What is Orthodoxy?

Christ founded a Church through His apostles. His apostles in turn appointed bishops as their successors through the laying on of hands. Ever since then, the Church has been led and administered by bishops who descend from an unbroken chain of successors back to the apostles. For the first thousand years, this Church was largely unified, but around a thousand years ago there was a schism between east and west, with the west now being called “Roman Catholic” and the east being called “Orthodox”. It is the teaching of the Orthodox Church that this is the one true Church founded by Christ and that it is through the sacraments of this Church that a person grows in their relationship with God towards the goal of eternal salvation.