Introduction to Orthodox Christianity
Welcome to the Orthodox Church Video Series
Welcome to the Orthodox Church! Join Frederica Mathewes-Green, in this video series, on a journey into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Learn about Orthodox teachings and dogma, Orthodox architecture and terminology, and what it means to live an Orthodox life. Click here to watch the full series.
First Time Visitors
This article is generally very helpful to those who are new to the Orthodox Church or are visiting an Orthodox parish for the first time. Some of the information shared by the author is specific to her own parish and is not universally true — but most of what she has to say is quite good and still applies. We hope you’ll find it helpful. Read the full article here.
Be the Bee Video Series
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Orthodox Christianity is perhaps the best-kept secret in America. Why? And how can we help share the Good News?
We’ll change the way we think about evangelism and learn two principles that should shape the way we introduce other people to Jesus Christ.
Because there’s a close connection between being the Lord’s witnesses and being close to the Lord.
As always, we’ve prepared a FREE downloadable workbook to help you act on what you’ll learn.
Origin and Spread of the Church
The Orthodox Christian Church was born on Pentecost in AD 33 with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles (see Acts 2:2-4). Through the missionary labors and martyric witness of countless men and women, and through the unbroken handing-down of the pure apostolic faith, it spread to every corner of the world: first the Near East, then Europe, Africa, and Asia. Orthodoxy was planted in North America in the late 18th century by monastic missionaries from Russia. Today the worldwide Orthodox Church has more than 225 million members. Each national Church (Russian, Greek, Serbian, etc.) is independent and self-administering but is united in faith and sacraments with all the others. Some five million Orthodox from diverse ethnic backgrounds now live in the United States and Canada.
The Fulness of Apostolic Faith
Orthodoxy believes that the eternal truth of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is preserved in its full integrity in the living tradition of the Church, under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Orthodox Christians recognize that other Christian groups have maintained many elements of the apostolic faith, but often in attenuated and distorted forms. With profound humility and a consciousness of her own weakness and her responsibility before God, Orthodoxy believes and proclaims that the complete and integral faith delivered to the saints by Jesus Christ has been preserved without alteration or diminution only within the communion of the Orthodox Church. Through the turbulent early centuries of the Church’s life, this faith was articulated and defended by councils of bishops. When false gospels were in circulation, the bishops of the Church compiled and proclaimed the true canon of Scripture, giving us the Bible read by all Christians to this day. When heretics distorted the apostolic faith, the bishops spoke with one voice, defending the truth with divinely-inspired depth and clarity. Whether they know it or not, all Christians today are the inheritors of this tradition whenever they acknowledge Christ as the incarnate Son of God, or offer praise to the Holy Trinity. The Scriptures and the faith alike are the gift of Orthodoxy to the world, and Orthodoxy prays fervently that all who bear Christ’s name may return again to the bosom of the one, true, and unchanging apostolic faith.
An Experiential Faith
The word “Orthodox,” from the Greek word orthodoxia, means both “right belief” and “right glory” or “worship.” In Orthodoxy faith and worship are intimately linked. According to the maxim of a fourth-century monk, Evagrius of Pontus, “a theologian is one who prays truly.” Orthodoxy is by very definition an experiential faith. It is not a set of rational beliefs, held more or less abstractly, but an all-encompassing way of life. For Orthodoxy, the touchstone of this life and faith is her liturgy, her corporate and public worship. Her worship has never lost its direct continuity with the worship of the ancient Church; the central hymn of the Church’s service of evening prayer was referred to by St Basil the Great in the fourth century as being so ancient that no one remembered who composed it. Orthodoxy experiences this liturgical faithfulness as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Far from being a lifeless adherence to the past, her liturgy is a miraculous wellspring of the inspiration which God has bestowed on generations of faithful men and women: prophets and poets, ascetics and visionaries. Orthodox liturgy binds together the whole people of God, living and departed, present, past and future, into the communion of love which is the very life of the Holy Trinity. This hallowed world of prayer is a world of unparalled depth and beauty, a world within which countless Orthodox have found “the one thing needful,” and have reached the heights of spiritual life. When in the tenth century envoys of Great Prince Vladimir of Kiev first experienced the Divine Liturgy in the Great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, they reported that they did not know if they were in heaven or on earth. An open heart can experience this heavenly beauty, this living, mysterious presence of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, even in the humblest parish church.
The fulness of Apostolic life
Orthodox Christianity remains steadfastly committed to a moral life consistent with holy Scripture and with traditional Christian faith, and therefore resists in the strongest terms the characteristic evils of our age: abortion, euthanasia, and all manifestations of a disregard for human life; sexual immorality and the disintegration of the family; the destruction of human community and the debauching of the human spirit in idolatrous commercialism and materialism; the tragic waste of human life and work in the demonic enterprise of war. These two inseparable aspects of the life of Orthodoxy – an unbending adherence to traditional moral life, doctrine, and worship, and the mysterious presence of the beauty, simplicity, and holiness of the ancient Church – have led many seekers and converts to embrace the Orthodox faith.
A faith for all people
No longer confined to immigrant communities, Christian Orthodoxy in America has taken her proper place as a faith for all people. As the Apostle Philip said to Nathaniel who was sitting under the sycamore tree, “Come and see…” (St John 1:46). And the Orthodox Church extends this invitation to you as well. Come and see the priceless treasure that is Orthodoxy: a gift of which none of us is worthy, but which God in His rich mercy has bestowed upon us.
