What Is the Church

I could begin this lecture with many topics: with the first lines of the Nicene Creed or with any catechism textbook. However, before touching on these matters, I want to start with the meaning of the Church itself. This may sound simple, even childlike, but everything important begins with

something simple.

“I believe… (The Nicene Creed)… in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic

Church.”

As we see, this is a matter of faith, because the words begin with “I believe.”

It is not something that comes only from daily experience. There are many

differences and divisions in the Christian world, yet we say that the Church is one.

There are many sins and even persecutions among people, but the Church is still

one. Both in priestly life and in ordinary human life, we see many weaknesses, and

still we believe in the holiness of the Church. It is very difficult to connect today’s

Church directly with the Church of the Apostles, but even so, the Church that we

see with our own eyes—no matter how surprising it may seem—is still apostolic.

This, too, is a matter of faith.

Despite all these difficulties, the Church knows something deeper about

itself. So, what is the Church? In different languages, the word “church” has

different meanings. One meaning comes from the Greek expression kyriou oikos,

which means “the house of the Lord.” This refers mainly to the building, the

temple. From this meaning, we get the English word church and the German

Kirche.

But there is also another Greek word: ekklesia. In many catechetical books it

is translated simply as “assembly” or “gathering,” but this is not fully correct.

Ekklesia comes from the verb ek-kaleo, which means “to call out” or “to

summon.” It sounds almost like a challenge or a call. The word ek means “out.”

The Apostle Paul uses a related idea when he speaks about the “chosen people.”

From the same root we get words like elect and election. So, the Church is a

calling.

The Church is made of people who have heard a call and who realized that

they are strangers to what once seemed normal and natural. We hear a voice that

calls us. We do not fully understand this voice, but we hear it and we follow it in

order to understand it more deeply. At the same time, there are many people around

us who do not hear this voice at all. This is our spiritual community, the invisible

Church, which we cannot fully feel yet.

In the twentieth century there was Archbishop John of San Francisco, whose

name as a layman was Dmitry Shakhovskoy. He was a very interesting person:

handsome, a poet, a friend of Marina Tsvetaeva. He lived in emigration in France

and had his own journal. Suddenly, he left everything and went to Mount Athos.

One year later, when he explained why he became a monk, he said: “I became tired

of my own truth, and I wanted the Truth.” People like this—people who hear the

call—form the Church. This is who you are.

From here, we can better understand another word often used in Church life:

parish. This comes from the Greek word paroikia. The Greek prefix para appears in

many words. The word paroikos originally meant a person without a permanent

home, a stranger or foreign resident. From this word, in the first century, Saint

Ignatius of Antioch formed the idea of living “as a stranger.”

When Saint Ignatius was arrested in Antioch and taken to Rome, he wrote

letters to the Christians in the cities where he stopped on the way. This road is still

known as Via Egnatia. In his letters he begins with words like: “The Church of

God, which lives as a stranger in Corinth, in Ephesus, in Rome, in Smyrna.” This

was how early Christians felt. The Church means leaving the past behind and

beginning a new future. From here we get the word parish in English, prikhod in

Russian, and paroisse in French.

In English, the word church can also translate the Greek word used in the

Septuagint for the Hebrew qahal, which means an assembly. But this was not just

any gathering. It meant the chosen people. Not everyone living in Jerusalem or

Palestine could belong to it—only the descendants of Abraham who accepted the

Law of Moses. In ancient Athens, ekklesia also meant the assembly of citizens, and

not everyone had the right to participate. Because of this, the word always kept a

sense of being chosen.

We have spoken about the meaning of the word “Church.” Now imagine

modern radio stations that send signals through waves from special points. In the

same way, we need the right spiritual “frequency” to connect to God’s wave—that

is, to the Church.

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Now let us speak about the attributes of the Church. The Church is one. It is

not one because we all vote together or smile nicely at each other. The Church is

one because it has one source. Its source, foundation, and head is Christ Himself.

