Timeline of Church History (Post-Communist Era (1991-Present))

The History of the Church is a vital part of the Orthodox Christian faith. Orthodox Christians are defined significantly by their continuity with all those who have gone before, those who first received and preached the truth of Jesus Christ to the world, those who helped to formulate the expression and worship of our faith, and those who continue to move forward in the unchanging yet ever-dynamic Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.

Post-Communist era (1991-Present)

• 1991 Soviet Union collapses, ending Cold War; representatives of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches meet in Chambesy, Switzerland, discussing relations with World Council of Churches; Ruthenian Byzantine rite Catholic Church in Transcarpathia was restored as a separate entity from Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church based in Galicia, having about 23% of Transcarpathia's parishes compared to 60% of the Orthodox total there; Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Exarchate of Southern Europe is created.
• 1992 Civil war begins in former Yugoslavia; synaxis of primates of Orthodox churches in Constantinople; Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem presented a list of firm declarations of Orthodox convictions of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which was entered into the minutes of the assembly of Orthodox leaders at the Phanar on the Sunday of Orthodoxy; Romanian Orthodox Church canonizes Constantin Brâncoveanu (+1714); General Synod of the Church of England approves the ordination of women.
• 1993 Orthodox-Roman Catholic Joint Theological Commission meets in Balamand, Lebanon, issuing common document "Uniatism: Method of Union of the Past, and Present. Search for Full Communion" (the "Balamand document"); Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission issues statement "The Ecumenical Councils."
• 1993 Church of Cyprus condemns Freemasonry; Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms published; Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church becomes autocephalous; martyrdom of New Martyrs of Optina Pustyn.
• 1994 Ligonier Meeting in Western Pennsylvania at Antiochian Village held by the majority of Orthodox hierarchs in North America votes to do away with the notion of Orthodox Christians in America being a "diaspora"; death of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos.
• 1995 Patr. Bartholomew I visits Vatican; Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission issues statement "Understanding of Salvation in the Light of the Ecumenical Councils"; Pope John Paul II issues encyclical Orientale Lumen, encouraging reunion between East and West; glorification of Kuksha of Odessa by the Church of Ukraine.
• 1996 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America reorganized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, dividing the administration of the two continents into four parts; Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Ecumenical Patriarchate) founded.
• 1997 Visit by Patr. Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople to US; establishment of dioceses of Bukoba, Madagascar, Ghana and Nigeria; Russian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations declares Orthodox Christianity as Russia's predominant religion.
• 1998 Church of Constantinople, not recognizing Russia's right to issue a tomos of autocephaly in 1951, issues its own tomos for the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia; Thessaloniki Summit held to discuss Orthodox participation in WCC; uncovering of the relics of Ambrose of Optina; Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission issues statement "Salvation: Grace, Justification and Synergy"; the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of Utrecht established the Anglican-Old Catholic International Coordinating Council in order to stimulate contact and cooperation in the spirit of the Bonn Agreement of 1931; International Religious Freedom Act is passed in the US to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the United States, and to advocate on the behalf of the individuals viewed as persecuted in foreign countries on the account of religion.
• 1999 Numerous Serbian Orthodox sites in Kosovo and Metohia destroyed and desecrated during NATO peacekeeping presence; Lutheran World Federation and Roman Catholic Church sign Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
• 2000 Orthodox-Roman Catholic Joint Theological Commission meets in Baltimore, discusses text on "The Ecclesiological and Canonical Implications of Uniatism," but is suspended; Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission issues statement "Word and Sacraments (Mysteria) in the Life of the Church"; Russian Orthodox Church announces the canonization of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family; government of Greece orders removal of religious affiliation from state identity cards; the restored Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was consecrated on August 19; Church of Russia glorified Hieromartyr Andronik, Archbishop of Perm, one of Russia's New Martyrs and Confessors.
• 2001 Pope John Paul II of Rome apologizes to Orthodox Church for Fourth Crusade; Chalcedonian and Non-Chalcedonian Patriarchates of Alexandria agree to mutually recognize baptisms and marriages performed in each other's churches.
• 2002 Patr. Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople and Pope John Paul II co-sign Venice Declaration of Environmental Ethics; Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission issues statement "Mysteria/Sacraments as Means of Salvation."
• 2003 Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America granted "self-rule" (similar but not identical to autonomy) by Church of Antioch; Coptic priest Fr. Zakaria Botros begins his television and internet mission to Muslims in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and western countries, resulting in thousands of conversions; an Inter-Orthodox conference on the draft Constitutional Treaty of the European Union took place on March 18-19, in Crete, stating that the Treaty should include a clear reference to Europe's Christian heritage.
• 2004 Pope John Paul II returns relics of John Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian to Church of Constantinople; Patr. Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople consecrates church in Havana, Cuba; consecration of first Orthodox church in Antarctica by Church of Russia; Tikhvin Icon returned to Tikhvin Dormition Monastery after six decades in the United States; Ecumenical Patriarchate canonizes Fr. Alexis Medvedkov, Fr. Dimitri Klepinine, Mother Maria Skobtsova, George Skobtsov and Elie Fondaminskii of the Russian emigration in France; Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission statement "Baptism and Chrismation as Sacraments of Initiation into the Church."
• 2005 Major controversy in Ukraine involving the almost exclusively western Ukraine-based Uniate Greek Catholic Church moving its administrative centre on from Lviv to Kiev, constructing a large cathedral there, and its plans to establish a patriarchate, criticized by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and other Orthodox.
• 2006 Publication of first Orthodox prayer book in both Chinese and Russian, following the editions of 1948 (St. John (Maximovitch) and of 1910 (Bp. Innocent (Figurovsky)); Pope Benedict XVI drops Patriarch of the West title; Russian Orthodox parish opened in Pyongyang, North Korea; Orthodox-Roman Catholic Joint Theological Commission meets in Belgrade, Serbia; Pope Benedict XVI visits Ecumenical Patriarchate, drawing criticism from Mount Athos; Abp. Christodoulos (Paraskevaides) of Athens visits Vatican; Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission issues statement "The Holy Eucharist in the Life of the Church."
• 2007 Restoration of full communion between Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR; 1600th anniversary celebration of the repose of John Chrysostom; the Vatican formally abolishes doctrine of Limbo; number of Orthodox believers in Italy reaches almost one million as a result of immigration from Romania and Ukraine; synod of over 50 bishops of the Church of Ukraine announce that the UOC-MP is "an autonomous, historical part of the Russian Orthodox Church"; Orthodox-Roman Catholic Joint Commission meets in Ravenna, Italy, 10th plenary, led by co-presidents Cardinal Walter Kasper and Metr. John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon, agreeing upon a joint document consisting of 46 articles providing an ecclesiastical road map in discussing union; Russian delegation walks out of Ravenna talks in protest of presence of Estonian delegation (EP); letter "A Common Word Between Us and You" is sent by 138 Muslim leaders from 40 nations to the leaders of the world's Christian churches, calling for understanding and commonality; the Abp. of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams welcomed Patriarch Bartholomew I to Westminster Abbey to celebrate the publication of The Church of the Triune God, the agreed statement of the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue; world's first Russian-Chinese dictionary of Orthodox vocabulary is printed in Moscow;
• 2008 First Orthodox Liturgy celebrated at the North Pole; Orthodox Study Bible (with Septuagint) published; UOC-MP canonizes new martyrs of Vasyliivskyi, Fr. Serhii Shtenko and laymen Prokhor Bunchuk and Kyryl Pryima, martyred during the communist persecution of the church in the 20th century; 14th Session of the Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission was held in Paphos, Cyprus; Metropolis of Singapore (Ecumenical Patriarchate) founded; Pan-Orthodox meeting in Constantinople in October of the Primates of the fourteen Orthodox Churches, signing a document calling for inter-orthodox unity and collaboration and "the continuation of preparations for the Holy and Great Council".
• 2009 Metr. Valentin of Orenburg and Buzuluk consecrated the first-ever Russian Orthodox temple in Rome on May 24, the day of St. Cyril and Methodius, being the Church of the Great Martyr St. Catherine, with the blessing of Patr. Kirill; the 4th Pan-Orthodox pre-conciliar consultation was held in Chambésy on June 6-13.

