The Church was originally comprised of five Patriarchal centers: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. For the first thousand years, these centers formed a cohesive whole and were in full communion with each other. The Church was one. Sadly, differences between Rome and the rest of Christendom began to grow at the end of the first millennium. This led to the Great Schism, dividing the Church between east and west, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic, in the year 1054. Five hundred years later, the Roman Catholic Church experienced further division with the Protestant Reformation, which did not affect the Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox Faith has remained intact. We are changeless, timeless, and we maintain a living continuity with the church of the early Apostles.