The Church is born from above, from Christ. As Christ says to His apostles: “You

did not choose me, but I chose you.” The Church is not born from the earth; it

comes down from heaven, from the Lord, with His meaning and purpose.

This is clearly seen in Orthodox iconography. In Orthodox icons, figures are

not always drawn with perfect anatomy or natural proportions. Sometimes you see

long necks or unusual shapes of hands and bodies. These proportions may look

strange, but in the end, the icon appears harmonious. In early icon painting, the

painter first drew the outline and then filled it with details. This could cause some

distortion, but the final image was still harmonious.

The same is true of the Church. The unity of the Church is created and given

by Christ. Christ is the head, and we are the body. We enter into Christ’s outline

with our imperfect and unbalanced human forms.

In John 20:23, Jesus says to His disciples: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins

are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” What do these

words mean for the Church? To whom does Jesus say this, and why? Some say this

applies only to the apostles and their successors, the bishops. Others say it is said

to all Christians: what you do with your soul will reach heaven. This also sounds

logical.

However, Church history shows us that what happens on earth is not always

immediately confirmed in heaven. Two simple examples can be given. Saint

Nicholas of Myra was once removed from the priesthood at the First Ecumenical

Council. Those who know his life understand this story. According to tradition,

Christ and the Mother of God appeared and intervened, and his episcopal dignity

was restored. We may not have many historical documents, and the story may be

partly legendary, but it is meaningful.

Another example is Saint John Chrysostom, whose Divine Liturgy we

celebrate. He was removed from his position as bishop. Similar things happened

many times in Church history—in Georgia, Greece, Russia, and elsewhere. Even in

the twentieth century, there were anathemas in the Church.

Why do I mention this? Because the Church can visibly make mistakes. But

such decisions are not final judgments. God may not agree with them. Later, the

Church often re-examined these decisions, removed anathemas, restored people,

and even canonized them. This happened with Saint John Chrysostom. In the West,

we see the same with Joan of Arc, who was condemned and later canonized as a

saint.

God is more merciful than our human declarations. On Mount Athos and in

some Churches—such as in Georgia, Serbia, Russia, and Romania—Catholics and

Protestants are sometimes baptized again. This shows how seriously the Church

understands its calling, its unity, and its holiness. In America, however, we receive

people through chrismation, and this is also a Church tradition. I will not go deeply

into this topic now, because we will need to speak about the sacraments in detail

another time.

Now imagine this picture, and why the Church is important, why

understanding the true Church matters. From the early centuries, when debates and

conflicts began, churches opposed one another and separated from the true source.

As a result, people in later generations were born into these mistaken views, and

the earlier history became unknown to them.

Imagine that two Orthodox Christians argued, and one of them became

Catholic or Protestant. Then he founded a church, and the people living in that

region continued their religious life under his authority. They did not know what

had happened or what had changed. They liked their pastor and his teaching and

simply followed him blindly, without noticing much difference. Often, divisions

were caused by personal conflicts between individuals, not by the true essence of

faith itself.

There are mistakes—real theological mistakes—but they do not always

destroy a person’s spiritual life immediately. Saint Theophan said that Catholics

and Protestants are like people with sick lungs, like tuberculosis. A person with

tuberculosis is alive, not dead. The illness is serious, breathing is difficult, but life

is still there.

Dogma and canon law are not the same. The Church has dogma, and it also

has canon law. Dogma includes truths such as Christ being one and the Holy

Trinity. For example, if my finger is cut off—whether by accident or by choice—

that finger no longer belongs to my body. In the same way, a person who separates

from the Church, for any reason, cannot be part of the Church, just as a finger

cannot live apart from the hand.

The Church says that if for three weeks a person does not receive

Communion, that person is no longer living as a member of the Church and needs

repentance. At the same time, there are canonical rules. Saint Basil says that there

are different rules and different ways of receiving Christians into the Church, and

he admits that he does not fully understand why it happens this way. Still, he says

that he trusts the wisdom and decisions of his predecessors. These rules were not

created by us; they come from the Lord.

