“The Church can only be the Church if it is in real, literal, historical continuity with the Apostles. There is a ‘body’ in history that has one faith, one worship, a traceable development and continuity which began historically with the Apostles. If there is no Church which has the fullness of grace and truth, the fullness of Christ’s presence, then Jesus failed and the world hasn’t been saved. We believe and proclaim to this day that there is a Church in which the fullness of grace and truth, which resides in Christ, is made accessible to human beings. The Church is salvation; the Church is eternal life in its deepest and fullest sense. This salvation is in the Orthodox Church.”
– Father Thomas Hopko of blessed memory,
and Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.