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

• Timeline of Orthodoxy in America
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in Australia
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in China
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in Greece
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in New Zealand
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in Japan
• Timeline of Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic relations

Published works

The following are published writings that provide an overview of Church history:

From an Orthodox perspective

• Bartholomew I (Ecumenical Patriarch). Encountering the Mystery: Understanding Orthodox Christianity Today. Random House of Canada, 2008. ISBN 9780385518130
• Bulgakov, Sergeĭ Nikolaevich. The Orthodox Church. Revised Ed. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0881410518
• Clark, Katherine. The Orthodox Church. Simple Guides: Religion (series). Random House Inc, 2009. ISBN 9781857334876 (Concise, accessible introduction)
• Clément, Olivier. Conversations with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1997. ISBN 9780881411782
• Payton, James R. (Prof. Dr.). Light from the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition. InterVarsity Press, 2007. ISBN 9780830825943
• Schmemann, Alexander. The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy.
• Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church: New Edition. (ISBN 0140146563)

From a Heterodox perspective

• Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 0310208122)
• Collins, Michael, ed.; Price, Matthew Arlen. Story of Christianity: A Celebration of 2000 Years of Faith. (ISBN 0789446057)
• Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume 3: From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth Century. (ISBN 0687171849)
• Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. (ISBN 0802848753)
• Jones, Timothy P. Christian History Made Easy. (ISBN 1890947105)
• Noll, Mark A. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. (ISBN 080106211X)
• Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 5: Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture (since 1700). (ISBN 0226653803)
• Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 156563196X)
• Walton, Robert C. Chronological and Background Charts of Church History. (ISBN 0310362814)

External links

• A Timeline of Church History provided by St. Ignatius of Antioch Orthodox Christian Church

• History of Orthodox Christianity (QuickTime movies)
  • Part 1: Beginnings
  • Part 2: Byzantium
  • Part 3: A Hidden Treasure

• Timeline of Patriarchal History. Order of St. Andrew the Apostle. Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. (Pop-up Video Presentation, in Sections)