What's in a Name?
People are sometimes puzzled by the name of our community. Why would any church need such a long name? And what exactly do all those words mean? To explain our name, and to acquaint you a bit with who we are and what we are all about, we have prepared this article. If you find that it raises more questions or if you would like more information, please feel free to contact our priest, Father Alban West, either through his email link or by phone at (503) 957-8634 . He always welcomes inquiries about our community and our faith.
St. George
St. George is the patron of our parish. This means that not only is the church building named in his honor, but also that the members of our community look to him in a special way as our example of what it means to live faithfully as a Christian, as our protector, and as the one who intercedes (prays) constantly to God for us. St. George lived in the days when Christianity was still an illegal and persecuted religion within the Roman Empire. He was an officer in the army of the Emperor Diocletian. When that harsh ruler demanded that all his soldiers make sacrifice to the pagan gods, George refused and gave up his military commission rather than desert his faith. He was very outspoken in his condemnation of the persecution of the Christians, and for this reason, as well as for his persistence in his faith, he was subjected to many tortures by Diocletian´s agents. These tortures only increased his steadfastness, and his example converted many onlookers to Christianity. George was beheaded in Nicomedia in Asia Minor, around the year 303 A.D. The fame of St. George spread all over the East, and the Crusaders brought theirdevotion to the soldier saint back to Western Europe with them as well. He becamepatron saint of England, as he is also of Syria and Lebanon, where his fame isespecially great in the region around Beirut. The Emperor Constantine is said to have dedicated a church to him there not long after his martyrdom, and in later times he became a figure of devotion in the Middle East for Christians and Moslems alike. Over time, many fanciful stories came to be told about the exploits of St. George, who became a symbol of the struggle of Christianity against paganism. He is regarded as an image of the ongoing combat between good and evil. The dragon depicted in icons of St. George is said to be a symbol either of the Devil, of the pagan Roman Empire, or perhaps both. There is a special hymn (troparion) to St. George that we sing at every Divine Liturgy: As deliverer of captives and defender of the poor, healer of the infirm, champion of kings; victorious Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ our God, for our souls´ salvation. St. George is a protector of Christians and the patron of all who remain faithful to the truth in the midst of adversity. His feast day is celebrated on April 23.
Antiochian
“Antiochian” means “associated with, or belonging to, Antioch,” an ancient Syrian city that at the time of Christ was the third most important city in the Roman Empire. Antioch was one of the great centers of early Christianity; the Church there claims the Apostles Peter and Paul as its co-founders. There are references to the Christian community of Antioch throughout the Acts of the Apostles. Because of the great importance of his city and the Apostolic foundation of the Church there, the Bishop (“Overseer”) of the Christians in Antioch came in time to serve an important administrative and leadership role in the Church throughout the whole region of Syria. Together with the Bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Jerusalem he was regarded as one of the five most important guardians and teachers of the Christian faith. These five ancient Christian centers came to be called “Patriarchates” and their bishops were given the title of “Patriarch” (“Venerable Father”). To this day these ancient Patriarchates (with the exception of Rome, which broke away from the Orthodox Church in the Middle Ages) serve as the leading centers of the Church worldwide. Throughout history, the Christians of Antioch and its surrounding regions have remained faithful in their teaching and practice of the original, Apostolic Christian faith despite domination by a multitude of non-Christian civil rulers. By the sixteenth century the city of Antioch had been reduced to a small town by numerous sieges and earthquakes. At that time the administrative center of the Patriarchate of Antioch was transferred to Damascus, Syria. Between 1724 and 1899, the Patriarch of Antioch as well as all the bishops of the Patriarchate were ethnic Greeks, appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople. At the beginning of this century, however, the leadership of the Church passed back into the hands of Arab Christians and contemporary Arabic, the language of the people, replaced Greek as the official language of the Patriarchate. Building upon this foundation, the Patriarchate has championed the use of English in Orthodox worship in places where this is the language of the people. Today the Patriarch of Antioch leads a Christian flock that extends not only throughout Syria and Lebanon, but which is firmly established as well in immigrant and convert communities throughout the Western world. Antiochian Christians in the United States are led by His Eminence, the Most Rev. PHILIP Saliba, Metropolitan Archbishop of New York and all North America.
