The history of the Christian Church begins in the first century with the preaching of Jesus Christ, His death on the Cross and His Resurrection, and with the witness of the apostles, who were charged to proclaim the Gospel to all nations.
The first community of Christ’s disciples took shape in Jerusalem. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost marked the beginning of the open apostolic ministry and the spread of the Christian faith.
Over the first centuries, Christian communities arose in Judaea, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, Rome and other lands of the Mediterranean.
The ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons gradually took shape at the head of the local communities. The bishop was understood above all as the spiritual shepherd of the community, the guardian of apostolic teaching and the one who presided over the eucharistic assembly.
The unity of the Church was expressed in a common faith, in the celebration of the Sacraments, in the mutual recognition of church communities and in the conciliar resolution of questions that arose in Christian life.
Already in the early Christian period the understanding of apostolic succession had formed: the handing on of the episcopal ministry through ordination from one generation to the next.
For the Apostolic Orthodox Church this tradition is of fundamental importance. In its understanding of church history, the AOC looks not only to the later forms of Orthodox organisation but above all to the age of the ancient Christian communities, in which unity of faith went hand in hand with the active participation of the faithful in the life of the Church.