Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth and founded the church through His Apostles and Disciples for the salvation of the human race, The teaching of the Apostles and the Church spread far in years which followed. Many Churches were founded, all being united in faith, worship, and the Sacraments.


To the group of Churches founded by the Apostles themselves belong the five Patriarchies of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome. The Church of Constantinople was founded by St. Andrew; the Church of Alexandria by St. Mark; the Church of Antioch, the Church of Jerusalem, and the Church of Rome by St's Peter and Paul. Those Churches founded in later years, through the missionary activity of the first Churches, were the Churches of Sinai, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Finland, Albania, America, and more. From these were commissioned, by Patriarchs, Autocephalous (self governing) Churches as well as Execrates. An Exarch is The Ecclesiastical Representative of a Patriarch.


However, from her inception in Palestine, the Christian Church spread rapidly throughout the Mediterranean area and the Middle East through the efforts of missionaries, of whom the Apostle Paul is recognized as the greatest. By the beginning of the fourth century, the year 313 A.D., the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great declared Christianity to be the officially recognized religion of his Empire, which at the time included parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle east. The seat of the Empire was moved from Latin Rome to Greek Constantinople where a new culture, the Byzantine, flourished. In the year 1054 A.D., the Church split, during what is historically called the Great Schism, as a result of dogmatically as well as cultural and political differences. As a result of the split, the Church of the East began to be called by the name of the Eastern Orthodox Church while the Church of the West, the Roman Catholic Church.


The Orthodox Church was not effected by the Renaissance, the Reformation, or the Counter Reformation. The Orthodox Church alone has preserved intact the True Faith of the early Church as founded by Jesus Christ and His Apostles.
In defense of this Faith against schisms and heresies, the Church, the Body of Christ has at various time in her history found it necessary to call a meeting of her leaders to clearly define Christian beliefs and dogmas. It was during the first two of these Ecumenical Councils that the Nicene - Constantinople Creed was formulated. It was this Creed that the Orthodox recite and profess at each and every Divine Liturgy.