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Who Are We?

Well, that depends upon where one is coming from when asking!

From an Apostolic Succession standpoint (VERY important to some in the churches) we come from an Eastern Orthodox background with co-consecrators from the West. Our Orthodox pedigree (lineage) comes primarily from Russian Orthodox lines and the attempt many years ago to unite those European immigrants who were Orthodox from various countries. The effort failed mainly because of ethnic problems but the apostolic line continued on. Years ago we decided that the original premise of bringing Orthodox Catholics under a united church would still be true to the ancient teachings and necessary more than ever today.

As we proceeded in that direction we discovered that the early church used the term Orthodox Catholics (a title ‘borrowed’ and adopted in part by Rome). It was then a short journey of discovery to realize that ALL avowed Christians were indeed Catholic and Orthodox if they were faithful to our Lord’s teachings. How, you say, could we come to such a conclusion? You might add that some Protestants downright disavow and avoid anything even suggesting to be Catholic. This behavior has led to an extremely ‘offensive’ defensive practice with its resulting separation of many folks who desire to follow Jesus.

How we came to the conclusion that ALL who desire to follow Jesus and live accordingly are indeed ‘orthodox’ and ‘catholic’ is really quite simple. You see, the Greek meaning of the word ‘orthodoxia’ is basically true teachings…..and, the Greek meaning of ‘catholic’ ( a much abused word for many years) is not really ‘universal’ but ‘the fullness thereof’. Well, we said, if the meaning of Orthodox Catholic is “the true teachings about the fullness thereof” of Jesus Christ….we certainly were Catholic through and through….and by extension, so must all true believers come under that aegis.

Now, a couple of points of clarification need to be added here…..one, to be Roman Catholic means to be a catholic under the Pope…..to be an orthodox catholic means to be just as much catholic but not under the Pope……and, two, the East and West Catholic Churches were