Transcript:

We can say with absolute certainty that the Orthodox Church is unchanging, and that she has not changed in her substance which is from the beginning, nor in her mission which was given to her by Christ at His Ascension^[1] and to her Apostles when they received power to carry out that mission at Pentecost. At that time, the Holy Spirit came on Apostles as something like “tongues of fire” the scriptures say, and they spoke the things of God in the languages of all nations.^[2] And now their message and their faith continues to go out to all the world. How can I make such a bold and audacious claim? As we will see, the answer is rooted firmly in our understanding of the incarnation of Christ! It’s important to understand this correctly, otherwise you’ll be confused and distracted from what will save you.

There is great interest now in the Orthodox Church as an ancient institution that preserves what is good and holy in a world where everything else is changing and under attack. The Church is seen by many – correctly – as an anchor in a tumultuous world. A fixed reference point that is used to measure everything else. And it is all that, as we will see.

Many people today erroneously see the Church as a “human institution” that was – in the most charitable versions created by Christ and handed off to his Apostles right before He ascended into heaven. They argue that since the Church is a human institution, she is subject to all the human frailties and failings. The argument goes that as the Apostles died off and the Church spread by word of mouth, the Church was left without divine guidance, left alone to figure things out on her own. And like all things – they believe that Church underwent a period of “evolution”. They see evolution everywhere! And what we have today is not the same as what the Apostles taught, but an expanded, “evolved”, institution that is only in some metaphysical and disconnected way “the body of Christ”. As if to say, “the Church is the Body of Christ” is to speak metaphorically. But nothing could be further from the truth!

This comes from a misunderstanding of what the Church actually is, or should I say, “who” the Church really is! In this video, we’ll solve this problem of the changing Church by looking at the true nature of Church to understand why the assertion that the Church has changed is false.

To understand this, let’s look at what the Church really is. The Church herself is an extension of the incarnation of Christ. The members of the church are members of the body of Christ. And of course, Christ is the head. We Orthodox say this in a plain and literal sense – and we mean it. The Church is the visible, incarnate body of Christ which can be seen. And we refer to the Church with personal pronouns because according to the Scriptures, she is in fact the bride of Christ and salvation is a wedding feast.^[3] The members of the Church are joined to Christ by their participation in the mysteries of the faith as they practice them.

St. Justin Popovich who lived from 1894 to 1979^[4], and is a saint of the Serbian Orthodox Church and a gifted theologian and professor of theology used the term “theanthropic” to explain how this works. I’ll put a link below so you can read his whole article. He said that the church is a “theanthropic organism.”^[5] Theanthropic is a fancy word that’s a combination of two Greek words, “theos,” which means God, and “anthropos,” which means human. So the Church is a God-human organism, because Christ is the God-human man. The humanity of the Church is divinized by His presence. St. Justin explains that because the Church is theanthropic, whatever attributes she has are the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is also called theanthropos, the “God Man”.

OK – now we know we can safely use the same language we apply to Christ to describe the Church. How do we this? The Fourth Ecumenical Council stated dogmatically that Christ has two natures. He has a human nature which means He is the same in substance us human beings – He is fully human, and He has a divine nature, which means he is same substance as God the Father – He is fully God. The fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council came up with some brilliant language to help us make the distinction in Christ and still remain Orthodox. They declared the two natures exist in one person of Christ at the same time, but they are without “confusion, change, division, and separation”. There is a voluntary one-way “sharing of attributes” in Christ where He – the Son of God who is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, voluntarily takes on the human nature in the incarnation with all of its attributes to heal it, and to divinize it.^[6] Note that neither sin nor the propensity to sin are NOT attributes of human nature! This means that when we speak of Christ in what He does in His human nature, we put the words “insofar as He is human” in front of or after whatever it is we are saying. When we speak of Christ in terms of His divine nature, we put the words “insofar as He is God” in front of or after whatever it is we are saying, and thereby we avoid becoming heretics, which is a very good thing! We can apply this to the Church.

So - insofar as Jesus is human, He was conceived by the Virgin Mary^[7], He was born^[8], He grew in wisdom and stature^[9]. He died on the cross^[10]. He rose from the dead.^[11] But insofar as he is God, he did not die because God cannot die.^[12] And insofar as he is God, He has all wisdom, knowledge, and power. He took on human attributes willingly.^[13]

St. Justin made the connection between the dual nature of Christ and the dual nature of the Church. The church can be described exactly the same way. Insofar as she is human, the church changes to adapt herself to the time and place she’s ministering in. But insofar as the church is divine, she never changes. More on this later.

