bulgaria joined the Eastern Orthodox Church. To avoid Byzantium's assimilation of Bulgarian language and culture, Bulgarian Tsar Boris I directed the creation of an alphabet that Bulgarians could understand. It was used to translate the Bible as well as liturgical texts. Because Bulgarian and other slavic languages are related, Orthodox Christianity spread to countries where these languages are spoken.

Bulgaria, Greece, Russia, Romania, Belarus, Serbia, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Cyprus, and Montenegro are now mostly Eastern Orthodox. I'm not going to go into why the churches were separated because, as with everything, it's mostly about the desire to influence. We have the same major holidays as Christmas and Easter. Some Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas on different date because they follow the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar that is currently in use. However, Easter is celebrated by all Orthodox Christians according to the Julian calendar, so it is usually on a different date than the Western Easter. This year is one week after the Western Easter.

As you can see, Russia is simply a nation that has accepted the Eastern Orthodox Church; however, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been suppressed since the start of the war in that country.

https://twitter.com/caelisangelus/status/1642030061820755970

https://twitter.com/caelisangelus/status/1642030103356899331

*Substack doesn't display Twitter links for some reason; hopefully this is a glitch.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church is falsely charged with propagating Russian interests. As a result, the Ukrainian government abuses Christian priests and destroys churches in Ukraine. The horrific mistreatment of Ukrainian Orthodox Church must be condemned!

Happy Easter, this week or next! Celebrate, but also take time to consider how to resurrect your own world, which has been sacrificed by truly anti-human forces. If they defeat humanity, it will be because humanity allowed them to. We shouldn’t! We are more powerful.

Now, please share this and consider supporting my work with a small donation via my blog or paid subscription . It is the only way to keep it free for readers who cannot afford even a small donation.

Sveta Nedelya Cathedral Church, is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria where the author was baptized. Copyrights: Dr Lidiya Angelova