SL 28 (1998) 32-45

The Theological Dimension of Liturgical Music

from an Orthodox Perspective

by

Dimitrije Stefanovic*

Within a chronological historical framework, we shall discuss some theo­

logical and liturgical developments in the early church and Byzantium. The
theological dimension will also be considered from personal practical expe­
rience gathered in the course of decades of active engagement in the Church.
Finally, some perspectives of future development based on the thoughts of
three outstanding scholars and hierarchs will be outlined. In the appendix,
a brief overview of Byzantium is offered.

I. Introduction

The Orthodox liturgy always represents our service to God. The liturgical
action expressed by word and beautified by music constitutes the basic power
of Orthodox worship. Liturgical music represents an integral part of Ortho­
dox music. Music aims to glorify the Creator by supporting the meaning of
the texts. The word “Orthodoxy” has the double meaning of “right belief”
and “right glory.” The Orthodox Church is a family of self-governing churches.
It is held together, not by a centralized organization, but by a double bond
of unity in the faith and communion in the sacraments.1 The liturgy—the
heart of the Church’s prayer—is celebrated by all Orthodox Christians in the
same way, with only minor variations in practice, each church using its own
liturgical language and music; it is the expression of the faith in prayer and
worship which they hold in common.
The tradition of faith set forth by the church Fathers is held to be the
authoritative expression of Orthodox belief. In a hymn in honor of the Fathers
of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (held in Nicaea in 787), the following

* Dimitrije Stefanovic is Director of the Institute of Musicology, Knez Mihailova 35, YU-11001
Belgrad, Yugoslavia.
1 The national churches of Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia are autocephalous, with
their own patriarchs; the Ecumenical Patriarch is primus inter pares—first among equals.

32
sentence is relevant: “they presented the mystery of theology to the Church.”
Answering the question “why does man need music?” the Fathers explained
that music is a means to understand God’s wisdom better. Within the litur­
gical tradition there is another dimension, that of the theological meeting, i.e.,
a searching for the link and unity with the divine. The religious authorities,
the hymnographers, the “melodoi” and the “maistores” had a common goal:
to meet God through word and music.2
Orthodox hymnography represents significant constitutive elements of
Orthodox worship, art, and culture. In this rich hymnography, often para­
phrasing the events from the Bible concerning the feast day or the life of a
saint, the theology of the Orthodox Church is vividly and poetically ex­
pressed. Poetry and music are intimately linked together: the melodies receive
their expression and rhythmical nuances from the text. The Church’s hymn
is a copy of the heavenly “archetype.”3

II. The Early Church

Constant research has gradually unveiled what was sung in the early church.
Apart from the Bible, the other sources are the writings of the patristic church
Fathers, in which information about music appears mainly as “incidental
remarks in some lengthy work on an entirely different subject,”4 5in addition
to conclusions of the seven Ecumenical Councils, church edicts, and synodal
and patriarchal letters. However, these not easily accessible different docu­
ments also contain philosophical discussions and allegorical interpretations.

2 It is interesting to quote a western view of the hymn which is similar to what was already
mentioned: “a hymn was meant to lead to a transcending experience into the realm of the divine”
(Christian Buners, “Theologische Programme und Probleme im Kirchengesang des 19. Jahr-
hunderts,” IAH Bulletin 22 [1994] 11-35).
3 Alexander Schmemann, Introduction to Liturgical Theology (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s
Seminary Press 1986) 168.
4 James W. McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni­
versity Press 1987) vii. In his most interesting review of Aime Georges Martimort, Les lectures
liturgiques et leurs livres (Turnhout: Brepols 1992), published in Plainsong and Medieval Music
5 (1996) 226, McKinnon estimates that there are somewhere between 400 and 500 relevant texts
from that time which ought to be studied. The relevant evidence from the fourth and earlier fifth
century is surprisingly abundant. This is the peak period of patristic production, the age of Basil,
John Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine. The need for a systematic research is also
expressed by E. Gercman in Vizantijskoe muzikoznanie (Leningrad 1988), especially in chapter
II, “On Byzantine patristics and (the science of) music.”

