The History of Orthodox People website has been active and growing for the last several months. Its mission is to enlighten not just the Western, primarily English-speaking world, but men and women of goodwill of all backgrounds and everywhere with the theological thought and spiritual heritage of Christian Orthodoxy.
West-centric surveys of history and religion all too frequently neglect to mention Orthodoxy, the Christian Church whose teaching and practice go back, directly and uninterruptedly, two thousand years, to the Source. Orthodox believers glory in the fact that their faith is not subject to change and fully corresponds to famous definitions of the True Church by St. Athanasios “the faith which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded” and St. Vincent of Lerin’s “that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all“.
As part of our mission, we seek to present the basic tenets of Orthodoxy, offer information about the history of the various churches that make up the Orthodox communion, and portray the martyrdom of various Orthodox communities in modern times.
Volunteers
In order to successfully accomplish the second of our tasks we need the assistance of as many of you who are Orthodox and are willing to contribute your knowledge and sacrifice your time by joining our HOP project on a volunteer basis. We need you to work with us to enrich our website’s Orthodox Churches section [http://orthodoxhistory.info/orthodox-churches/] with quality information about your particular Orthodox church, its history and spirituality for the benefit of non-Orthodox readers of this site.
You do not have to be a theologian or specialist. We will be glad to take you on-board if you are an active, practicing Orthodox, whatever your particular jurisdiction may be, if you have a deep personal interest in the establishment and growth of the Orthodox faith in the country or region of your origin, have a reasonable command of the English language, and are willing to share your knowledge with us and other readers of the HOP site.
Financial support
In order to improve HOP and make it grow, we also need donors who would be willing to pledge a monthly contribution for the support of our website, to help cover production and management costs. We are happy to accept gifts of any size from Orthodox people who wish to help, but regular small monthly donations at a level that you would be comfortable with would be of great benefit. We therefore encourage our readers to consider becoming HOP donors, thus helping to promote Orthodoxy and bring it to the attention of those who have not yet discovered its spiritual treasure.
If you can contribute in either of these ways to make HOP even better and more informative for spiritual seekers who visit this page, welcome aboard and God bless you!
Please note: the current list of Orthodox churches listed on our website is NOT exclusive and we would welcome research about other Orthodox churches provided that they are truly such, both dogmatically and canonically. So if you church is not listed and you want to offer publications about it, please email us.
One more thing: if you can, please forward this appeal to any of your friends or relatives who might be interested and also post it on various social media platforms!
We are eager to hear from you at:
The HOP Team
Reading the section on Islam and on the Prophet (saw) was interesting. It seems like the typical western stereotypical view in not placing what happened in its historical context. To judge in today’s terms and one own’s beliefs what happened. I could mention slavery in the historical, present day and future context, and this would take a seriously long comment.
For instance, there is no justification for wars of conquests in Islam. Wars are fought to free the oppressed or for defense. Muslims cannot fight wars if a group of Muslims decide to go to a non Muslim country and then claim they are oppressed because that non Muslim country do not support the Muslims’ sharia laws. That’s just plain stupid. And if the non Muslim state restrict personal religious practice, then the Muslim need to fight by peaceful means to get his rights. And if it becomes impossible, then to get out of that state, not to make war.
Again in present day context (which will be historical), it is a grave injustice and tears at the soul of the ordinary Muslim what is happening in Palestine. Why do the Muslim not make war on the Zionist entity? Why not make war on the Empire in Afghanistan? Again it’s the present day and the historical context. I could say, most Muslim leaders have been co opted into the Zionist world system.
But historically, wars of conquests did happen. And Orthodox Christians did suffer the most from those wars. That’s not to say, those wars are justifiable in any way. Wars of conquests are not permitted. Period.
And when did wars of defense turn into wars of conquests? When did nationalist and tribal wars turn into religious wars to suit the propaganda needs of those leaders at the times of those wars?
Is it easy to convince Muslims to go against their religion to fight those wars? Just look at Chechnia, Libya and Syria and see for yourself.
But this comment section is on Orthodox Christians, so enough about Muslims.
In fighting wars in the present day, Putin and Russia embody how Muslims should fight wars. It is interesting how the Orthodox Christians can show to Muslims and the world at large how wars should be fought. For the right cause, using dual diplomacy and force in correct measures.
Personally, I believe Putin is “rightly guided” and I am a fan. And him being Orthodox Christian, all the more power to him. Only he and Russia can lead the attack to break the back of the Zionists. He has shown what can be done in Chechnia. the Ukraine and Syria. Places where he got involved in great measure.
I have got a great deal of empathy for the Christians, all the more so for Orthodox Christians. Being children of the Books, so to speak.
And believing in the fact that there is no compulsion in religion, and if there are differences in dogmatic understanding, then God will judge between us on Judgement Day. And if we keep those two things in mind, while on earth, there is hardly anything to differentiate us.
I remember those Islam/Orthodox Christian essays you wrote early on in Saker. They were very enlightening. My empathy for Orthodox Christians to a great degree stem from these essays.
And my antipathy towards Muslim wars of conquest stem from listening to Sheikh Imran Hussein’s logical analyses of the Ottoman Empire and to a lesser degree on the Moghul Empire in India. And my own region’s (south east Asia) tribal wars morphing into religious wars.
I am not a historian, nor am I a religious scholar to enable me to contribute in a meaningful way towards this Orthodox Christian website. But if part of purpose of the website is to bring Muslims into greater understanding of the Orthodox Christians, it may be useful to have a subsection on Islam/Orthodox Christian relationship.
But perhaps, other Muslim historical scholars can do what I wish to do, but cannot at this present time.
I would like to donate to the History of the Orthodox People but I do not see a slot or an address where to send the donation?
Good point. We need to create a separate account.
Will do.
For the time being, use any of the options offered under “SUPPORT THE SAKER” but please make sure to indicate “For the HOP project” (either while donating or by a separate email for me).
Thanks a lot, kind regards,
The Saker
Question referred to Saker.(DG)
How do we know this is not to collect information about those with Orthodox background and later come after them, like what happened to Russians and Armenia?
Interesting. And how would you have us go about proving to you that we are not Satanic theomachs making lists of Orthodox Christians to hand them to the Antichrist when he comes? What would be a good proof in your opinion?
The domain name for this site is [IS] as in Israel.
Right. “is” stands for ICELAND! Israel has “il”. May I suggest that before making categorical statement you get your facts straight first?
The Saker