Canonically, the Church has used three ways of receiving people: baptism,

chrismation, and repentance. All three are valid and truly Christian. Outside the

Church, there is no salvation, and without the Church, there are no sacraments.

The Church recognizes three orders: bishop, priest, and deacon. The Church is not

holy because of us; the Church is holy because of Christ. The word “holy” itself

has a history. It originally meant “set apart,” “chosen,” or “separated” for a special

purpose. A holy cup was used for holy service. Holy land, holy Israel, holy service

—these were not called holy because the people were without sin. There were

sinners then, and there always will be. The meaning is that God has His own vision

for humanity: being chosen for a special service. This was the Old Testament

understanding.

In the New Testament, holiness receives a new meaning. What is holy is

what is purified by the Holy Spirit. In this sense, the Church is holy. But holiness

does not work automatically. The Church is holy, but this does not mean that every

Christian is holy.

During the Soviet period, the martyr Saint Valentina Sventsitskaya wrote:

“Every sin committed in the Church is a sin against the Church, but not a sin of the

Church.” I remember a book that I probably would not read again now that I try to

live more consciously as a Christian, though I still read all kinds of books for

analysis and growth. That book was The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

In The Decameron, there is a story set in Paris in the 14th century. Two

friends live there: one is French and Christian, the other is Jewish. The Christian

wants very much to convert his Jewish friend. One day they actually choose a date

for baptism. Suddenly, the Jewish man says he does not want to be baptized yet. He

wants to go to Rome first. He says he has heard many things about the Church

there—about bishops and priests—and wants to see everything with his own eyes.

The French friend knows very well that at that time many priests were not living

good lives, and that such a journey might harm his friend spiritually. He asks him

not to go. But the Jewish man insists and goes anyway. After six months, he

returns. The French friend no longer speaks about baptism, but the Jewish man

says: “When will I be baptized?”

The Frenchman is surprised and asks, “You want to be baptized? You were

in Rome? You saw the bishops? You saw the priests? You saw how they live?”

“Yes,” he answers.

“And still you want to be baptized?”

“Of course,” he says. “Priests may sometimes do things that damage the

Church, but the Church is still alive. That means the Church is from God, not from

them.”

This is exactly the point. The Church is holy because God is holy. The

Church is given by a testament, not by agreement. An agreement needs two sides,

and it can be broken if one side refuses to keep it. But a testament is given freely

by the one who leaves it. You cannot refuse it. Christ gave us His blood, His body,

His Church.

The Lord said: “I am with you always, until the end of the world.” What

does this mean? It means that He remains with us always—despite our falls,

despite our rejection of Him, despite our forgetting Him. In spite of everything, He

is with us.

There are many such stories in the Church. That is why Saint Ephrem the

Syrian writes: “Every Church is an ekklesia of the repentant. Every Church is a

Church of sinners.” There is strength, and there is weakness. Strength is when we

understand the true nature of the Church. Weakness is when we want to keep living

with our sins and do not plan to change anything.

The holy apostles were not tolerant of sin, but they were tolerant of the sinner—of

the repentant sinner. If this were not so, they would not have been killed

everywhere they went. People sometimes imagine that the Church is united

because everyone votes together at councils. But this is not true. Conciliarity and

democracy are not the same thing. Christianity cannot be a democratic religion,

simply because it is a revealed religion. It is not created by people; it is given by

God.

When we say that the Church or the bishops are successors of the apostles,

what do we mean? If we read the New Testament, especially the letters, we see that

Timothy and Titus were not mainly tasked with preaching like the apostles. Their

role was administrative and organizational. They supervised the Church. But we do

not see Peter or Paul saying to them: “Go now and continue my line of preaching.”

The apostle preaches, founds a Church, appoints a bishop, and then continues his

journey and his preaching.