33
Scattered over many manuscripts or books, they speak mainly about the
practice which had already taken place.
Psalms, in which the spirit of prayer is embodied, is the Old Testament book
most frequently cited in the New Testament. Two well-known verses from
Paul’s letters are often quoted: “speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and
spiritual songs; sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19);
“sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God”
(Col. 3:16). The phrase “in your hearts” means “with understanding, not so
that the mouth utters words while the mind is inattentive, wandering in all
directions, but so that the mind may hear the tongue.” J. A. Smith deals in
detail with this question and in the appendix to his study gives a useful list
of upvoq, (oSf| v|/aX.po<; and their cognate forms in the Septuagint and in the
Greek New Testament. He concludes: “given that Christianity originated
within Judaism, it seems a reasonable assumption that the singing of the
earliest Christians originated in Jewish singing. But this is an assumption
precisely because there is insufficient evidence available from the first century
to confirm it as fact.”5
An important selection of early Christian authors’ views on music, pub­
lished by Oliver Strunk, includes some relevant quotations on psalms.56 Basil
the Great (330-378) speaks about the “harmonious melodies of the Psalms”:
“a psalm forms friendships, unites the divided, mediates between enemies; a
psalm, a musical word is the voice of the church. The singing of psalms brings
love, the greatest of good things . . . uniting the people in the symphony of
a single choir.”7 John Chrysostom, “the golden mouthed” (c. 345-407), says:
“God established the psalms, in order that singing might be both a pleasure
and a help; the Holy Spirit descends swiftly upon the mind of the singer. For
those who sing with understanding invoke the grace of the Spirit. One may
also sing without voice, the mind resounding inwardly. For we sing not to
men, but to God, who can hear our hearts and enter into the silences of our
minds.”8 Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus, c. 340-420) comments: “How the
psalm, the hymn, and the song differ from one another we learn most fully

5 J. A. Smith, “First-Century Christian Singing and Its Relationship to Contemporary

Jewish Religious Song,” Music and Letters 75 (1994) 14-15.
6 Oliver Strunk, Source Readings in Music History from Classical Antiquity through the
Romantic Era, New York: Norton 1950. See also McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature.
1 Homily on the First Psalm, in Strunk, Source Readings in Music History, 65.
8 Exposition of Psalm XLI, in Strunk, Source Readings in Music History, 68.

34
in the Psalter. Hymns declare the power and majesty of the Lord and
continually praise his works and favors. We ought to sing and to make melody
and to praise the Lord more with the heart than with the voice.”9
However, the presence of psalms in Christian worship is not explicitly noted
before the end of the second century. James W. McKinnon, in his lengthy and
well documented contribution on early psalmody, concludes that “daily syna­
gogue psalmody as generally understood was not instituted until several
centuries into the Christian era.”10 Evidence for responding to psalms with
“alleluia,” a part of Jewish practice, is clear in the second and third centu­
ries.11 It is from the fourth century that the practice of psalm singing in the
liturgy during the communion is attested.
Monastic chant has its origins in the primitive psalmody of the early
Egyptian and Palestinian desert communities that arose in the fourth to sixth
centuries. The primary purpose of the monastic services was meditation. The
desert monastic office was marked by its lack of ceremony. Later on, monastic
establishments developed in urban centers and absorbed some of the features
of cathedral liturgy, such as music and ceremonial. It was the use of the
Psalter which identified whether a service followed the monastic or the secular
urban pattern. In urban services a great deal of emphasis was placed on active
congregational participation.12
During the first two centuries only the core of the liturgy was in existence.
At the beginning of the fifth century the eucharist was celebrated in Constan­
tinople with its early simplicity. The structure of the rite was clearly visible.
The evidence exists to establish the broad shape of the liturgy and the part

9 Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, in Strunk, Source Readings in Music
History, 71-2.
10 James W. McKinnon, “On the Question of Psalmody in the Ancient Synagogue,” Early
Music History 6 (1986) 190.
11 Edward Foley, Foundations of Christian Music: The Music of Pre-Constantinian Christi­
anity (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press 1996) 101.
12 Dimitri Coromos, “The Musical Tradition of Mount Athos,” Sourozh: A Journal of Ortho­
dox Life and Thought 68 (1997) 17, includes another interesting detail: “About eight years ago
a lyrical melody set to a religious poem by St Nektarios of Aegina was composed by a monk
at Simonopetra and subsequently recorded on cassette tape. Within two years this melody
circled the globe. It has captured the hearts of Orthodox choir masters worldwide. The hymn,
entitled ‘O pure virgin,’ can today be heard sung in Japanese, French, Tinglit, Italian, Russian,
Swahili, Arabic, Romanian, English, Serbian and many other languages. Its popularity is entirely
due to the fact that it combines familiar elements of two different musical cultures: the harmonic
and metrical features of European lyrical ballads with the vocal production and exoticism that
evoke a flavor of the East.”

