CHURCH HISTORY
We hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.
St. Vincent of Lérins
5th Century
The Orthodox Church maintains the original Christian faith as handed down from Christ through His apostles. We trace our roots directly to the early Church and preserve its fullness for the world today.
For the first thousand years, Christianity was one Church centered in five Patriarchates: Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople. These Patriarchates lived in full communion with one another. When heretical disputes arose, the Church's responses were recorded in what we now call the Seven Ecumenical Councils. Smaller schismatic groups departed at various points, but the Church remained unified until the 11th century, when the Roman Patriarch separated from the other four. This rupture is known as the Great Schism.
In the thousand years since, the other four Patriarchates have remained in full communion, preserving the apostolic faith of the New Testament Church.
Two Thousand Years
Apostolic Age
ca. 33
Pentecost
The Holy Spirit descends on the apostles in Jerusalem fifty days after the Resurrection. The Church is born. The apostles begin preaching the Gospel in many languages, and three thousand are baptized that day.
49
The Council of Jerusalem
The apostles gather in Jerusalem to settle whether Gentile converts must first become Jews. James presides. The Church's decision, that Gentiles are received directly into Christ, establishes the precedent that doctrinal questions are resolved in council, not by individual authority.
67
Martyrdom of Peter and Paul
The chief apostles are martyred in Rome under Emperor Nero. Peter is crucified upside down; Paul is beheaded. Their witness, and the steadfastness of the early church martyrs under persecution, demonstrates the absolute sincerity of their belief.
Age of
Persecution
107
Ignatius of Antioch Martyred
Bishop Ignatius of Antioch is sent to Rome to be killed in the arena. On the way he writes seven letters that survive as among the earliest Christian documents outside Scripture, naming the threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon and calling the Eucharist the medicine of immortality.
ca. 150
Justin Martyr Describes the Liturgy
In his First Apology, the philosopher and convert Justin Martyr gives the earliest detailed description of the Christian Eucharistic gathering: readings from the prophets and apostles, a sermon, prayers, the kiss of peace, the offering of bread and wine. The shape of the Divine Liturgy is already recognizable.
303
The Great Persecution Begins
Emperor Diocletian launches the most severe Roman persecution of Christians. Churches are destroyed, scriptures burned, and thousands are martyred, including St. George the Trophy-bearer. The persecution lasts eight years and produces the last great generation of martyrs before Constantine.
Age of Ecumenical Councils
313
The Edict of Milan
Emperor Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius declare religious freedom across the Roman Empire. Three centuries of persecution end. Christians can worship openly, build churches, and own property. The Church emerges from the catacombs into public life.
325
The First Ecumenical Council
Three hundred and eighteen bishops gather at Nicaea to address the teaching of Arius, who claimed Christ was created by the Father. The council affirms that the Son is of one essence with the Father, eternal and uncreated, and issues the first version of what becomes the Symbol of Faith.
330
Constantinople Founded
Constantine refounds the Greek city of Byzantium as the new Christian capital of the Roman Empire and dedicates it to the Theotokos. For more than a thousand years, Constantinople will be the heart of Orthodox Christianity.
381
The Second Ecumenical Council
Bishops gather in Constantinople and complete the Symbol of Faith, affirming the full divinity of the Holy Spirit against those who denied it. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, recited at every Divine Liturgy to this day, takes its final form.
407
Death of John Chrysostom
The Archbishop of Constantinople, called Golden-Mouthed for his preaching, dies in exile after years of conflict with the imperial court. His Divine Liturgy remains the principal Eucharistic service of the Orthodox Church.
451
The Fourth Ecumenical Council
At Chalcedon, the Church affirms that Christ is one Person in two perfect natures, fully divine and fully human, without confusion or division. The council also recognizes Jerusalem as a patriarchate alongside Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch.
Byzantine Era
537
Hagia Sophia Consecrated
After five years of construction under Emperor Justinian, the Great Church of Holy Wisdom is consecrated in Constantinople. Its vast dome and luminous interior set the standard for Orthodox church architecture for the next fifteen centuries.
626
The Akathist Hymn
During the Persian and Avar siege of Constantinople, the people of the city keep vigil through the night before the icon of the Theotokos. When the city is spared, the Akathist Hymn is composed in thanksgiving, and the Theotokos is honored as the city's defender.
749
Death of John of Damascus
At the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, John of Damascus completes his great defense of the holy icons against the iconoclasts. His writings will shape Orthodox theology of the image, the Incarnation, and the saints for a thousand years.
787
The Seventh Ecumenical Council
After decades of iconoclast persecution, the Church gathers at Nicaea and restores the veneration of icons. The council teaches that honor shown to an icon passes to its prototype: to venerate an image of Christ is to venerate Christ Himself.
