History of Christianity

Christianity arrived early in church history. The apostle Paul was one early pioneer and Christian tradition says that John spent his later life in and near Ephesus. Several Church Councils were held in Turkey, notably at Nicea (325), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451).

One lamentable historical event was the Fourth Crusade which sacked Constantinople motivated by tensions between the centers of power of the western churches and eastern churches.

Today, there are several traditional churches of which the Byzantine/Greek Orthodox Church is the largest. The Eastern Orthodox family of churches retains Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) as the seat of its Ecumenical Patriarch, who is “the first among equals” of the family’s presiding bishops. There are many Protestant churches most of whose members are of Muslim heritage. Numerically, the largest Christian community is probably the Farsi speaking fellowships among the Iranian diaspora.