Difference between revisions of "Timeline of Orthodoxy in the British Isles"

From OrthodoxWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Historical period, 500-600: +580)
m (Historical period 600-700)
Line 63: Line 63:
 
* 651 Repose of St. [[Aidan of Lindisfarne]], enlightener of Northumbria of Northern England, [[August 31]].
 
* 651 Repose of St. [[Aidan of Lindisfarne]], enlightener of Northumbria of Northern England, [[August 31]].
 
* 653 [[Benedict Biscop]] and [[Wilfred the Elder]] set off to visit Rome.
 
* 653 [[Benedict Biscop]] and [[Wilfred the Elder]] set off to visit Rome.
* 664 [[Synod of Whitby]]
+
* 664 [[Synod of Whitby]]; [[Cuthbert]] stricken by the great pestilence; repose of St. [[Boisil]], abbot of Melrose Abbey, Scotland, [[February 23]] <ref>Almost all that is known of St. Boisol or Boswell, is learn from St. [[Bede]] (Eccles. Hist., IV, xxvii, and Vita Cuthberti).</ref>.
 
* 669 [[Theodore of Canterbury]] arrives in Kent at the age of seven;
 
* 669 [[Theodore of Canterbury]] arrives in Kent at the age of seven;
 
* 672 Repose of [[Chad of Lichfield]] and Mercia, [[March 2]].
 
* 672 Repose of [[Chad of Lichfield]] and Mercia, [[March 2]].

Revision as of 06:41, May 12, 2009

This article is marked as in progress by Ixthis888, who is actively developing it. It has yet to achieve a stable or complete form and is currently being worked on. Please carefully consider before making major edits to this article.

The early Christian writers Tertullian and Origen mention the existence of a British church in the third century AD and in the fourth century British bishops attended a number of councils, such as the Council of Arles in 314 and the Council of Rimini in 359.

The first member of the British church whom we know by name is St Alban, who, tradition tells us, was martyred for his faith on the spot where St Albans Abbey now stands.

The British church was a missionary church with figures such as St Illtud, St Ninian and St Patrick evangelising in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but the invasions by the pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the fifth century seem to have destroyed the organisation of the church in much of what is now England. In 597 a mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great and led by St Augustine of Canterbury landed in Kent to begin the work of converting these pagan peoples.

What eventually became known as the "Church of England" [1] was the result of a combination of three traditions, that of Augustine and his successors, the remnants of the old Romano-British traditions and the Celtic tradition coming down from Scotland and associated with people like St Aidan and St Cuthbert.

These three traditions came together as a result of increasing mutual contact and a number of local synods, of which the Synod of Whitby in 664 has traditionally been seen as the most important. The result was an English Church, led by the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York, that was fully assimilated into the mainstream Church. This meant that it was influenced by the wider development of the Christian tradition in matters such as theology, liturgy, church architecture, and the development of monasticism.

Regarding the British Isles, what is known about the state of the Church there at the time of the Great Schism is that subsequent to the Norman Invasion in 1066, church life was radically altered. Native clergy were replaced, liturgical reform enacted, and a strong emphasis on papal church control was propagated. As such, it is probably safe to say that, prior to 1066, the church of the British Isles was Orthodox, and the Normans brought the effects of the Great Schism to British soil. As such, it is probably proper to regard King Harold II as an Orthodox Christian.

It also meant that after King Harold II, the English church continued under the authority of the Pope and not with Orthodoxy and this article does not consider the historical development of the "Church of England" after this date.

Orthodoxy was reintroduced by the Church of Greece and by Russia ... [to be developed] ...

The greatest contributor towards documenting the ecclesiastical and political history of England is attested to St. Bede, who completed in 731 five volumes of his best known work The Ecclesiastical History of England.

First Century

According to the compilers of the Synaxarion, three members of the Apostolic Church had been responsible for preaching the Gospel in Britain - St. Peter who, after visiting Milan, had "passed over to the island of Britain, now called England, (where) he spent many years and turned many erring Gentiles to faith in Christ"; St. Aristobulus (brother of St. Barnabas), who is called the Apostle of Britain and who was its first bishop; and St. Simon the Canaanite and Zealot. In these Islands, the Celtic Church had shone forth - especially during the glorious period known as the "Age of Saints" when its missionaries preached throughout much of Europe, becoming 'Equals to the Apostles'. In addition, Ireland had been a place of refuge for monks fleeing from iconoclastic persecution; and, later, it was to be referred to as "the New Thebais" on account of the number of its monasteries.

