SS Joseph and Andrew Eastern Orthodox Church
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A.
818 Monte Vista Road Candler, North Carolina 28715

HOW OLD IS THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH?

If you are a Roman Catholic, your church shared the same rich apostolic and doctrinal heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history; since during the first millennium they were one and the same Church.  Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem), by unilaterally altering the original Creed of the Church and considering himself to be the universal head of the Church.  Thus, your church was founded in the year 1054.

If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.

If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If you are a Congregationalist, your religion originated with Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606.

If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize Michelis Jones as founder, because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.

If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your religion is an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.

If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1774.

If you are a Unitarian, Theopolis Lindley founded your church in London in 1774.

If you are a Mormon (Latter-Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, New York in 1829.

If you are a member of the Seventh - day Adventist Movement, your history began (1844) with the Baptist preacher William Miller, followed by James and Ellen White in 1863.

If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865. 

The Jehovah's Witnesses began with Charles Taze Russell in 1872. 

If you are Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as “Church of the Nazarene”, “Pentecostal Gospel”, or “Holiness Church”, your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years.

If you are an ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN, your Church was instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and His Apostles in the year 33.  This was the beginning of the Christian Era.  There is no time in this Era when the Orthodox Church did not exist and there has been no interruption in the life of the Church up to this present day.  The Orthodox Church continues to hold its Treasury of Christian Faith and Truth, Sacred Scripture, Holy Tradition, and Liturgical Worship unchanged!  The Orthodox Church is in fact the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and its age is the same as that of Christianity itself.  Jesus Christ is the Head of His Church which is guided by the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages.  Amen!