843
The Triumph of Orthodoxy
On the first Sunday of Great Lent, the icons are restored to the churches of Constantinople in a great procession. This Sunday is still celebrated each year in every Orthodox parish as the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
The Great Schism
1054
The Great Schism
Cardinal Humbert, a legate of the Pope, places a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia. Patriarch Michael Cerularius responds in kind. The break between the Church of Rome and the four Eastern patriarchates—over papal supremacy and the Filioque addition to the Creed—will harden over the centuries that follow.
1204
The Sack of Constantinople
The armies of the Fourth Crusade, sent ostensibly to recover the Holy Land, instead sack Constantinople. The city is looted, its churches desecrated, and many of its relics carried west. The wound further estranges the Orthodox East from Latin Christendom.
1351
The Triumph of Hesychasm
After two decades of controversy, the Church in Constantinople affirms the theology of St. Gregory Palamas: that God is unknowable in His essence but truly knowable in His energies, and that the saints, through prayer of the heart, behold the uncreated light of Tabor.
1439
St. Mark of Ephesus at Florence
Under desperate political pressure from advancing Ottoman armies, the Byzantine delegation at the Council of Florence signs a decree of reunion with Rome. Only St. Mark of Ephesus refuses. When word reaches Constantinople, the people repudiate the union. Mark's stand is remembered as the Orthodox refusal to trade the faith for political survival. Fourteen years later, Constantinople falls; the union had not saved it.
Ottoman Era
1453
The Fall of Constantinople
After a seven-week siege, the army of Sultan Mehmed II breaches the walls of Constantinople. Emperor Constantine XI dies fighting in the breach. The Roman Empire ends. Many Greek scholars escape west carrying ancient manuscripts that will help spark the Renaissance. The Ecumenical Patriarchate continues, now under Ottoman rule, as the spiritual center of a Church that has lost its empire.
1453
Hagia Sophia Becomes a Mosque
Three days after the fall of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II enters Hagia Sophia and converts the Great Church of Holy Wisdom into a mosque. For nearly a millennium it had been the heart of Orthodox Christian worship. Minarets are added in the decades that follow. The loss of Hagia Sophia grieves the Orthodox world.
1782
The Philokalia
Sts. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and Makarios of Corinth publish the Philokalia in Venice, a vast collection of writings from the desert fathers, the Cappadocians, the hesychasts, and many others on prayer and the spiritual life. The collection sparks a renewal of Orthodox spirituality that continues to this day.
Modern Era
1794
The Orthodox Mission to Alaska
Russian Orthodox monks from Valaam Monastery arrive on Kodiak Island, the first Orthodox Christians to set foot in North America. They learn the Alutiiq language, defend the native peoples against exploitation by Russian traders, and baptize thousands. One of them, monk Herman, will be the first canonized saint of the American continent.
1821
The Greek War of Independence
On the Feast of the Annunciation, Metropolitan Germanos of Patras raises the standard of revolt against Ottoman rule. In retaliation, Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged at the gate of the patriarchate. The war that follows establishes modern Greece as an independent nation.
1864
First Greek Orthodox Parish in America
A small community of Greek merchants establishes the first Orthodox parish on American soil in New Orleans, Louisiana. Greek Orthodox immigration to America will accelerate over the following decades, building parishes in cities across the continent.
1917
The New Martyrs of Russia
The Bolshevik Revolution overthrows the Russian Empire and inaugurates a state campaign against the Church. Patriarch Tikhon is arrested. Churches and monasteries are seized, clergy executed, and the faithful sent to labor camps in huge numbers. Those who died for the faith in this period are commemorated as the New Martyrs of Russia.
1922
The Greek Archdiocese of America
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America is established under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the same year, the Christian city of Smyrna is destroyed, ending nineteen centuries of Greek Christian life in Asia Minor and sending waves of refugees across the world.
1965
The Anathemas Lifted
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem and mutually nullify the excommunications of 1054. While the Schism is not healed, the gesture marks the beginning of formal dialogue between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.
Holy Apostles
1999
Holy Apostles Founded
Eight families and our founding priest, Fr. Michael Johnson, gather to establish Holy Apostles parish. The new community worships as guests at the Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington.
2003
Fr. Tom Becomes Our Priest
Fr. Tom Tsagalakis is assigned to Holy Apostles, beginning a pastorate that continues to this day.
2006
Our Church Home in Shoreline
After several years of growth, the parish moves into its own building in Shoreline, Washington—the church home we have occupied ever since.
2026
The Building Project Begins
Holy Apostles begins a major remodel of its church home, expanding the space to serve a growing community of faithful.