The Name of the Church The Church is referred to as the Greek
Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, or simply the
Orthodox Church. The word orthodox is derived from the Greek
words orthos, meaning correct, and dokein, meaning to believe
and to praise. So those who believe and worship correctly are
known as Orthodox Christians. The word Greek is used because
Greek was the first language of Christianity. The New Testament
was written in Greek and most of the important documents of the
Early Church were written in Greek, which at that time was the
universal language. It was Alexander the Great (366 B.C - 323 B.
C.) who was mainly responsible for spreading the Greek language
and culture all over the known world. The Church of Rome was
also a Greek-speaking Church and the first missionaries to
France and England were Greeks from Asia Minor. Latin did not
become the official language of Western Christianity until a few
centuries later. The Church is also called Eastern Orthodox, to
distinguish it from the C