Orthodox
The Orthodox Church is not a “denomination” like so many of the Christian groups of the West. The Orthodox Church is quite simply the Church, that community of faith and worship which traces its history to Jesus Christ and His Apostles. It is that Divine institution which is referred to in Scripture as “the Body of Christ” (I Cor. 12:27) and “the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15). Early in its history, the Church was forced to confront a number of groups who claimed to be followers of Christ, but who introduced novel and false teachings. Over the period of the first eight Christian centuries, the Church´s bishops met in a series of local and worldwide councils in which they defined and safeguarded the teachings of Christ´s Apostles as well as determining such vital issues as which books were to be included in the Church´s Scriptures (the New Testament and the Old Testament along with those books that are often referred to as the “Apocrypha”). Those Christians who remained faithful to the decisions of these councils came to be called “the Orthodox,” which means “those who believe and worship correctly.” Throughout history many groups have continued to break away from the Orthodox Church, including the Church of Rome and the various Protestant churches, but the Orthodox continue to steadfastly hold the faith that was entrusted to them by Christ´s Apostles and defended by the early councils. If you were to visit any of the centers of early Christianity mentioned in the New Testament (with the exception of Rome), you would find that the native Christian community in that place is to this day made up of Orthodox Christians, the descendants of the original followers of Christ. Following the model of the five ancient Patiarchates, the Orthodox Church has organized itself throughout history as a federation of regional churches, all of which hold the same belief and worship in substantially the same manner, and all of which are in sacramental communion with one another. Each regional community of Orthodox believers has taken on certain local characteristics, such as the language used in worship and styles of liturgical music. For this reason, you will often hear these groups spoken of as “the Orthodox Churches,” for example the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, or the Antiochian Orthodox Church. In truth, however, it is all these local communities together that make up the one universal (“catholic”) Orthodox Church, which is the Body of Christ. Orthodox Christianity was first brought to North America by missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church in the eighteenth century. Beginning in the late nineteenth century many Orthodox Christians immigrated to America from various places in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. To the present, most of these have retained their ties with their mother churches overseas. For this reason, here in America one can find parishes of many different Orthodox “jurisdictions,” Antiochian, Greek, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, etc., using a variety of languages in their worship. (The Antiochian Orthodox use primarily English in their services, although parishes with many recent immigrants may continue to use some Arabic as well.) While each American jurisdiction has its own hierarchy of bishops, all of the major Orthodox groups in North America share the same faith and are in communion with one another. The Orthodox bishops of this continent coordinate their activities through a group known as SCOBA (the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas). Orthodox Christians in America pray for and continue to work toward the day when we will be united in administration as we are already in faith and worship.
Christian
The word “Christian” is an ancient term which means “a follower of Christ” or, as an adjective, “characteristic of, or belonging to, those who follow Christ.” It is the name of those who believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the eternal Son of God, who took on human flesh from a virgin mother, who died and rose from the dead for the salvation of the world. The word has special significance for those who trace their spiritual legacy to the Church of Antioch, for we read in the New Testament that “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26).
Church
“Church” is a word that may have a variety of interrelated meanings. Above all it is used to signify the universal community of those who hold and practice the teachings of Jesus Christ as they were handed down by His Apostles. In its broadest application, this means not only those now living, but also all the faithful Christians of earlier generations who have passed on from this life to the next. As we have seen already, in this broad sense the Church is both the Body of Christ (Christ´s continuing presence in the world), as well as “the pillar and ground of the truth.” “Church” is also sometimes applied more narrowly to mean the Christians of a particular region or those who are bound together by an administrative structure, as in “the Church of Antioch.” More narrowly still, “Church” may be used to mean a specific local assembly of Christians, what we would also call a “parish.” In our name, “Church” is used in all three of these senses. We are a local assembly of Orthodox Christians, united to the worldwide Church as it has existed through time by our participation in the life of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. We welcome all people to join with us in our services and to discover if they are being called to be a part of our community as together with Orthodox Christians of all times and all places we seek to follow the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ and to worship the one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Further Reading
If you would like to know more about the Orthodox Church, its history and its beliefs, the best English-language introduction is The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware, published by Penguin Books. This and many other informative titles are available at our Parish Bookstore.
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