35
part that psalmody and hymnody played in it for a number of important
ecclesiastical centers at the turn of the fifth century.13

III. Later Liturgical Development

By the fourth century, Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch were centers of

liturgical influence for their surrounding neighbors. Jerusalem rose to rapid
prominence. After the fourth century a change in the function of the
Church’s chanting took place. Chanting received a new place in the general
structure of worship. A singing quality was assigned to almost every word
pronounced in the church. In earlier times chant played the same role in the
service as prayers, psalms, and litanies. Now the concept of chanting is set in
contrast to reading.
But in the intervening two centuries a number of additions were made to
the order of service both in Constantinople and in other churches. In the fifth
century, a psalm, followed by a refrain, or troparion, was introduced to
accompany the entry of the clergy to the church in Constantinople and of the
people after them. Early in the sixth century the refrain to the entry chant
in Constantinople was the Trisagion. In time the Trisagion, detached from any
psalm, became a fixed chant in the liturgy. Byzantine interpretation of the
Trisagion referred it to the Trinity: “Holy God” to the Father, “holy and
strong” to the Son, “holy and immortal” to the Spirit. The Christian belief
that God is Trinity is always present. It is interesting to note that the words
of the Trisagion are included in hymns for different feasts in Byzantine
manuscripts with neumatic notation.
The Great Church of Hagia Sophia in the splendor of Constantinople was
dedicated by Justinian in 537. To him is attributed the sixth-century hymn
“O monogenes Ios” (“only-begotten Son”), still sung at the liturgy. Byzantine
emperors and the hierarchy wanted to beautify the worship within impressive
architectural foundations, frescoes, and icons. Later in the sixth century the
present Cherubic Hymn was added. The Cherubic Hymn urges the worshipers
to lay aside every worldly care so as to be ready to receive Christ in
communion.14
The eighth century was a turning point in the development of Byzantine
worship. It witnessed the controversy over the veneration of icons which
lasted for some 120 years. The Iconoclast controversy (746-846) began as a

13 Hugh Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy (London: SPCK 1989) 84.

14 Ibid., 76-7.

36
conflict over the popular custom of paying reverence to icons. In 726 the
Emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of sacred images. Later the contro­
versy developed into a political struggle: the Isaurian emperors attempted to
place the Orthodox Church under the power of the state. The opposition of
the monks of the monasteries in Palestine and those of the Studios monastery
in Constantinople finally triumphed, icons were reinstated, and in 843 the
Patriarch of Constantinople Methodios introduced the Feast of Orthodoxy
which is celebrated on the First Sunday in Lent.15
Codex Barberini (c. 800) represents the early evidence for the text of the
liturgy. It contains prayers used by the celebrant for the liturgies of Basil and
John Chrysostom. The worship of the Church was becoming more and more
uniform, spreading to the new churches founded among the Slav peoples. The
Byzantine liturgy—the rite of the Great Church of Constantinople—had become
the Orthodox liturgy.
The basic and constitutive form of Orthodox hymnography is the tropar-
ion. Originally a short prayer sung after each verse of a psalm, it was later
composed in strophic form and is known to have formed part of Matins and
Vespers in churches and monasteries in the fifth century. Troparia developed
later into longer forms of kontakia, and kontakia into canons. The increased
number of hymns included also sticheria. Consequently hymns took a central
place in the liturgical life of the Church. This rapid growth of hymnody led
to the transformation of chant into a complex stratum in the Church’s
liturgical tradition and also to the introduction of neumatic notation.

IV. Oral Tradition

The transmission of liturgical chant through oral tradition is very well

represented in the services of the Orthodox Church. In all Orthodox churches
the chant is based upon the system of melodic formulae. Monks in monas­
teries, priests and lay people in churches, and pupils in schools fit and adapt
the melodic formulae of the eight modes which they know by heart to the
texts in manuscripts and liturgical books without the help of musical nota­
tion. Often these texts are written or printed in an abbreviated form. Just the
reading, let alone the singing, requires knowledge and experience. This, let
us call it, “pre-notation” period is still used among those who do not read
music. However, such a procedure represents a kind of creative act. When the

15 For more information on the Iconoclast controversy see Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy.

37
singer takes care about clear pronunciation of the sung text there is a positive
effect on the congregation. The important and intriguing question of creative
oral tradition still occupies the attention of scholars both in the East and in
the West.

