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By Jan Wade. Part 1. Introduction Part 2. Timeline of Christianity & differences between Christian faiths Part 3. Centers of Orthodoxy today Part 4. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Part 5. Orthodox symbology  "The
Church is an earthly heaven
in which the heavenly God dwells and
moves."
St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople (died 733) “In
988, Prince Vladimir, of Kiev, Russia, while still a pagan, desired
to know which was the true religion, and therefore sent his followers
to visit the various countries of the world in turn. They went first to
the Muslim Bulgars of the Volga, but observing that these when they
prayed gazed around them like men possessed, the Russians continued on
their way dissatisfied. ‘There is no joy among them,’ they reported to
Vladimir, ‘but mournfulness and a great smell; and there is nothing
good about their system.’ Traveling next to Germany and Rome, they
found the worship more satisfactory, but complained that here too it
was without beauty. Finally, they journeyed to Constantinople, and here
at last, as they attended the Divine Liturgy in the great Church of the
Holy Wisdom, they discovered what they desired. ‘We knew not whether we
were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or
beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you: only this we
know; that God dwells there among humans, and that their service
surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that
beauty.’”
Timothy
Ware, 1963, The Orthodox
Church, London, England: Penguin Books
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