Streaming class on April 25th:
In Volume 1 of Metropolitan Hilarion’s series on Orthodoxy Christianity, we have come to Chapter 4, in which he discusses the earliest movement of Christianity into what will eventually become Russia and the surrounding Slavic lands.
In this chapter, as we pick up the story of the Church, it is in the mid 800s. The last of the seven Ecumenical Councils has been held and the iconoclastic controversy has been settled. Monasticism is on the rise. The Eastern church is centered in Constantinople—Byzantium—and the Western church is centered in Rome. Cracks between the two centers are beginning to appear. Within Byzantium, the “symphonia” between Church and State has become radically one-sided, with the Byzantine Emperor acting as the de facto head of the Eastern church by replacing the hierarchs at will with those whom he favors.
In 860, the newly formed “state” of Kievan Ruś attacked Constantinople and diplomats from both sides engaged. This provided an opportunity for Byzantine missionaries to spread Christianity north to the Eastern Slavic peoples. As the Church grew in Ruś, Constantinople resisted granting autocephalous status, Ruś turned to Rome. Tensions heightened between Rome, Byzantine, and Ruś. In the midst of this there was a rebellion in Byzantium and the Ruś prince offed to intervene to save the Emperor...if he could have the hand of the Emperor’s daughter. By 988, after the dust settled (if such a thing every really occurs), “Ruś was baptized”—it seemed a wise political move by the Ruś prince—and what is now the Russian Orthodox Church was born.
During this time, there was as much drama and intrigue as any soap opera...and as still exists today in our own churches. Come join with us online, Saturday, April 25, at 4pm as Seth Hart leads us through the details of this fascinating time in Church history.