Let’s look at what the Second Ecumenical Council^[14] consider to be the four most prominent divine attributes of the Church that never change. The Creed of the Council says in part, “We believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.”^[15] These words were added to the Creed to clarify this teaching way back in the Second Ecumenical Council in the year 381, when there was a dispute that needed settling. The council was not defining something new. It was just clarifying settled teaching.

Briefly, this statement means that the Church is one, which is to say she is unified there’s only one Church. The Church is holy, which means she is of God; not of human origin. The Church is catholic, meaning she is universal across all the world. And the Church is Apostolic, meaning she teaches what the Apostles were taught by Christ.

These four things never change. The purpose of the Church is to teach all human beings how to love their neighbor with no expectation of return; i.e. to love without condition. This is divine love that is only possible when human beings are free of their passions, and that — as St. Paul says - only happens through Jesus Christ^[16], even if people who are healed do not recognize Him as he heals them.^[17] This is the only way to love God, to love neighbor, and thereby fulfill the Commandments of Christ which give life.

The church does adapt herself to the time and place in which she ministers to people. The Divine Liturgy and various services also are adapted over time. This means that the ways in which we do what the church has always done can be different and can change from century to century as she finds herself in different cultures and different places around the world. But is this really a change to the four attributes defined in the Creed?

Now this is the part that really helps to understand why it is that the church doesn’t change, even if she adapts herself to time and place.

Let’s go to the scriptures for this. St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”^[18] So let’s not be worried that the church is changing or could ever change. Like Christ, she is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now think about this. Jesus did change – insofar as He is human. As we say, He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and He grew. That’s change. And He was born, and He grew further, and the scriptures say He grew in wisdom and in stature.^[19] And when He was fully grown, He went to the cross, and He died a real death on the cross. That’s also change – but all these things are attributes of His human nature, and it is proper for them to change. In His divinity He does not change – this allows the Apostle to say He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. These two natures exist in one person, and it is truly the Son of God who was conceived, who grew, who died – in the flesh – insofar as He is human. He brings both natures together in one person. It is the bringing together that is the mystery – and so it is with the Church. She unites Christ and human beings, and is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

Insofar as she is human, the church makes adaptation, as is necessary to minister to human beings and to care for them. The Church is also made up of human beings who are born, and grow up, and become altar servers, and bishops and deacons and priests and patriarchs, and then they die. And the next generation continues on. But the one thing that remains the same, the one thing that never changes because it can’t change, is Jesus Christ. He’s always the same. He’s always the head of the church – the “who” the Church is, and the people in the church are always members of his body, included by His grace.

The Church therefore adapts herself to the time and place in which she is living. She changes language, custom, communication methods, etc., in service of her mission to make disciples of all nations.^[20] For example: how has the celebration of the Eucharist changed since the time of the Apostles? It has gotten longer, and prayers have been added, and then people were added to serve as the Christian population grew, and more languages were used. And the Divine Liturgy can be celebrated pretty much anywhere, under a tree, outdoors in an open field, in someone’s house, in a proper church. But no matter when, or where, or how the Church always recognizes the presence of Christ in the breaking of the bread.^[21]

So, the only thing that changes about the Church is the way she adapts herself to serve the human race. The head of the Church which connects the whole body together is Christ and He never changes. The Church understands herself to be the visible reality of the incarnation of her founder, who is Christ who is Theanthropos, which makes the Church also theanthropic through Him, her head. Through the sacraments she can be located in time and space, she is not abstract and invisible but incarnate and seen in the people and the clergy who serve them.

Why is this so important now? Because it is your guarantee of the authenticity of the Church. Christ has preserved in the Orthodox Church the faith He himself handed to the Apostles. Christ has guided His Church actively since the death of the last Apostle, His friend St. John the Theologian who died sometime in the late first century. There has never been a time when Christ did not actively shepherd His Church on earth, and now that Church has come to America, through the Russian Orthodox Church evangelizing the native peoples of Alaska and from immigration from Greece, Russia, Serbia and the Middle East, and as time went on every region of the Orthodox world, and now the Church comes to Americans from their own population. She has spread across the North American continent and is growing quickly! Now understand this about the Orthodox Church – insofar as she is human and she changes some things, she changes *very* slowly, and not very much. It takes a long time for things to happen within the Church structure.

