By Markellos Margelis
Instead of being known above all for proclaiming Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified, contemporary Orthodox Christian Churches (sometimes called Eastern Orthodox) are increasingly known for their national identities, political loyalties, institutional rivalries, and proximity to earthly powers. While the circumstances differ from one jurisdiction to another, they experience the same temptation: to anchor the Church in something other than Christ.
The early Church knew no such confusion. Christians prayed for emperors because the Apostle commanded them to do so, but they never mistook the Empire for the Kingdom of God. The Three Holy Youths honoured King Nebuchadnezzar, yet refused to worship his image. The martyrs willingly endured imprisonment, torture, and death rather than offer a single act of worship to Caesar. Their witness reminds us that while the Church may respect earthly authorities, its ultimate allegiance belongs to Christ alone.
St John Chrysostom stands firmly within this same tradition. He did not seek the favour of emperors or tailor his preaching to preserve his position. When confronted by imperial power, he chose exile rather than silence. He refused to become part of the system. Following the example of Christ Himself, he understood that faithful episcopal ministry carried the cost of suffering, for, as Fr Doru Costache writes, “the preacher of divine wisdom against the cunningness of the world cannot escape the only destiny awaiting those like him, the iteration, again and again, of the theodrama of the Lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the world” (AIOCS, 27 January 27 2019). His authority did not derive from proximity to the imperial court, but from conformity to the Crucified Lord.
How different this is from much that we witness today.
The Moscow Patriarchate has become increasingly identified with the aims of the Russian state, particularly in relation to the war in Ukraine. More recently, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church attended the mourning ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (OrthodoxTimes, 16 July 2026), lending the Church’s public witness to the funeral of a murderous dictator. At this end of the world, Archbishop Makarios of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia recently declared that “if the Church loses its Greek identity, then we are lost.” Speaking against the increasing use of English, the lingua franca of Australia in church services, he further insisted that “the services should be conducted in Greek. We do not forget our identity” (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, undated). The concern expressed is not first that the Church might lose Christ, but that it might lose its Greek identity. Likewise, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew declared in 2018 that “the beginning of the Orthodox Church is the Ecumenical Patriarchate.” In the same address, he endorsed Metropolitan Kyrillos of Gortyna and Arcadia’s assertion that “Orthodoxy cannot exist without the Ecumenical Patriarchate” (Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, 4 September 2018).
Different patriarchates. Different emphases. The same temptation. The Church gradually ceases to define itself by Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified, and instead defines itself by the state, ethnicity, language, or institutional prestige.
Fr Thomas Hopko often warned of what he called “the law of human institutions”:
An institution is formed for performing a mission, completing a task, and attaining a goal. And then as time goes by, sometimes even years and centuries, the mission is forgotten, the task is betrayed, and the goal is unknown. And then the institution only exists to perpetuate itself as a human, fallible, fragile, even sinful institution. (Ancient Faith Radio, 9 September 2009)
Hopko immediately added: “God forbid that that would happen to the Church of Christ!” He described this temptation as ecclesiolatry, the elevation of the Church as an institution above the Lord whom it exists to proclaim. Whenever the Church becomes preoccupied with preserving its influence, traditions, prestige, or identity rather than proclaiming Christ, it begins to exist for itself rather than for the Gospel.
Whenever the Church substitutes nationalism, ethnicity, institutional prestige, or political influence for the Gospel, it inevitably ceases to preach Jesus Christ to the world. The Church was not founded to preserve Hellenism, Russianness, Constantinopolitanism, or whatever -ism or -ness we choose to place in the blank. It was founded to proclaim Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and glorified.
The secular, worldly temptation confronts every Orthodox jurisdiction. The Church belongs to neither Moscow nor Constantinople; it does not solely identify with either one nation or any earthly power. It belongs to Christ. Its voice should be the voice of the prophets, the martyrs—the St John Chrysostoms of the world—not the comfortable language of the court or the lukewarmness of ecclesiastical diplomacy.
If Orthodox Christianity is to recover its prophetic witness, it must once again become known above all for the One whom it is called to proclaim: Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified.
Everything else is secondary.
Everything else must remain subordinate to Him.
“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16 NRSV)
May we have ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
19 July 2026 © AIOCS
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