A.

Early Christian Church

B. Orthodox Ecclesiology
C. Ecumenism
D. Roman Catholic Church
A. Early Christian Church
Christianity began as a movement
within Judaism at a period when the Jews
had long been dominated culturally and
politically by foreign powers.When the
emperor Constantine recognized Christianity
as the official state religion early in the fourth
century, Christians were able to practice their
faith openly.
Whereas before they had met in secret in the
catacombs and in other non-public places, they
were now free to act as an organized and
recognized religion. The first Christian meeting
places were private houses and it was only
when the religious ritual became more
formalized that a special building was needed.
 The long rectangular form of the civil
basilica was easily adapted for this use,
although some changes had to be made. The
basilica was basically a meeting house where
large groups could be accommodated to
conduct business and carry on other civil
functions, although some changes had to be
made to the form for its new religious purpose.
One of the best
examples of an early
Christian basilica was
the original Church of
St. Peter in Rome.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RELIGION AND CULT
A religion belongs to the wider culture;
its adherents come and go freely. A cult
tends to be counter-cultural, restricting the
social life of its adherents to other cult
members. The key characteristic of a cult is
the axis mundi, the shamanic leader at the
center of the organization.
B. Orthodox Ecclesiology
Eastern Orthodoxy, official name
Orthodox Catholic Church, one of the three
major doctrinal and jurisdictional groups of
Christianity. It is characterized by its
continuity with the apostolic church, its
liturgy, and its territorial churches. Its
adherents live mainly in the Balkans, the
Middle East, and former Soviet countries.
Nature and significance
Eastern Orthodoxy is the large body of
Christians who follow the faith and
practices that were defined by the first
seven ecumenical councils. The official
designation of the church in Eastern
Orthodox liturgical or canonical texts is
"the Orthodox Catholic Church.
These terms are sometimes misleading,
especially when applied to Russian or Slavic
churches and to the Orthodox communities
in western Europe and America.
It should also be noted that the Eastern
Orthodox Church constitutes a separate
tradition from the churches of the so-called
Oriental Orthodox Communion, now
including the Armenian Apostolic Church,
the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church,
the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Syriac
Orthodox Partriarchate of Antioch and All the
East, and the Malankara Orthodox Church of
India. From the time of the Council of
Chalcedon in 451 to the late 20th century, the
Oriental Orthodox churches were out of
communion with the Roman Catholic Church
and later the Eastern Orthodox
Church because of a perceived difference
in doctrine regarding the divine and
human natures of Jesus. This changed in
the 1950s, when both churches
independently began dialogue with the
Oriental Orthodox churches and resolved
many of the ancient Christological
disputes.
C.
• Ecumenism
The word ecumenism comes from a
family of Classical Greek words: oikos,
meaning a “house,” “family,” “people,” or
“nation”; oikoumenē, “the whole inhabited
world”; and oikoumenikos, “open to or
participating in the whole world.” Like many
biblical words, these were invested with
Christian meaning.
The word oikoumenē describes the place of
God’s reconciling mission (Matthew 24:14),
the unity of the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1) and
of the kingdoms of the earth (Luke 4:5), and
the world destined to be redeemed by Christ
(Hebrews 2:5). The vision of one church
serving God in the world came to reflect a
central teaching of the early Christian faith.
Ecumenism is a vision, a movement, a
theology, and a mode of action. It represents
the universality of the people of God and
affects the way Christians think about their
faith, the church, and the world. Ecumenism is
a long process that draws Christians together,
uniting their life and mission and bringing the
Body of Christ and the human community
closer to the fulfillment of God’s purposes.
Those involved in ecumenism participate in
ideas, activities, and institutions that express
a spiritual reality of shared love in the church
and the human community. Ecumenism is
characterized by the work of officially
organized ecumenical bodies, the confessing
and witnessing of Christians in local places,
and the spirituality and actions of those who
live together in love and prophetic
proclamation.
Far more than a program or an organization,
ecumenism is, according to the British
ecumenist Oliver S. Tomkins, “something
that happens to the soul of Christians.
The biblical perspective
• The unity of the church and of all creation is a
dominant motif in the Bible. This witness begins
in the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures), not the
New Testament. As attested in the Bible, God
established a covenant with the Hebrew people
and gathered the disparate tribes into one
religious nation, Israel, taking steps to overcome
the alienation between God and humans and to
reconcile God’s people.
The tradition of ancient Judaism, therefore,
was based on the reality of the one people
of God. Their unity was an expression of
their monotheistic faith, the oneness of God.
According to Genesis, God created the
world as one cosmos, an ordered unity
determined by one single will in which all
creatures are responsive to the purposes of
the Creator.
D. Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic church based in the

Vatican and led by the Pope, is the largest of
all branches of Christianity. Roman
Catholicism itself maintains that the Roman
Catholic Church was established by Christ
when he gave direction to the Apostle Peter
as the head of the church.
The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic
Church is the Christian Church in full
communion with the Bishop of Rome,
currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its
origins to the original Christian community
founded by Jesus Christ and led by the
Twelve Apostles, in particular Saint Peter.
The Catholic Church is the largest Christian
Church and the largest organized body of any
world religion.[1] The majority of its
membership is in Latin America, Africa, and
Asia. As the oldest branch of Christianity, the
history of the Catholic Church plays an
integral part of the History of Christianity as a
whole. Over time, schisms have disrupted the
unity of Christianity.
The major divisions occurred in 318 C.E. with
Arianism, in 1054 with the East-West Schism with
the Eastern Orthodox Church and in 1517 with
the Protestant Reformation. the official beginning
of the Roman Catholic church occurred in 590
CE, with Pope Gregory I. Catholic (katholikos in
Greek) with a small c means universal or not
narrow-minded, partial, or bigoted. There are an
estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the
world, according to Vatican figures (2013)
The Roman Catholic Church traces its
history to Jesus Christ and the Apostles.
Over the course of centuries it developed a
highly sophisticated theology and an
elaborate organizational structure headed
by the papacy, the oldest continuing
absolute monarchy in the world.