To get an idea of how slowly things change, let’s look at the most important service we have: the Divine Liturgy that you attend every Sunday and at other times during the year. If you went to an Orthodox Divine Liturgy at the end of the first millennium – about 1025 years ago – you would immediately recognize what is going on. At that time a difference was in when the liturgy started and where. People would chant psalms on the way to the church building that we now sing in church. And the Liturgy would begin after the bishop arrived in church. By the 14^th century you would now see things done pretty much as we do them today. The use of the relatively new invention of the printing press created fixed, reproducible rubrics during the late 15^th to early 16^th centuries^[22] and has not changed very much since then. Therefore, over the last 600 to 1000 years, if you went to any Orthodox Church service, you would recognize the Liturgy as Orthodox, and in the last 600 you would see pretty much what you see now in America, except that here we offer it in multiple languages including modern English.

Let me just add, his is a wonderful attribute of the Church. If you raise your family in the Orthodox Church and your children grow up and they have their own children,(...) when they bring their children to church, they are going to do the same liturgy they did. Across generations, they all have the same experience with the same liturgy in church. The gift of permanence and stability.

This is because the very culture of the Orthodox Church is resistant to change. In that culture, when we desire to change something, we ask ourselves, why are we changing this? Is it to adapt ourselves to the needs of the people, or is it for change’s sake?

So, when we hear the debates online about the church changing, let’s remember that insofar as she is human, the Church adapts herself to the times in order to carry her message. But the message is divine and never changes – the “who” in the Church is Jesus Christ – and with the Apostle Paul, we can say He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

So how about you? When you hear about the Orthodox Church being unchanging, and then somebody points out all the changes that have occurred since the time of Christ, does that bother you? Does this idea of the Church being theanthropic help you in any way to understand what change is and why it happens? Share your experience in the comments below.

^[1] Matthew 28:19

^[2] Acts 2:1-41

^[3] Ephesians 5:25-32, Revelation 19:6-9, Ephesians 5:25-27, 31-32, 2 Corinthians 11:2, John 3:28-29 and numerous others.

^[4] OrthodoxWiki, s.v. “Justin Popovich,” last edited May 30, 2022, accessed September 28, 2026, https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=Justin_Popovich&oldid=130145.

^[5] Justin Popovich, “The Attributes of the Church,” trans. Stephen Karganovic, Orthodox Life 31, no. 1 (January–February 1981): 28–33, reproduced by Orthodox Christian Information Center, accessed September 28, 2026, http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/attributes.aspx.

^[6] Philippians 2:5-9

^[7] Matthew 1:23

^[8] Luke 2:7, Luke 2:11, Matthew 1:21, Matthew 1:23

^[9] Luke 2:52

^[10] Matthew 27:27-54, Mark 15:21-41, Luke 23:33-46, John 19:16-37

^[11] Matthew 28:5-6, Luke 24:6-7

^[12] 1 Timothy 6:16, 1 Timothy 1:17

^[13] Philippians 2:5-8

^[14] Orthodox Church in America, “The Second Ecumenical Council,” in The Orthodox Faith, vol. 3, Church History, accessed September 29, 2026, https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/church-history/fourth-century/the-second-ecumenical-council.

^[15] Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, “The Nicene Creed,” accessed September 28, 2026, https://www.goarch.org/-/the-nicene-creed.

^[16] Romans 7:14-25

^[17] Matthew 25:40

^[18] Hebrews 13:8, NKJV

^[19] Luke 2:40

^[20] Matthew 28:19

^[21] Luke 24:35

^[22] The first printed Byzantine edition was in 1526 edition. (Robert F. Taft, “How Liturgies Grow: The Evolution of the Byzantine ‘Divine Liturgy,’” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 43 (1977): 355–78, reproduced by Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, October 27, 2014, accessed September 26, 2026, https://apostoliki-diakonia.gr/en/the-evolution-of-the-byzantine-divine-liturgy/.). The first Slavic edition was printed in 1491. (Michael Pomazansky, “Liturgical Books: From Manuscript to Print,” Missionary Leaflet E077, ed. Alexander (Mileant) (La Cañada, CA, 2005), accessed September 26, 2026 https://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/liturgical_books_pomazansky.htm.)

And sometimes trying hard to progress directly toward the goal is in fact the problem. There are times when the Lord gives us great powers of introspection into our own souls. He allows us to see some of the things that need to change, and maybe we’re even inspired to try to change some of them, but I think that this is not the purpose that the Lord has in mind in showing us these things about ourselves. For if we knew the truth about ourselves – how deeply sinful we are – then we would be overwhelmed. Even the tiny bit He does show me, when I see my myriads of sins, they can seem overwhelming and confusing. So many of them in so many different areas. Fighting each one individually is like playing a game of whack-a-mole with the passions. So many seemingly different problems - it’s like, “where do I start?” And then what can happen is a despair sets in of starting at all.

