FAQ on Orthodoxy and Orthodox theology

FAQ

I have never heard of your Church?
Orthodoxy has existed since 33 AD. There are over 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. In the United States there are approximately 4 million. While we welcome anyone who is serious about searching for the fullness of the Christian faith, we don’t send out flyers in the mail proclaiming how fun we are; we don't have golf pros instructing on how to correct our slice and we don’t evangelize on television, soliciting your every last dime. We are the early Church. We fervently pray for people to see through the fluff of the easy, feel-good churches of today's secular society and find us, the church which God intended and which was handed to us by Christ himself.

Is the Orthodox Church Christian?
Resist the urge to shut down this page before fully reading the following paragraphs which address this question:

Orthodoxy is the ONLY true Christian church. Christianity was united for the first 1,000 years after Pentecost, as the Orthodox church. The Latin Church, now called the Catholic Church, separated from the unity of the faith by making heretical claims for the earthly powers of her Pope at the beginning of the 11th century. They completed their break (or schism) with the Orthodox by the 13th century.

Following, within the Catholic church itself, another schism occurred by way of The Protestant Reformation. The Protestants began the break from the Roman Catholic Church in 1517. When Martin Luther started to teach according to his own thoughts and was followed by Calvin, Zwingli and others, this new schism occurred in the Roman (Catholic) Church. As the centuries passed, many contradicting theologies were formed. The Church of the "One True Faith" got dissected and fragmented as a result of men wanting to insert their own logic, thoughts and ideals into the faith.

However, the Orthodox Church, understanding the priceless inheritance given to mankind by Christ, also understood the obvious danger of such carelessness and thus the need to preserve and protect it.

Do you believe in the Bible?
Of course we believe in the Bible -- we "wrote The Book"! Additionally, we believe the Bible to be God's inspired word written by man. We realize that to "quote scripture" is a sensitive thing, because it is open to interpretation. It is to be read wholly and conceptually rather than pieced apart to fit one's situation or needs.

For one, to say that Jesus Christ actually wrote or spoke the exact words in the Bible would be to show their lack of understanding of the history of the Bible and the Christian faith. Trying to hinge a faith on a few out of context interpretations of scripture without the wisdom of the ancient fathers is foolish.

When quoting scripture out of a Bible and proclaiming it to be the exact word of God one has to question which version of the Bible are you quoting from? There are so many translations out there with different meanings. None of them are exact translations of the original Greek and Hebrew.

The New Testament was written in Greek. Greek is the original language of these texts and represents the first generation of the New Testament. The hundreds of translations of the New Testament that exist today all differ from this original text.

The Septuagint, a Greek translation from the Hebrew done by 70 rabbis about one hundred and fifty years before Christ is the most accurate Old Testament text available. The accuracy of the Septuagint has been confirmed by comparing to the text from the dead sea scrolls. Other later translations, after Christ, from which many modern Old Testament translations come from, contain many errors. Many of the Jewish texts written after Christ's time were re-written to diminish prophecies and references to Christ.

The Bible is a part of our Holy Tradition. Together with the writings of the Desert Fathers, the seven Sacraments, the hymnography, iconography and the wisdom of the Ecumenical Councils. The Bible helps complete the fullness of "Orthodox Tradition". It is not our sole focus. How could it be? The Church of the Apostles came first followed centuries later by the Bible.

Many are shocked to find out that the unified, original (Orthodox) Church compiled the Bible. This occurred in the fourth century. It was compiled via the wisdom of the Great Ecumenical Councils and by the fathers of the church. The books of the Scriptures in their entirety as they are compiled today were listed in the fourth century in the Thirty-ninth Festal Epistle of Saint Athanasius the Great. Modern re-writers of history have come up with all sorts of new theories on how and when and where the bible was written. Any reader wishing to know the truth need only to research the original writings of the Church fathers as opposed to the latest flavor of the month on "how to interpret the scriptures" or "codes in the bible" books and shows.

Some writings were chosen as essential and others, though equally valid, were not included. Yet the teachings of them remains within the Church. So yes, we know something about the Bible. The most important thing we know is that The Church pre-existed the Bible by 3 1/2 centuries and was thereby the establishment of The Christian Orthodox Church.

