What is Orthodoxy?

What is the Orthodox Church?

     That's kind of a big question. There are whole books written on the subject. The simple, short answer is this: It is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Catholic, in this instance, means simply whole, or universal. We are the church of the Apostles. We can trace our history back to the Church in Acts.

     Prior to 1054, there was only one church. It was under five Patriarchs - one in Rome, one in Alexandria, one in Constantinople, one in Antioch, and one in Jerusalem. They were equals with each other, one was not above the other, although the Patriarch of Rome was held "first in honor," because Rome was where St. Peter was bishop. Through a long series of events, in 1054 the Patriarch of Rome, Pope Leo IV excommunicated Patriarch Michael of Constantinople, who excommunicated him in turn. Surprisingly, the split didn't fully finish until 150 years later, when the Western Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople. 1054 is still generally acknowledged as the date of the Great Schism, as it is called.

    After the Schism there were two churches, the Roman Catholic Church in the West, and the Orthodox Church in the East. The Orthodox Church stayed the same, the same theology, the same services, the same traditions, while the Roman Church add on a bunch of practices and theology over the years, changing some of it as they went. Then, in the 16th century, Martin Luther came on the scene and Protestantism was born. They had a lot of true things to say about the Catholic Church, but they did not come back to Eastern Church, but split off and did their own thing.

     So now there are three main branches of Christianity - Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The Catholics broke off from the Orthodox, and the Protestants broke off from the Catholics. Here's a diagram (pulled from the Antiochian Archdiocese website) that might be helpful in visualizing.

But what do we believe, exactly?

     We confess the Nicene (technical name Nicene-Constantinopolitan) Creed. To be Orthodox is to confess and believe everything in the Creed, and everything that it implies, not only the words, but the full meaning as well. 

     I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible. 

     And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of light; true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end. 

     And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets. 

     In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

     But really, most churches would agree with all this. It's pretty much the basic tennets of the Christian faith. So what makes the Orthodox different?

     For one, we're a sacramental Church. God is "everywhere present and filling all things", and how we worship and live our lives is reflective of this. For Orthodoxy, Christianity isn't just a one time mental acceptance, is is ongoing, it is growing, it is a continuation, a drawing nearer to God. We become partakers of Him through Christ. We are joined to Christ's Body, the Church. Christ joins us to Himself through the Sacraments. For Orthodox, unlike the Catholics, there's no fixed number. All of life is sacramental. But there are some that are "bigger" than others. 

The Eucharist

     Sometimes called the Sacrament of Sacraments. This is the center of Orthodox worship, it is what Divine Liturgy culminates around. The bread and wine become mystically the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we partake of it we are in communion with Christ and with His Church. It is the celebration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ.

Baptism and Chrismation

     Baptism and Chrismation are two different sacraments, but they normally go together. Baptism is where the old creation dies away and all things become new. We believe that baptism is an actual changing act - you go into the water the old man (or woman), you come out the new. Because of this, we baptize children and infants. 

     Chrismation immediately follows baptism. It is the anointing of the holy oil, the Chrism, which conveys the Holy Spirit. 

Salvation

     Another thing that sets us apart from the Western churches is how we look at salvation. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, it was like they started a sickness. Sin entered the world through them, and with sin, death. Because we are born into a fallen, diseased world, we ourselves are sick. We are separated from God, because sin has no communion with Him. We are broken, not whole. We are God's creation, and He loves us more perfectly than we could ever imagine. So, in order to save us, to heal us, He sent His Son, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.

    The God who created Heaven and Earth was born as a helpless baby, one of us. He lived as we do, he ate, drank, slept, worked, played, laughed, cried - except for one thing. He did not sin. And then, finally in the end, He was crucified, killed in the most horrible, awful way imaginable. He took with Him into death our sick, diseased, fallen human nature. He took Hades captive, He freed us from the bondage of death, and then, on that glorious day, He rose from the tomb. He raised human nature with Himself, creating it anew.

     Now we can be joined to Him, to God. We are buried with Him through baptism into death, we are raised into newness of life. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we are partakers of Him in Communion, we confess our sins and are forgiven in Confession. Christ, working through the Church, saves us.

     We understand salvation as a process, what we call theosis. Theosis means "becoming God-like." Someone once said "Christ became man so that man might become god." Obviously, we do not become God, we become God like, made in His image. We are all icons, images, of Christ. That image was marred by the fall, but it is healed through salvation, through theosis. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware once said it thus: "I was saved, I am being saved, and I hope to be saved," meaning: "I was saved at baptism, I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling, and I hope I do not fail the Race in the end."

Saints and Icons

     Another large part of our tradition are saints. Saints are those who we know, through their life and death, to have finished the race, to have fought the good fight. They are, essentially, those we know to be in heaven. 

     Foremost among them all is the Virgin Mary, whom we call Theotokos. Theotokos means "Life-giving Mother of God"

     We view saints as the "great cloud of witnesses" that St. Paul talks about, they're those cheering us along as we run the Race. We pray to them to ask them to pray for us - we don't worship them. It's like asking a friend to pray for you.

We also use icons, but not as idols, as some think. We think of them as windows into heaven, they're like photos of loved ones. We kiss them, like one might kiss a photo of an absent parent or friend. The honor given to icons is given to that which the icon represents. In the early church, and today, they were and are used as teaching tools, especially for those who cannot read. 

In conclusion

Here are some links to the sources I used to fact-check myself, if you want a better and more in-depth explanation of things.
For Orthodoxy in general, Church history, theology, etc, the OCA's Orthodox Faith series.
For the basic "what is the Orthodox Church" question, the Antiochian Archdiocese article on it is really good. They also have the timeline, slightly expanded upon, that I used here.
The Greek Archdiocese article on the Sacraments is where I drew most of my explanations for that from.

If you have questions, or want to know more, please ask! I will do my best to answer you, or point you towards better answers somewhere on the web.