The good news: The fathers teach this that if you have one passion, you actually have them all. Let that sink in. So yes, the hospital of the church prescribes a specific therapy for each the various passions, treating each according to various illnesses that they are. There are many illnesses, but there is only one disease. The fathers also teach that if you have one virtue, you have them all. So how can this be? The one passion that contains all passions is pride, and the one virtue that contains all virtues is humility. The secret of the Eastern Church Fathers thinking on salvation: Increase of humility the master therapy for treating all the passions at the same time because it attacks the illnesses at the root of their disease. Therefore, anything I do to increase humility, addresses the root problem, and the passions that are manifesting seem to clear up on their own. Any increase in humility helps with all the passions at the same time. St. Peter says, “God opposes the proud, and give grace to the humble.” This is the universal medicine for the entire human condition. Here’s a secret of spiritual warfare - “Don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.” If in your left hand are your evil passions, humble yourself with your right hand, and your passions will have no idea what hit them! St. Porphyrios teaches in Wound by Love, “Do not strike at the evil directly, but, disdaining the passion, turn with love to God!”

In the church, we have way of humility regarding our faults that is time-tested. As Orthodox Christians, we are encouraged to confess our sins to one another and ask for each other’s prayers for healing. As James the brother of the Lord writes in his letter, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16, NKJV)

It is good for human beings to find good and trusted friends and councilors to sit with us and discuss our problems with them and ask for their prayer. This teaching appears many times in the scriptures; it can be found especially in the Proverbs and Psalms: seek council, wait for the Lord, do not act on your own. Practice discernment by submitting to others. This is a humble act of obedience that we can do. In this way, the obedience to God’s word and to each other is the mother of humility. For usually we cannot do much about our pride – in fact, the scriptures teach that pride is blinding, and we do not see it in ourselves, but we can choose to act in a humble manner. This may not be the same thing as humility, but it is the precursor to it, the desert fathers in particular teach that humility of action in word, bodily posture, in actions, is the beginning of the humility of the mind, humility of the mind follows by God’s grace.

In the Orthodox Church, we have two traditions that have sort of merged into one. First, we have the practice of spiritual direction where we share with another person all our thoughts, as strange as they may be, and we confess our minor faults, and major ones too. And we listen and take advice from the person we have chosen, who is more advanced in the spiritual live than we are. This is what we do with a spiritual father, or spiritual mother or spiritual advisor. It is a monastic tradition - confession of faults and evil thoughts to an elder - it is wonderful for people in the world practice too. And the grace of God enters into that relationship, and we receive healing, and God speaks to us through that other person. Christ is with both spiritual father and spiritual child in a way that surpasses words.

The other tradition is a mystery of the Church which we commonly call “confession”. This powerful sacrament acts as a “second baptism”, when we have sinned heavily and gravely, and perhaps publicly - the church prescribes a way for us to reclaim our baptismal grace. Historically, this was for large “public” sins that might cause scandal. The church would prescribe a period of abstinence from the reception of Holy Communion for the salvation of the person who had sinned - then when that period was over, they would come in and make a confession before the icons and the priest would witness their repentance and pray for God to forgive them. Then they could then be restored to full communion. In the original Greek Orthodox Tradition, there is no declarative formula of absolution with a sacramental confession. The practice of the prayer of absolution developed in the medieval West and was adopted as part of Orthodox practice in some jurisdictions in the 17^th century. Not all have it today. And it’s not bad – and perhaps it emphasizes a reality we might otherwise miss. The prayer of the priest after confession asks that God forgive the sins that were confessed, through him. But it is God who forgives the sins, not the priest. And this is in fact desirable - for the Lord desires not the death of a sinner, but that he repent, turn back, and be saved. The priest is acting as God’s instrument of healing. After this prayer has been offered, the person is now in a condition to receive the Eucharist – which is the healing medicine of Christ.

We can always go to the icons with the priest and go to the Lord and ask Him to examine us in a confession. And the priest who represents the whole church will pray for our forgiveness, and this is effective in a way that is unique – we can’t get it any other way...

And we have the ultimate medicine which is both forgiveness of individual sins, and healing for eternal life. The Eucharist. Which is the way that sins are forgiven and the way in which the sickness of sin is removed from us by the chief physician of our souls and bodies – that is Christ. When we approach the chalice during the Divine Liturgy, we allow Christ to examine us as we are, without any “fig leaves” of pride and shame to cover us. We have done the work of removing those in our spiritual direction and sacramental confession. When you receive communion in the holy orthodox church, the priest will say to you, as he places the gifts on your tongue, “the servant of God receives the body in blood of his or her Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ for mission of his or sins and for life everlasting.” This is the assurance of absolution - that you have received the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – it is such a relief and blessing!!