V. Musical Aspects

The only musical fragment notated with Greek letters—the Oxyrhynchus

hymn—is preserved on a papyrus dating from the end of the third century.16
It contains the closing words and music of a hymn to the Trinity. The struc­
ture of the Oxyrhynchus hymn is built up from melodic formulae, a principle
of composition characteristic of the Ambrosian, Gregorian, Byzantine, and
Slavonic melodies. No other musical document is known until the earliest
Byzantine musical manuscript with notation from the middle of the tenth
century. Although the texts of some early Christian hymns are known, their
melodic structure is not.
Services are always sung or chanted, never read. Four aspects characterize
the Byzantine chant: sacred, vocal, monodic, and modal character. The vocal
chant without instrumental accompaniment suffices to praise God and joins
the different parts of worship into union. Evidence for unison congregational
singing is rooted in the patristic notion of “singing with one voice.”17
For the musical expression of the words, two different ways of performance
are required: the soloistic (the celebrant) and choral.18 Instruments played no
significant role in the Christian worship of the second and third centuries.
Christians laid emphasis on vocal music, and they were concerned to distin­
guish their worship practices from those of pagans. However, much later
representations of instruments on frescoes, icons, and miniatures are found.
Byzantine chant is preserved in manuscripts with different phases of nota­
tion from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries. Byzantine musical notation
existed in two independent systems already by 963: a simple type which was
mostly likely created in Palestine, presumably at the monastery of Mar Saba,

16 Foley (Foundations of Christian Music, 100) comments: “The Oxyrhynchus hymn takes
its name from Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), an archaeological site in Egypt where many thousands
of Greek, Latin, Coptic and Arabic documents were discovered between 1897 and 1907.”
17 Foley, Foundations of Christian Music, 101-2.
18 When we turn to the system of Slavonic Orthodox liturgical music, two kinds of music can
be distinguished: canonical (textus receptus) and “free,” composed mainly for choirs. A general
characteristic of all canonical chants is their asymmetrical rhythm, depending on the free
rhythm of the text. It is then the text which dictates the musical element. The canonical repertory
contains different chants. Quite the opposite procedure is used in non-canonical “free” com­
positions where the musical elements dictate the use of the text.

38
and a more complex type of a slightly later date, used in urban ecclesiastical
centers such as Constantinople and Thessalonika.19
After the fall of Constantinople, a way for the influence of Oriental ele­
ments was opened, introducing nasal voice production, augmented intervals,
accidentals, and irrational non-tempered intervals. Byzantine music flour­
ished, however, on the island of Crete. But in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries the art declined as a whole until a revival took place at the end of
the seventeenth century.
Unlike the western tradition, where there are marked differences among
certain orders, rites, and kinds of chant, the Orthodox tradition is fairly
uniform. It is not surprising therefore to find manuscripts written in any of
these scriptoria containing almost exactly the same melodies.
Commenting on “the symbolic use of the Greek language in Latin cere­
monies, the numerous literal translations into Latin from the Greek hym-
nographers, even those exceptional cases in which the translated Greek text
has actually carried its Greek melody with it,” Oliver Strunk points out:
The underlying point of contact is the eight mode system which implies:
the diatonic basis, the possibility of transposition to the fourth and fifth,
the use of characteristic opening and cadential patterns, and the cen-
tonate construction. The essential identity of the two modal systems—
eastern and western—is confirmed by the musical theorists of the early
Middle Ages who also tell us in plain language that the western modes
are of eastern origin.20

The echoi (modes) in Byzantine music should be thought of not merely as

scales in the modern sense, but as groups of melodies of a certain type built
upon a number of basic melodic formulae which characterize the modes.
The most important scriptoria and libraries are the Palestinian monastery
of St Sabas; the monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai; those in Jeru­
salem, Constantinople, and Mount Athos and in the major Greek, Russian,
Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Serbian monasteries; and Grottaferatta
near Rome.21

19 See Coromos, “The Musical Tradition of Mount Athos,” 9-17.

20 Oliver Strunk, “The Influence of the Liturgical Chant of the East on that of the Western
Church,” in Strunk (ed.), Essays on Music in the Byzantine World (New York: W. W. Norton &
Company 1977) 151-6. Strunk (153) cites Aurelian of R6om6, Musica Disciplina (c. 843);
Hucbald (c. 840-930), Musica enchiriadis; and Guido of Arezzo (first quarter of the eleventh
century), Micrologus.
21 In 1004 a Basilian monk, Nilus the Younger, founded a monastery at Grottaferrata, near
Rome. It became the center of Byzantine ecclesiastical life in Italy.

