"Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain new comers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."  (Hebrews 13:1-2)

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ:

We hope our Holy Trinity Church website gives you a good sense of who we are as Orthodox Christians, of what we believe about God and His Church, and of the corporate religious experience of the Christian Faith, as expressed in the Symbol of Faith and as lived in the Church. 

Firstly, Orthodox Christians can not exist in isolation.  By definition, all Christians belong to Another, in the first place to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and by extention to our neighbor through grace.  This belonging to each other is realized as Theanthropic Communion in the Eschaton.  This belonging is the real presence of Christ, the incarnate Word and Son of God, made flesh through the uncreated grace in the midst of our collective identity as the Orthodox Church in the world today.  St John of Damascus observes: "The Holy Catholic Church of God, therefore, is the assembly of the holy fathers, patriarchs , prophets, apostles, evangelists and martyrs who have existed from the beginning, to whom were added all the nations who believed with the same spirit "(PG 96, 1357c).

Secondly, the Orthodox Church is not of this world.  It is not an institution.  It was not founded by a human guru, holy man or teacher, nor by any empire, government or revolution. The Orthodox Church does not propose enlightenment, a code of moral conduct, nor a religious philosophy.  St Gregory the Theologian describes ours as a meta-reality, by saying: "The Prophets established the Church, the Apostles united it, and the Evangelists ordained it "(PG 35, 589 A).

Thirdly, when Saint Paul the Apostle (Ephesians 1:23 and 4:4-13; Colossians 2:19; 1 Corinthians 10:17) asserts that the Orthodox Church constitutes the Mystical Body of the risen Christ, and likewise, the Holy Fathers teach that the Church existed before all other things, even before time and space, what we are persuaded to understand by this is that the Orthodox Church is Creation itself, Mankind, the World, Space-Time as the God in Trinity willed all realities to be (Genesis 1:26-28).

Thus, St. Gregory the Theologian refers to the agelessnesss of the Church of Christ as encompassing all times "... both before Christ and after Christ" (PG 35: 1108-9). In like manner, St. Epiphanius of Cyprus writes: "The Catholic Church, existed in all ages, but was definitely revealed through the advent of the incarnate Christ "(PG 42: 640).

The Orthodox Church being described by the Church Fathers herein, in other words "The Theanthropic Being" (in St. Justin Popovic's terminology) has existed since the creation of the Angels who saw how the worlds were formed; and they have always been members of the Church.  St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, says the Orthodox Church "was created before the sun and the moon," and elsewhere he adds, "The Church has not now come into being for the first time, but existed since the beginning" (II Cor. 14).

The Shepherd of Hermas, offers us a dialogue by way of analogy to describe the timeless and eternal character of the Orthodox Church:

"Brothers, while I was sleeping, I had the revelation of a very beautiful young man, who rebuked me, saying: "Who do you think was the old woman who gave you that book?" And I answered him, saying "Surely, it was the Sibyl."  "No, you're wrong," he told me, "it wasn't her."  "Who was She?" I asked.  "She's the Church," he whispered to me. "Why was She so old?" I asked again.  "Because She is the first-created," he answered me.  "She was formed before all other things; that is why She looked so old because the worlds were formed to adorn Her."

Lastly, the Orthodox Church's prayer and especially its worship of the Holy Trinity is the key.  In the Church liturgy, Orthodox Christians are bound up to each other in the supernatural life communicated to them by the Holy Spirit as uncreated grace (John 15:5-16).  In its worship, the Orthodox Church preserves intact this deposit of faith poured down on the Apostles in the flesh, but much more than that, as well -- prayer inscribes in us the very likeness of Christ. 

We invite all people to join us in sharing this Apostolic Tradition which has its roots in the Oneness, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity of Christ, the God-man.  Open the doors of our little church on D Street for all to come in!  All you newcomers!  Feel welcome, Muslims and Buddhists, Albanians or Brazilians, rich or poor, African Americans and Asian Americans alike.  "Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matthew 25,23).

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!" (Psalm 33:9 LXX)

The blessings of the Lord,

Hieromonk Paul