Historical Period (200-500)

Historical period, 500-600

Historical period 600-700

Historical period, 700-800

Historical period, 800-900

History of England post Bede

Historical period (900-1000)

post Great Schism

Great Schism. Church of England no longer with the Eastern Orthodox church. Orthodoxy re-establishes in Great Britain around the 16-17th century. citation needed

  • 1840-1924 St. Arsenios of Cappadocia prophesised that "The Church in the British Isles will only begin to truly grow again when it begins to venerate once more its own saints".

Modern historical period

The following events require dates to be identified: Grand Duchess St. Elizabeth (a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria and a great-aunt of Prince Philip) and St. John Maximovich, who have been associated with them in the recent past. The memory of Brother Lazaros, killed (some would say, martyred) within the Cathedral at Camberwell, remains vivid... Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, which depends directly on the Oecumenical Patriarchate and whose Founder was the saintly Archimandrite Sophrony, a pupil of St. Silouanos of the Holy Mountain.

Current history

Repose of Metropolitan Gabriel Saliby (Antiochian);
Bishop John Yazigi elected to Metropolitanate of Western and Central Europe, March 30
  • 2008 Enthronement of Metropolitan John (Yazigi) of Western and Central Europe, September 20.

2009-Present

Notes

  • Some of these dates are necessarily a bit vague, as records for some periods are particularly difficult to piece together accurately.
  • The division of Church History into separate eras as done here will always be to some extent arbitrary, though it was attempted to group periods according to major watershed events.
  • This timeline is necessarily biased toward the history of the Orthodox Church, though a number of non-Orthodox or purely political events are mentioned for their importance in history related to Orthodoxy or for reference.

See also

External links

Greek Orthodox Church in Great Britain

Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain

Further Reading

References

  1. The "Church of England" (the Ecclesia Anglicana - or the English Church)
  2. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles list the year of St. Alban's execution as 283 not as 305.
  3. St. Alban is first mentioned in "Acta Martyrum", and also by Constantius of Lyon in his Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, written about 480
  4. The date of St. Gildas' birth can only tentatively be placed to the decades either side of the beginning of the Sixth Century. St. Bede indirectly suggests the year 493 for this event and this is the date adopted for this article.
  5. Saint Augustine of Canterbury is also called the "Apostle to the English".
  6. The "St Augustine Gospels" manuscript is the oldest surviving Latin illustrated Gospel book in existence.
  7. A bronze reliquary in which the relics of St. Aed of Ferns are kept is currently preserved in Dublin.
  8. St. Beuno the Wonderworker, Abbot of Clynnog, was uncle to St. Winefride of Treffynon, November 3.
  9. Almost all that is known of St. Boisol or Boswell, is learn from St. Bede (Eccles. Hist., IV, xxvii, and Vita Cuthberti).
  10. Cædmon is said to have taken holy orders at an advanced age and it is implied that he lived at Streonæshalch at least in part during Hilda’s abbacy (657–680). Book IV Chapter 25 of the Historia ecclesiastica appears to suggest that Cædmon’s death occurred at about the same time as the fire at Coldingham Abbey, an event dated in the E text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to 679, but after 681 by Bede.
  11. Considered a local Saint by the Orthodox church of England but not formally canonised.
  12. The proper name of Milton Abbey is the Abbey Church of St. Mary, St. Samson and St. Branwalader.
  13. "In the year of salvation 1677 this Temple was erected for the nation of the Greeks, the Most Serene Charles II being King, and the Roual Prince Lord James being commander of the foreces, the Right Reverend Lord Henry Compton being Bishop, at the expense of the above and other Bishops and Nobles and with the concurrence of our Humility of Samos Joseph Georgeirenes, from the island of Melos." - Inscription from tablet carved in Greek preserved on the west wall of the church Charing Cross Road. This site is now occupied by St Mary's of Kenton a non-Orthodox denomination.
  14. From the series entitled "The Four Times of the Day"
  15. In Hogarth’s time the portion of the street where the church stood was called Hog Lane. It was later renamed Crown Street and was demolished when Charing Cross Road was widened.
  16. The position of "Doctor of the Church" is a position of theological significance; St. Bede is the only man from Great Britain to achieve this designation (Anselm of Canterbury, also a Doctor of the Church, was originally from Italy
  17. http://www.st-panteleimon.org/