39
 A few words about Mount Athos. Monastic life began on Athos in the year
963. Today in the seventeen Greek and three Slavonic monasteries there are
about 12,000 manuscripts of which some 3,000 are musical, and 90 per cent
of them date from the sixteenth century and later. No doubt they represent
an important source for the evolution of Byzantine musical style, but also of
the Byzantine liturgy. Only about 400 have actually been studied by musi­
cologists. So far three volumes of a projected eight-volume series of cata­
logues have been produced by the Athenian musicologist Grigorios Stathis.
Many Athonite manuscripts are also preserved in a number of European
libraries. Some fifty manuscripts from the biggest monastery of the Great
Lavra are now in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, and seventy are in
the Fonds Coislin of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Some are in the
British Museum. Of the many more manuscripts taken by various monks,
priests, and merchants at different times, some 400 are preserved in the
Synodal Library in Moscow.22

VI. The Calendar and the Most Important Liturgical Books

In the church “let all be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40). In the
liturgical life the fulfilment of the Typikon is prescribed. One part of it is the
calendar. The Orthodox church calendar follows the Julian-termed old style
which is in the twentieth century thirteen days behind the Gregorian one
known as new style.
The church calendar combines the Menaia and the Pashalia. The Menaia
concern each day of the church year on which either a feast or commemo­
ration of saints is celebrated. These days always fall on the same date and are
immovable. The Pashalia concerns the movable date of the feast of Easter.
This date depends on the position of the moon: Easter falls on the first Sunday
after the first full moon following the spring equinox (21 March by the old
style). The date of Easter regulates the movable periods of seven weeks before
it—the Triodion—and the fifty days after it—the Pentekostarion. Of the
liturgical books used for singing the most important are the Oktoechos, the
twelve Menaia, the Triodion, and the Pentekostarion.

VII. The Interpretation of the Liturgy

Origen’s teaching about the Christian mystery and the liturgy was devel­
oped by Dionysius in the fifth century. The earthly liturgy is a reflection of
the heavenly; the goal of Christian life is union with God.

22 Coromos, “The Musical Tradition of Mount Athos,” 6.

40
 The first full-scale interpretation of the liturgy in Constantinople was
provided by Maximus the Confessor in his Mystagogia (between 628-630).
Writing for monks, Maximus made frequent use of terms “figure,” “image,”
and “symbol” to point to the presence of mystery. The liturgy represents the
whole history of God’s saving plan, from the incarnation to the second coming
of Christ.
The Ecclesiastical History and Mystical Contemplation of Germanos I,
Patriarch of Constantinople (715-730), written for lay people, is one of the
chief sources of information about the liturgy in the eighth and ninth centuries.
It also points to the symbolism of the liturgy in representing the passion,
death, and resurrection of Christ.23
The interpretation of the liturgy was given its final form in the fifteenth
century by Symeon, Archbishop of Thessalonika (j 1429) in his treatise On
the Holy Liturgy: “For we have not added anything new to what has been
handed on, nor have we changed what we have received. We celebrate the
liturgy as it has been given to us by the Savior and the apostles and the
Fathers”24

VIII. Practical Experience

Being active in the Serbian and Russian Orthodox Church for many years
as conductor, singer, and reader, I want to share with you my experience
concerning the theological dimension. In both churches we use the church-
Slavonic language of the Russian redaction. Most of the sung texts are successful
translations from the Greek original. It is a relatively recent development
that the litanies, the epistle, and the gospel, and indeed the whole liturgy, are
chanted in the vernacular.
Active participation should be the aim during the singing or reading. Both
the conductor and the singers should know and try to understand the meaning
of the sung texts and become aware of their own active participation within
the liturgy. This requires constant concentration. Since the sung liturgy lasts
about one hour and thirty minutes, concentration cannot be held throughout,

23 A Latin version was sent to Charles the Bald by the Roman Anastasius the Librarian, who
spent some time in Constantinople in 869-870.
24 It is interesting to add John of Damascus’ pronouncement on the transformation of the
elements at the eucharist: “If you enquire how this happens, it is enough for you to learn that
it is through the Holy Spirit... we know nothing more than this, that the word of God is true,
active and omnipotent, but in its manner of operation unsearchable,” cited by Timothy Ware,
The Orthodox Church (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books 1976) 292.

