During the first centuries of Christianity, the foundations of the Church’s doctrine, liturgical life and canonical order were laid.
The Ecumenical Councils were of particular importance: at them the Church settled questions of Christology, doctrine and church discipline, and of the relations between the local communities.
In time the great centres of the Christian world took shape, and around them the church traditions of East and West developed.
The history of Christianity has seen both the strengthening of unity and profound divisions. One of the most significant was the gradual estrangement of Eastern and Western Christianity, traditionally associated with the events of 1054.
The Apostolic Orthodox Church belongs to the Eastern Christian Orthodox tradition. It confesses faith in the Holy Trinity and in the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, and it remains faithful to Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition and the dogmatic inheritance of the Ecumenical Councils.
At the same time, the AOC recognises the spiritual and cultural significance of both the Eastern and the Western Christian inheritance, in so far as it accords with its Orthodox teaching.
According to the Confession of Faith of the AOC, the one Church of Christ is manifested in many local Churches and communities, united by faith, by the Sacraments and by the action of the Holy Spirit.
This conviction underlies its understanding of church unity: above all as unity in Christ, which cannot be reduced to the existence of a single administrative centre.