At the beginning of the Christian faith, the teachings of Jesus moved out in many different directions from their central homeland in Palestine. There were cultural manifestations that went East into the Semitic world, and West into Greco-Roman society of the Mediterranean Basin. Those that went West (Occidental Christianity) are the ones we know best today. Those that continued on in the East (Oriental Christianity), while lesser known, maintained an important early spirit of the Christian faith. Western Christianity was characterized by conformity of belief and uniformity of practice under the Roman Empire. Those forms that prospered in the East were more concerned with a vision of hope and a generosity of spirit that sustained a vibrant sense of the original message of Jesus. This form of Christian life and practice is being recalled and recovered today in the West complementing and balancing our more familiar understanding of the Christian faith. That restoration is something we call “Oriental Orthodoxy.”