41
especially in the view of the many repetitions of litanies. In these litanies the
priest calls the people to pray for the various needs of the Church and the
world. However, during the most important part—when the priest invokes the
Holy Spirit to come down and consecrate the holy gifts (bread and wine)—the
singing can result in an emotional uplifting which unites the celebrant, the
singers, and the congregation. Sometimes even the feeling of the presence of
the Holy Spirit can be experienced. These moments can indeed be inspiring.
It is expected that the conductor know the order of the liturgy of St John
Chrysostom, which is generally celebrated on Sundays and feast days
throughout the year. However, ten times a year the older and longer liturgy
of St Basil the Great is celebrated.
In recent times an overall interest and participation of young people,
mainly students, can be observed. Experience shows that singers have been
“touched” by the “theological dimension” and are interested to deepen their
knowledge of the liturgy. This is very encouraging. Here we come to the
important role and responsibility of both the priest and conductor. So much
depends on the leader of these young people. Someone unfamiliar with the
Orthodox Church may think that since the liturgy is sung by the clergy and
the choir, the remaining congregation does not participate in the service.
Participation need not always be active. But the opposite of active need not
be passive; it can be contemplative.
In the Russian church the whole congregation sings the Creed, the Lord’s
Prayer, and some other prayers. This church cares for the church-musical
education of conductors (among whom many are female). The Russian
church has also the centuries-long tradition of having the staretsy—the spiri­
tual fathers who lead those who need or want to be guided.

IX. Conclusion

The Orthodox liturgy is a major contribution to Christian culture. Its clear

and poetic language has continued to inspire Christian poetry and literature
for many centuries. When considering the role of liturgical music in the
Orthodox Church, it can be concluded that a) it was and remains a consti­
tutive element of Orthodox worship; b) it contributes to the beauty of the
liturgy; c) it plays an educative and spiritual role among the faithful, musi­
cally underlining eternal messages of poetically inspired liturgical texts; and
d) it enriches the spiritual and cultural heritage of different Orthodox Chris­
tian peoples and thus becomes part of European art and culture. Orthodox

42
church music today continues and renews its centuries-old manifold role by
transmitting its tradition to the younger generation. Singing church music
with faith and understanding helps to make contact with the unseen but
always present God.
Let us now turn to the future, based on thoughts about Orthodoxy and
different Christian traditions from three scholars and hierarchs: one Anglican
priest and two Orthodox bishops.
Father Hugh Wybrew, Anglican canon at St Mary Magdalene, Oxford:
“Many Christians are coming to realize that each of the different traditions
within the Church of Christ has something to contribute to the whole Body,
and needs what others can give. The Orthodox church holds fast to the primacy
of worship in the Christian life, and that itself is a necessary witness”25
Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, Professor of Orthodox Theology, Ox­
ford: “[The Orthodox] claim a living continuity with the ancient Church, with
the Tradition of the Apostles and the Fathers, and they believe that... it is
their duty to bear witness to the unchanging Tradition. . . . They must under­
stand their own Tradition better than they have done in the past; and it is the
West in its turn which can help them to do this. Through contact with
Christians of the West. . . [the Orthodox] are being enabled to acquire a new
vision of Orthodoxy ... to look on the Fathers as a living reality.”26
The Russian Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, London: “Let us meet one
another, look at one another, listen to one another. Each of us has come from
another horizon, has come to the Gospel differently. Let us try to understand
more about what Christ has got to say to us from what others know, and not
only in words, but simply in contemplation of the faith, listening to the words,
paying attention to the manner, and thereby becoming richer and growing
into a togetherness of mutual gratitude and mutual love. Then we shall be
able to go back to our parishes, bringing to those who are not here what we
shall have gathered here. Bring to others who are around your parishes not
a message that will humiliate them, not in accusation of not being Orthodox,
but a sharing with them of all the glory, all the joy, all the beauty which we
will have experienced here and learned to appreciate.”27

25 The Orthodox Liturgy, 180.

26 Ware, The Orthodox Church, 333-4.
27 “Our Orthodox Presence in Great Britain,” in A Conference of the Diocese of Sourozh,
Headington 1935.

