What is the oldest Eastern Church?

[Cormaria]

What is the oldest Eastern Church/Rite?

 

[Aramis]

The Alexandrian, Antiochene Roman, Thomas Christian (indian) all trace their central sees back directly to the 12. Rome, Antioch, St. Peter; Alexandria, St. Mark; India, St. Thomas.

Byzantium diverges from Antioch. The Syrians of Antioch were replaced by Byzantines, but the Syrian rite diverges into several churches: Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Chaldean, Maronite

The Thomas Christians remain united to the Syrians, but now are distinct churches: The Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankar, Malankara Orthodox, Jacobites… and some others I can’t remember.

The Origins of the Armenians are a couple generations later, as are the Maronites.

But the first Patriarchal Church was that of Jerusalem, under St. James. It no longer survives as an independent church. Peter set out from there, as did St. Mark, St. Thomas, and their assistants.

 

[Hesychios]

What is the oldest Eastern Church/Rite?

I think that this is a difficult question to answer because a church is not a rite (and vice versa) and the whole question of what constitutes a church needs to be addressed.

Much of what I state here is conjecture, I apologize in advance for that.

Father Louis Bouyer argued (and I speculate) that the liturgical traditions of an area were initially influenced by the synagog practices of that area and were not standardized. For Jews, incorporating the Eucharist into the synagog service was a no-brainer, since they all used the table blessings at home anyway. In other words, the liturgy was a ‘second nature’ kind of event for them, no manual needed. They all knew the basics and even the Apostles could theoretically adjust their own practice from town to town in adapting to local custom, if they wished to.

Of course, very early on the Christians were banned from synagog services (and cursed) so it would be no surprise that a generation of laity and priests would eventually arise which had no living memory of attending synagogs, and the traditions began to diverge. The liturgy had to be taught to new gentile convert priest candidates, and that meant a codification of sorts. The churches of the bigger cities were supporting missions and sending bishops, priests and deacons out which were trained in their cathedrals, and so the bigger church centers were setting standards or establishing customs for larger regions.

The liturgy of Saint James is considered by many scholars to be the oldest continually practiced formal liturgical tradition, but it must be understood that this liturgy has undoubtedly evolved over the centuries and from place to place. It was used in Antioch and spread from there. This does not make churches of the Antiochian tradition the oldest (all Apostolic churches date from the Pentecost event), but it may mean their ‘rite’, or ritual practice is the oldest. (Although it was used in Palestine, I have not seen any writers seriously claim that it originated with the Jerusalem congregation. It was attributed to Saint James, but that does not mean he actually ‘wrote’ it.)

Church structures are a different matter, they change over time. For instance, the Jerusalem church was essentially annihilated in the (two) Jewish wars. Jews were forbidden to live there, and that prevented the Jewish Christians as well. Romans and others settled in the city and Jerusalem became a ‘Greek’ diocese under the Metropolitan of Ceasarea. Later still it was elevated to a Patriarchate ‘above’ Ceasarea.

I basically agree with Aramis’ brief account of the different particular churches. It is really hard to pack all relevant information into one thread (much less one post) when the subject would justify a book.