I always wanted to be part of a Christian tradition that went all the way back to Christ and the Apostles. But I thought to do that you had to be a Roman Catholic. It turns out that’s not the case. The Orthodox call the Pope “the first Prostestant,” because he protested and rebelled against the original church.

Let me provide a brief church history, terribly truncated by me and certainly from my perspective: Jesus laid his hands on the Apostles and actually began the institutional church (now a dirty phrase!) and “the gates of hell have not prevailed against it.” It continues today in the form of the Orthodox Church. In around 1000 AD the Patriarch of Rome broke off from the rest of the Patriarchs because he wanted to change the Council of Nicea of A.D. 325.. And, of course, he wanted to be in charge. For a thousand years, the church had been “ruled” by hundreds of bishops coming together in a full council to decide the core truths of Christianity. No one man was in charge. They did this less then ten times in 1000 years. From these councils we crystallized the teaching of divinity of Christ and divinity of the Holy Spirit,  the Trinity, the divine and human natures of Christ, and other foundational Christian beliefs.