For what is the point of forgiving individual sins, if the sin that lives in us is not ultimately healed? Relief of the symptoms of a disease is good, but curing the disease is the solution. The Eucharist is not for the perfect. It is not for those who achieved perfection. It is for those who are sick. It is for the sinner, and the difference between worthy and unworthy reception is the recognition and acknowledgment through actions that we are sinners in need of God‘s mercy - and the acknowledgement that God is the only one who truly loves sinners – that Christ only true lover of mankind. This attitude of the heart the Orthodox Church calls “repentance” which is the wholesale changing of direction of the through action – and by mind we me far more than just the intellect.

The Orthodox faith is about deification and transformation of the whole human being over the arc of their lives. It is fulfillment in each person of 100% of their human potential. Each one made in the image of God, and this is the transformation into the full likeness of God, which we call “theois” – the becoming by God’s grace of what God is by His uncreated and ineffable nature.

God is not interested in having you enumerate in great detail your faults your failures, this is not a recommended practice. Recalling of the detail of sinful acts to mind can cause us to be tempted and to fall again - and going into excruciating detail can actually harm our confessor or spiritual father. And we should be careful also what we say in front of the icons: As St. Paul says, “For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” (Ephesians 5:12, NKJV) So – things should be uncovered in the right way and at the right time and place. Discernment. And the belief that we must list every detail of every sinful act and speak out loud of every depraved and horrible thing we do - brings up in us harmful shame as we recall the sinful acts, this destructive form of shame keeps us away from allowing ourselves to be examined by the great and merciful physician of souls – it is in fact a manifestation of the passion of pride. That is the belief that we are so bad, we cannot be saved. The belief that even though God says He Loves all his creatures, that somehow, He can’t or doesn’t love me. In this state, we cover ourselves with “fig leaves” of behaviors to avoid the pain. We and engage in addictions – drugs, food, alcohol, sex, porn, whatever - we actually embrace our passions – we love our fallen selves - and find what we think are new and innovate ways to magnify those passions and to maximize their numbing effect, all so we can escape the shame of sin. Just like Adam did in Genesis. After Adam sinned, God came looking for him, calling out his name. God knew where he was and what he done. But he wanted to give Adam a chance to repent, so he said “Adam! Where are you?” And Adam did answer honestly – he said, “I am hiding because I am afraid because I am naked”. And he asked Adam, “Did you eat from the tree?” Adam aware of his nakedness of sin, he covered it with fig leaves, and he said the biggest thickest fig leaf of all “It’s that woman you gave me.” So thereby he blamed both God and his wife for his sins at the same time - in a master stroke of deflection and coverup.

So let us not do this. When we are overwhelmed by sin, when our hearts are burdened, let’s find somebody we trust to talk to about it. And then in our self-examination, if we feel we need to, if our hearts are heavy, let us go before the icons and let us allow the Church to pray for us, and allow the great and merciful physician of souls and bodies - who is Christ - to examine us and make His prescription. And then let us receive the Eucharist with renewed fervor.

St. Simeon the New Theologian Prays thus before communion:

“Wash me with my tears, and purify me with them, O Word; remit also my transgressions, and grant me pardon. Thou knowest the multitude of mine evils, Thou knowest also my sores, and Thou seest my wounds; but also Thou knowest my faith and Thou beholdest my good intentions, and Thou hearest my sighs. Nothing is hidden from Thee, my God, my Creator, my Redeemer, neither a teardrop, nor a part of a drop. My deeds not yet done Thine eyes have seen, and in Thy book even things not yet accomplished are written by Thee. See my lowliness, see my toil, how great it is, and all my sins take from me, O God of all; that with a pure heart, a trembling mind, and a contrite soul I may partake of Thy spotless and most holy Mysteries, by which all that eat and drink in purity of heart are quickened and deified.

….

O Saviour, that none other hath sinned against Thee as have I, nor hath wrought the deeds that I have done. But this again I know, that neither the magnitude of mine offences nor the multitude of my sins surpasseth the abundant long-suffering of my God and His exceeding love for mankind; but with sympathetic mercy Thou dost purify and illumine them that fervently repent, and makest them partakers of the light, sharers of Thy divinity without stint. And, strange to angels and to the minds of men, Thou conversest with them oftimes, as with Thy true friends. These things make me bold, these things give me wings, O Christ. And taking courage from the wealth of Thy benefactions to us, rejoicing and trembling at once, I partake of Fire, I that am grass. And, strange wonder! I am bedewed without being consumed, as the bush of old burned without being consumed. Now with thankful mind, and grateful heart, with thankfulness in my members, my soul and body, I worship and magnify and glorify Thee, my God, for blessed art Thou, both now and unto the ages.”

Amen.