One should look at the church to which they belong and ask themselves what kind of "Tradition" does it follow? After all, the Bible contains only a small fraction of the words spoken by Christ, the Apostles and none of those by the Great Saints that followed them. Only the Holy Tradition, writings and icons of the Church that were there from the beginning, contains the whole truth.

Protestant theology teaches a mis-trust of the Orthodox Churches Holy Traditions, liturgical worship, icons, veneration of the Mother of God and other things. Isn't it odd that it chooses not to also teach a mistrust in the Scriptures which the ancient church compiled into the Bible and preserved in Holy Tradition for 15 centuries before the first Protestant church ever was opened?

Do you have to be Greek to be Orthodox?
Absolutely not! Orthodoxy is catholic, which means 'Universal' -- so it could never belong to just one peoples. In the United States, the Orthodox Church is often referred to as the Greek Church. This is because Greek was the first language of the ancient Christian Church from which Christianity formed. The New Testament was originally written in Greek along with the writings of Christ's followers.

The Orthodox Church spread to many lands and adopted the respective languages of the people. The first Christians in Alaska (1700's) were Orthodox who came across the Bearing Sea from Russia. In the United States there can be found Orthodox Churches that conduct services in English, Greek, Russian, Serbian, Arabic and other languages.

How long are your services?
To some they may seem very long. To those who believe that they are in the presence of God during the Divine Liturgy and that they are witnessing the mystical transformation of the body and blood of Christ; those who believe that worship is "work" done by the people and not the entertainment of the people -- time is not relevant. It is not uncommon for a newcomer, attending his first service, to hear the Priest proclaim "let us complete our evening prayers to the Lord" and think the service was nearly over, only to still be standing there and hour or more later. Click here to see the text of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom

Do the Orthodox worship pictures?
Absolutely not! The Holy Icons, which are not merely "pictures" or "art", are venerated as windows to heaven. They are physical reminders of the glory and presence of God and his Kingdom.

The saint or scene depicted on the icon is what is venerated, not the icon itself. Likewise, icons are not "painted" but rather they are "written", for they tell a story of the person or event depicted. The icon was given to us as a tool, a reminder of the holy events and people throughout Christianity. In fact, Luke the Apostle and Evangelist wrote numerous holy icons under the direction of the Virgin Mary herself. How could anyone possibly deduce, therefore, that icons were not intended to be used by mankind, to aid in the worship of Her Son?

As mentioned above, we do not worship the icon itself, the piece of wood, only God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as the undivided Trinity. The beauty of the Orthodox Church is that it invokes all of the senses. To walk in and see the icons, smell the incense, hear the gorgeous hymns, taste the body and blood of Christ and be touched by the Holy Spirit is an experience unmatched by any rock band or smooth-talking evangelist.

Holy Pascha

Paschalion
(Dates of Pascha thru 2099)

Fasting Calendar Pascha 2009

Theotokos

Feast of the Dormition
of the Theotokos

Akathist Hymn

Hero Saints

Origins of the Church

Church of the Holy Wisdom

Is the Orthodox Church Christian? Resist the urge to shut down this page before fully reading the following paragraphs which address this question:

However, the Orthodox Church, understanding the priceless inheritance given to mankind by Christ, also understood the obvious danger of such carelessness and thus the need to preserve and protect it.

When quoting scripture out of a Bible and proclaiming it to be the exact word of God one has to question which version of the Bible are you quoting from? There are so many translations out there with different meanings. None of them are exact translations of the original Greek and Hebrew.

The New Testament was written in Greek. Greek is the original language of these texts and represents the first generation of the New Testament. The hundreds of translations of the New Testament that exist today all differ from this original text.

Do the Orthodox worship pictures? Absolutely not! The Holy Icons, which are not merely "pictures" or "art", are venerated as windows to heaven. They are physical reminders of the glory and presence of God and his Kingdom.

Is the Orthodox Church Christian?
Resist the urge to shut down this page before fully reading the following paragraphs which address this question:

Do the Orthodox worship pictures?
Absolutely not! The Holy Icons, which are not merely "pictures" or "art", are venerated as windows to heaven. They are physical reminders of the glory and presence of God and his Kingdom.