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Church-mosque- Museum Has Emerged: The story of this church-mosque- museum has emergedmuseum has emerged with greater clarity since 1945, when a Byzantine scholar named Muzaffer Ramazanoglu, undertook important excavations under the Floor of the nave and elsewhere. I once secured an interview with him to clear up confusions in my own mind resulting from conflicting accounts, and this is what he told me.
The Orthodox Eastern (Greek) Church is strong in Istanbul, which is, as a matter of fact, one of the four recognized patriarchates, along with Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.
7. The Kariye Mosque, another former church, is of outstanding charm because of its superb mosaics. This lovely little Byzantine structure is so appealing that it is in process of being converted, like St. Sophia, into a public museum.
These remained die major divisions of the church until the Reformation of the 16th century. After this time many Christians of die Church of Rome separated into dissenting denominations or sects, each of which came to be known as a particular church (Anglican Church; Presbyterian Church; Methodist Church). Each remained widiin die Christian tradition but proclaimed a distinctive creed and ritual. Similar divisions within the Eastern Church emerged as die Armenian Church, the Coptic Church, and the Orthodox Church. |
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