Eastern Orthodoxy

Emperor Constantine was NOT the one establish the Orthodox Christianity. He was the one to stop the official state-enforced persecution of anybody who is Christian.

However, by legitimizing the religion as an equal one in the whole Roman Empire, along with many others, Constantine has allowed the true state of affairs to be seen - that is, Christianity was everywhere. A major consequence was the need for establishment of an official institution which the state may deal with, since there were many allegations against the Christians - like routine performance of human sacrifices, orgy-gatherings, etc. Contemporary person may related to this process by the usual requirement to register the religious organization, which exist even in the most tolerant governments.

Mainly due to such issues, Constantine has called upon a founding meeting - called Council - to form the legal representation of the Church. Now as a legal body, great deal of formalism was required by the Church. In turn, this formalism lessened the tolerance within the Church as there were many gnostic fractions, sects and teachings, which deviated in a different extent from the original Orthodox Christian faith and practice. The "state-registered" institution, having now legal bases for Her claims of the name Christian, Orthodox, Catholic (= Universal), could defend the its name, faith and practices. We may think of this as a form of intellectual property infringement protection from unrelated third-parties and members with fraudulent intent.

It's just the Catholic Church, not the Roman Catholic Church. Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is rarely used by the Catholic Church. The Orthodox broke away from the Catholic Church over many centuries basically over political reasons.

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from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

The Schism of the East

the estrangement and severance from the Holy See of what is now called the Orthodox Eastern Church was a gradual process extending over centuries. After a number of minor schisms the first serious, though short, break was that of Photius; from then on tension between East and West increased, and the schism of Cerularius occurred in 1054. From then on the breach gradually widened and has been definitive since 1472. There was a formal union from the 2nd Council of Lyons in 1274 until 1282, and a more promising one after the Council of Florence from 1439 to 1472. After the capture of Constantinople it was in the Turkish interest to reopen and widen the breach with the powerful Roman church; the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were dragged into this policy, Russia and the Slav churches stood out the longest of any: none of these churches, except Constantinople itself in 1472, formally and definitely broke away from the unity of the Church. But in the course of centuries the schism has set and crystallized into a definite separation from the Holy See of many million people with a true priesthood and valid sacraments. The origins, causes and development of the schism are matters of much complication, still not fully unraveled.

from

Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Separation of the Christian Churches of the East from unity with Rome. The schism was centuries in the making and finally became fixed in 1054, when the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularisu (died 1059), was excommunicated by the papal legates for opposing the use of leavened bread by the Latin Church and removing the Pope's name from the diptychs or list of persons to be prayed for in the Eucharistic liturgy. A temporary reunion with Rome was effected by the Second Council of Lyons (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) but never stabilized

The principle of language derives from St. Paul, who said that the language of the church should be spread in the language of the people. In the Roman Empire, Trade was everything, and the best and largest traders were from Greece. So while Latin was spoken in government, and even in the military, most citizens spoke Greek. Thus the original form of the church was in Greek.

But in 1031 the Roman Church and the Eastern Orthodox church differed, language was changing and the Romans thought that the word of God should be reserved for those "most fit" in receiving it. Therefore the language of the Elite was adopted for the Holy CATHOLIC Church, Latin. The eastern churches did not ignore the west, the languages were changing so it was decided that all of the individual churches and communities can use the language prevelant in that area. Thus today, eastern churches use any language relative to Paul's Teachings, the people's language.

However, Icons, and certain words are universally Greek, to pay tribute to the original word. Theotokos in any church refers to the Holy Mother, Mary. Pascha refers to Christ's Resurection (Easter), and most icons were for many years in Greek lettering with local language in subtype, today Cyrilic or Russian is more common due to large demands from those nations for the icons.

Ethiopian Orthodox speak a combination of Arabic and local native dialects, Palestineans speak Arabic, Ukrainians speak Ukrainean or Russian, Brazilian speak Protuguese. The main are where this is an issue is the US and UK where European Immagrants want the church to remain in their language from the old country, but that inhibbits future generations who do not know the language and new members from joining, so many churches to dual services, half in the foreign language and half in the Predominant language. This is most common in England and America so usually it is English, however there are strictly English and even Spanish services in some areas of the US like Los Angeles or parts of New York, but co lanugages are common, such as English-Greek Services.

The Government of God has the Father at top and next Jesus who is the Head of the Church of God on Earth. Jesus selected 12 Apostles or called out or one sent to begin the Church throughout the world. Various Elders, Bishops or Overseer, Evangelist, Deacons, etc... developed as the Church grew in numbers.

Qualifications of Overseers

1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop,[a] he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,[b] but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Qualifications of Deacons

8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. 11 Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.