43
Appendix: Byzantium, A Brief Historical Overview

Byzantium represents a bridge between ancient and modern times: the

creator and codifier of laws and of religious, political, and social practices,
seeking to bring heaven to earth in its imperial order and its outpouring of
sacred art.
In 313 in Milan, Constantine issued the edict of toleration which trans­
formed the situation of Christians in the Roman Empire. From then on the
Church was under imperial patronage. Constantine, though not baptized
until the end of his life, came to be venerated as equal of the apostles.28
Christendom, a quarter of mankind, owes Constantine’s empire an enduring
debt for its spiritual and civic legacy. In 330 Constantine transferred and
solemnly inaugurated his capital to the small town of Byzantium, renamed
Constantinople, the New Rome. Situated on the European shore of Bosporus
and occupying an easily defended position, it was the ideal site for the capital
of an Empire which extended from Scotland to Egypt, from North Africa to
the Danube, from the Atlantic to Mesopotamia.
After the death of the prophet Muhammed in 632, Islamic Arabs con­
quered the territories of the ancient Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch,
and Jerusalem (Egypt, Syria, and Northern Africa). Consequently the Ortho­
dox churches found themselves increasingly under non-Christian rule. The
Balkans were gradually inhabited by the Slavs. By the ninth century the
Byzantine Empire had been reduced to the eastern Mediterranean territory
and Asia Minor. The smaller territory became united and reached its golden
era from c. 850-1050. During this period the Orthodox faith and Byzantine
culture were carried to the Slavs; they are still preserved in Russia, Romania,
Bulgaria, and Serbia. The inherent conservatism which increasingly charac­
terized the Byzantine church from the eighth century onwards was inherited
in full measure by the Slavonic churches.
In 1204 the well-known Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople and
divided the Empire between the Venetians and Genoese. The Byzantine
capital was regained in 1261. Crossing the Dardanelles, the Turks first settled
in Europe at Gallipoli in 1354. In 1389 the Serbs were defeated at the famous
Kossovo battle which gradually led to the Turkish occupation of Serbia
including present day Macedonia. By the second half of the fifteenth century
most of southeastern Europe was under the Ottoman rule. By the time

28 Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy, 27.

44
Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453,29 the eastern Roman Empire con­
sisted of little more than the city itself. Yet the empire encircled by enemies
endured for more than 1100 years. This occupation lasted for some five
hundred years.30 The liberation process began with uprising in Serbia in 1804
and in Greece in 1820. It ended only with the Balkan wars in 1912-1914.
It was the spiritual life and the living Orthodox faith which carried the
Byzantines and the Balkan Slavs through the trauma of Turkish occupation
and made possible the survival of their culture. Such historical circumstances
laid upon the Orthodox churches a twofold responsibility. Where the Church
could do little but worship in church buildings the liturgy became the expres­
sion of more than Christian religious devotion. The need to preserve national
as well as Christian tradition led to stronger conservatism in church life. As
Orthodoxy was central to Byzantium, monasticism, ever the conserver of
traditions, is the living heart of Orthodoxy.

29 The cross was removed from the top of Hagia Sophia, and the muezzin’s chant rang from
minarets rising over the Bosporus.
30 Not to forget that the Ottoman Turks twice besieged Vienna in 1529 and 1683 and extended
their rule over most of Hungary.

45
 License and Permissible Use Notice

These materials are provided to you by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) in
accordance with the terms of ATLA's agreements with the copyright holder or authorized distributor of
the materials, as applicable. In some cases, ATLA may be the copyright holder of these materials.

You may download, print, and share these materials for your individual use as may be permitted by the
applicable agreements among the copyright holder, distributors, licensors, licensees, and users of these
materials (including, for example, any agreements entered into by the institution or other organization
from which you obtained these materials) and in accordance with the fair use principles of United States
and international copyright and other applicable laws. You may not, for example, copy or email these
materials to multiple web sites or publicly post, distribute for commercial purposes, modify, or create
derivative works of these materials without the copyright holder's express prior written permission.

Please contact the copyright holder if you would like to request permission to use these materials, or
any part of these materials, in any manner or for any use not permitted by the agreements described
above or the fair use provisions of United States and international copyright and other applicable laws.
For information regarding the identity of the copyright holder, refer to the copyright information in
these materials, if available, or contact ATLA at products@atla.com.

Except as otherwise specified, Copyright © 2016 American Theological Library Association.