Canadian75 said:
We are the 'Catholic and Apostolic Church' yet we go by the adjective 'Orthodox'. At what point did we take on this adjective? Why did we drop 'Catholic'?
We never dropped "Catholic". It only fell out of common usage among us because in the West, it's so common to refer to the RCC as the "Catholic Church" even among secular sources, and it's easy enough as it is for many people to think we're just a branch of the RCC or a schismatic sect. Common use of the "C" word has exacerbated the confusion, so in a lot of places we elect not to use it.
If you don't think the confusion is that big of a deal, know that the Antiochian Archdiocese's official name is the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America. IIRC, "Christian" had to be added because so many people thought Orthodox meant we were Jewish, or the Middle-Eastern appearance of many of our members meant we were Muslim. To this day a lot of American Antiochian clergy wear Roman-style collars and shirts rather than cassocks, because at least that way people know they're Christian.
Wouldn't it make more sense to call ourselves the Orthodox Catholic Church (The correct-doctrine/worship universal church)?
We do. Many of our service books and other text materials are marked with our name as the "Orthodox Catholic Church". And it is definitely not considered wrong to refer to the Orthodox Church as the "Orthodox Catholic Church"... it's just that on materials used for evangelism and education among laypersons, it can greatly interfere with our missionary purpose to use terms that, while correct, could foster misconceptions.
It seems 'Catholic' is regularly used by the Church Fathers and the Roman Catholics constantly try and use these quotes in support for thier position. Yet, we are that 'Catholic' Church and when we try to use support from the Church fathers we have to go the extra step to explain that though we use the term 'Orthodox' we in fact are the 'Catholic' Church described in the writings. It makes little sense to me.
I have no qualms about using the ECF quotes that refer to the Orthodox Church as the "Catholic Church". I think that it helps people when thinking about the Orthodox Church as
the Christian Church. But I still think we need to do all we can to avoid confusion with the RCC in our mission work. Nothing
against them, obviously, it's just that a lot of times people who see some of the unique doctrines and practices of the RCC as problematic might assume that the Orthodox Catholic Church embraces those things as well, and try to compel us to defend doctrines and practices that we have nothing to do with or don't agree with ourselves. Sometimes, when we explain that we don't share those doctrines, people have gotten it in mind that we split off from the RCC over those things, that we're some kind of little synod in resistance, and from there it's even more difficult to turn things around and explain that the RCC split off from
us, not the other way around.
Also, it's easier to help people develop an Orthodox mindset if they don't constantly have heterodox ideas in mind to compare us to.