Varieties of Byzantine Christian Churches

Byzantium was the name of the Greek city believed to have been founded by king Byzantas in the seventh century BC on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, guarding the only entrance to the Black Sea. Emperor Constantine I remodeled it and made it his capital, ‘the new Rome,’ in 330 AD. Renamed Constantinople, it was destined to be the center of Eastern Orthodox (Byzantine) Christianity for more than a millennium.

The rivalry between the two Romes created tensions that eventually tore the two churches apart, stemming from opposing claims in doctrine and disputes over authority. The Latin (Roman Catholic) and Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) churches grew further apart after the fourth and fifth century Councils. The Photian schism (863 to 867) was the first actual break, but the more serious, permanent division came with the great schism of 1054. It was during this period that people saw the mutual excommunications exchanged by the Patriarch of Constantinople and the legates of the Pope. This was not nullified until 1965.

Bitter hostility between the two churches was magnified greatly when the Latin Christian armies of the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) attacked the Greek Christians, sacking the city. This ominous calamity foreshadowed the fall of Eastern Christian Constantinople to the Islamic armies of the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

These centuries of military and political turmoil have resulted in a confusing multiplicity of churches. Byzantine Orthodox groups and Byzantine Catholic groups follow variations of the Byzantine Liturgy, but the former stem from the older order, while the latter are Uniat, that is, in union with Rome. The three largest sub-groups using versions of the Byzantine Rite are the Melkite, Ruthenian, and Ukrainian, but there are several others. A particularly sad instance of church upset was the exchange of populations which took place between Greece and Turkey in the early 1920s. Almost the entire Byzantine Catholic community of Constantinople was transferred to Athens and nearby villages in Macedonia, to the anger of the local Byzantine Orthodox hierarchy. It is difficult to predict what long range impact such developments are apt to have on the future vitality of religion.