The Orthodox Faith
The following is an adaptation from a text prepared by our parishioner Jason Kouri:
Many are not too sure what the Orthodox Church is, or what Orthodox Christians actually believe.”
The Orthodox Church is the Christian Church of our Lord Jesus Christ which He kept as His own throughout her history and challenges. We confess One loving God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The trinity, one in essence and inseparable.
In the beginning, God the Father through his Son in the Holy Spirit made all of the visible and invisible things and beings. The crown of His creation is humanity, both male and female, because he made us to be His image, to be mirrors of His likeness by being in a loving relationship with Him and with one another. But the Bible tells us that we chose to go our own way and to be our own gods and not only that but also to serve our own self rather than others by all sort of bad things called sin.
But God is love and did not want to leave us in our mess. He came down from Heaven through the greatest representative of humanity who was not living like most people do, but like God originally wanted us to live. This wonderful human being was a woman: the Most Holy and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God the Son made flesh. God who had no body, came down to us in her womb and became flesh from her flesh and from the Holy Spirit. God the Son became a human baby and was called, as ordered by angel Gabriel, by the human name Jesus which means ‘’The Lord saves’’. This is why in most Orthodox Church temples you will find painted on the central front wall the Virgin Mary enthroned with Christ. We do not adore the Ever-Virgin Mary as God, but we surely venerate and very highly acclaim her as humanity’s hero because she gave us our Saviour and lived the life God wills for all of us. God became a man through her so He could pull us out of living away from God and from the death that our sin brings upon us. For without God in us, we are mere mortals who disappear and are forgotten. But with God there is eternal divine life and through His incarnation and Resurrection, we are called to participate in His life. Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins; He conquered death and Hell and on the third day He rose again. So, in Orthodox temples, you will always find the crucifixion and an icon or a wall painting of the risen Christ going down to Hades (hell) to free Adam and Eve (who represent lost humanity) and give them life. Christ offers us our life with God back so we can walk with him again and love one another as God originally willed.
Then, after ascending back to Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ sent us the Holy Spirit so we could have enough power to live this new life and be connected with God through the Church. For Christ sent the apostles to all of the world to proclaim the Good News of God’s love for us so that all people are invited to join Christ’s church and be helped in their walk with God. The successors of the apostles are the bishops helped by local priests and clergy who are our leaders in proclaiming the Word of God and in blessing us with the sacraments (which include Baptism in which we are joined to the Church, Chrismation, in which we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist in which we receive the Precious body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for more on the Sacraments Click Here) . So, in most Orthodox temples you will find icons or wall paintings of the apostles, great bishops, and other great preachers of the Gospel such as the church fathers and other male and female saints. You also will often find images of parts of the Bible related to our salvation as well as of many Christians of the past or of biblical characters. As a community we love one another and help each other walk with God.
Jesus, the apostles and the first Christians were pious Jews who prayed together in a certain way in the Jerusalem Temple and in synagogues. The way Orthodox people pray together in their temples grew out of that original way of praying. Many things have been added and adapted but we mainly pray the same way Christians originally prayed.
There are so many other things we could talk about. Our clergy would be happy to have a conversation with you. Please do not hesitate to contact us to request a call back for a conversation or questions.
