Eastern orthodox what is it

What is Christian Orthodoxy? View more articles and videos introducing you to the Orthodox Christian Church ». An ever-growing number of persons from various backgrounds are becoming interested in the Orthodox Church. These individuals are discovering the ancient faith and rich traditions of the Orthodox Church.

They have been attracted by her mystical vision of God and His Kingdom, by the beauty of her worship, by the purity of her Christian faith, and by her continuity with the past.

These are only some of the treasures of the Church, which has a history reaching back to the time of the Apostles. The Orthodox Church in this country owes its origin to the devotion of so many immigrants from lands such as Greece, Russia, the Middle East, and the Balkans.

For the Orthodox, tradition is not a substitute for the Bible, but a necessary supplement to it. The Bible itself needs interpretation, and this interpretation occurs though the action of the Holy Spirit working through the entire believing community. Such interpretation is never carried out individually, because this would open the door to individual error, fragmentation, and strife—as the fallenness of the world intrudes through the egocentricity that stealthily lurks in each of us.

The church guards against this by looking to the believing community as a whole, as expressing itself particularly through the Seven Ecumenical Councils the last of which was conducted in , for proper interpretation. In other words, there is a repository of commonly accepted wisdom and teaching, the Holy Tradition, which addresses questions and problems that may not be directly and openly dealt with in the Bible.

Of course, this teaching can never contradict Holy Scripture. Through this attention to Holy Tradition, Orthodoxy has largely avoided the fragmentation that has plagued Protestantism, while at the same time avoiding the autocratic arbitrariness of the Roman Catholic Church.

In Orthodoxy, no single person aside from Christ , has absolute and infallible authority. This authority is vested in the believing community; this is the heart of the concept of Holy Tradition. Therefore, we do not say that any dead persons are already damned, nor do we suggest that any deceased believers—no matter how moral their behavior in life—are without need of further purification or cleansing. The Orthodox Church sees those who have already experienced physical death as being in a state of anticipation of their future fate, of either bliss or suffering.

The Orthodox, in keeping with our reservations about over-defining, do not postulate the existence of purgatory along the lines of the Roman Catholic Church.

There is no bargaining to be done with God to lessen the suffering of those who are trapped at death in a state of sin. Instead, what Orthodoxy encourages is the desire, in living persons, to be cleansed themselves so that they will be more pleasing to God.

Ultimately, the Orthodox believe that the final fate of each person will only be clearly decided at the final judgment, which will occur after the Second Coming of Christ. The consideration of cleansing brings us to two related teachings—original sin and atonement. The Orthodox, with their Protestant and Catholic brothers and sisters, affirm that this world is fallen, and because of this we are born into an environment where it is easier for us to do evil rather than good.

Though our solidarity with the rest of humanity, we are entangled in a web of deceit, of hatred and of sin. And through our personal contribution, this state of fallenness continues. Original sin points to our solidarity with the rest of humanity and does not, in a strict sense, imply guilt. Rather, it points to our involvement. Because through Christ, we are restored to communion with God.

The essence of the Incarnation is love. We now, at last, see clearly what humanity is to become. The Orthodox Church lays particular emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist, and in the Prayer of Consecration calls on the Father to send down his Holy Spirit to effect the change of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Although the Church is a self-governing community the Church recognises the diaconate, the presbyterate or priesthood and the episcopate bishops. The Bishops in the Orthodox Church are considered to be the direct successors of the original Apostles and they are very much a unifying focus in the Church. Priests in the Orthodox Church are permitted to be married but may not marry after ordination. Bishops must always be celibate. Orthodox priests normally do not shave their beards, in accordance with the Bible.

All Orthodox Churches use the Mystery of Penance, or Confession, but in Greek speaking Churches only priests who have been blessed by the Bishop as 'Spiritual Fathers' are allowed to hear confession. Children may be admitted to the sacrament of Confession as soon as they are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Through this sacrament sinners may receive forgiveness. They enter into confession with a priest often in an open area in the church not in a confessional as in the Roman Catholic tradition nor separated by a grille.

Both priest and penitent stand and a cross and book of the Gospels or an icon is placed in front of the penitent with the priest standing slightly apart. This stresses that the priest is simply a witness and that forgiveness comes from God not the priest.

The priest will then hear the confession and perhaps give advice. After confession the penitent kneels before the priest, who places his stole on the penitent's head saying a prayer of absolution. In Greek-speaking Churches this is performed annually for the whole congregation during Holy Week on the eve of Holy Wednesday. Everyone is encouraged to come forward for anointing with the special oil whether they are physically ill or not. This is because it is generally held that all are in need of spiritual healing even if they are physically well.

Anointing of the sick can also be performed on individuals. People sometimes keep the blessed oil of the sick in their homes. The Church anoints the sick with oil, following the teaching of St James in his Epistle , "Is anyone among you sick?

He should summon the presbyters of the Church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up.

If he has committed any sins he will be forgiven. This sacrament,', remarks Sergius Bulgakov, 'has two faces: one turns towards healing, the other towards the liberation from illness by death. Marriage is celebrated through the rite of crowning , showing the importance of eternal union of the couple. Although marriage is seen as a permanent commitment in life and in death, remarriage and divorce are permitted in certain circumstances.

Icons are of great importance to Orthodox Christians. These beautiful and elaborate paintings are described as "windows into the kingdom of God". They are used in worship both in the decoration of the church and for private homes. The icon is seen as both a form of prayer and a means to prayer. An icon is usually an elaborate, two dimensional painting. They often have a gold leaf background and are usually on wood.

They depict Christ, his mother Mary , scenes from the Bible or the lives of the Saints. The iconographer prepares for the painting of an icon with prayer and fasting. By worshipping at the Icon the Orthodox Christian enters into a sacred place with God.

The icon is venerated and often candles and oil lamps are burnt before them. The worshipper kisses the icon, making the sign of the Cross and may kneel or prostrate before it. In most Orthodox churches the Altar, or sanctuary, is separated from the main body of the church by a solid screen known as the iconostasis , pierced by three doors, the one in the centre being known as the Holy door. The screen is decorated with icons, of which the principal ones are those on either side of the Holy Door of Christ and the Mother of God.

These are normally flanked by icons of St John the Baptist and of the Saint, or Feast, to which the church is dedicated. In Russian churches the iconostasis normally forms a solid wall decorated with four or five rows of icons according to an elaborate traditional arrangement. The composer Sir John Tavener is one of Britain's most famous followers of Orthodox Christianity and calls icons "the most sacred, the most transcendent art that exists".

Bartholomew has angered Moscow Patriarch Kirill with his move to grant the Ukrainian church independence from Russia's church. Read more: The main differences between Catholics and Protestants. Holy Spirit: One of the main differences between the churches concerns the provenance of the Holy Spirit, or God's spiritual presence on earth.

It is one of the three parts of the Christian Trinity, the other two being God the Father and his human son, Jesus. The differences over this question were — and still are — one of the primary causes of the schism between the two churches.

Celibacy: In the Catholic Church, celibacy — the vow of abstaining from marriage and sexual relations — is obligatory for priests. Most Orthodox Churches have both ordained married priests and celibate monastics, so celibacy is an option. All of the bishops and patriarchs are normally taken from the ordained monks.. Protestants reject celibacy: 16th-century Reformer Martin Luther refused to accept that virginity was superior to marriage.

Festivals: The Orthodox Church observes the Julian calendar, so its followers celebrate religious festivals on different dates to Catholics and Protestants, who use the more recent Gregorian calendar. Every evening at UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism.

You can sign up to receive it directly here.