Eastern Orthodox Church Puns

Hello my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. My question is truly an earnest one and I am here in good faith.

The entirety of my experience thus far is based solely on personal internet conversation or observance, as I've so far only had the pleasure of meeting a singular Orthodox Christian which was, funnily enough, at a talk given by a Catholic priest at a seminary.

Of course you lot view the Roman Catholic church as the schismatic one and we feel the opposite. That said, there seems to be a lot of unresolved anger that those in the Orthodoxy hold against us that we don't share.

Firstly, you are permitted, as per our reckoning, to receive communion in a Roman church, but this and the inverse is strictly forbade in Orthodoxy.

There also seems to be a general consensus that the Catholic church is infiltrated by evil and heresy and as such, I've seen many Orthodox believers say that the schism will never heal, that referring to one another as [fallen away] brothers in Christ is disingenuous and wrong, that the Pope is a heretic, amongst other things.

Let me summate. My question is this: why is there a seemingly one sided disdain for the other half between our two churches?

I was wondering what roles women have in the Eastern Orthodox Church, are they nuns, abbesses, teachers, physicians etc?

I’m curious about some basics of Orthodoxy, and I came across this book and wondered if it would be a good tool or not. Thanks!

From what I’ve read, it rests on pretty slim evidence. Basically what I’m asking is if Apostolic succession has any real basis in history (Did Peter actually start the church in Rome and pass on an office of bishop to another, did any of the others who knew Jesus pass on their station (James in Jerusalem for example) etc.

I tried to find any source on this and could not find it, but maybe I’m missing something?

Personally it Burns my blood and it's something you see always Americans doing. If I was dead and I knew there was a church already there and especially what I guess the flexibility of proper protestant perspective of sister churches I would do everything I can to help strengthen the native church.

Are there any ex-traditional Catholics who can't stand the toxic behavior of trads and at the same time also don't like the New Mass/Vatican II changes who therefore end up joining the Eastern Orthodox Church?

In his Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology, Andrew Louth states that, as a priest, 'I am not a bishop. I do not have the grace 'rightly to discern the word of truth'' (pages 1 and 2). This strongly implies that non-bishops are not able to do theology.

On the other hand, David Bentley Hart is a layman, but still does theology. More than that, he does theology in order to convince other people. Yet I assume that he does this within the bounds of what the Eastern Orthodox Church allows...?

Are Eastern Orthodox people who are not bishops allowed to do theology? Even if this contradicts the bishops' or the majority Church opinion?

(And by "allowed" I mean "able to do this without sinning or falling into disrepute with the Church")

I don't know if this is the best place to ask it, but do any Dutch Orthodox know of any parishes in the southern region of the Netherlands? I really wish to follow a mass but the map of churches in the Netherlands only shows them in the Randstad. God bless!

Greetings;

On r/Christianity, I shared that I had been questioning Catholicism, and have been visiting other denominations. This past Sunday I visited a local Eastern Orthodox Church and didn't understand anything that went on during the service (Service? Liturgy? Mass? I don't know what you guys call it).

There are multiple reasons why I was probably lost. First, I probably was expecting something similar to the Catholic Mass (Most of the services I've previously visited were basically the Catholic Mass with slight tweaks), and I was making an unfair comparison. Second, and I'm not sure if this applies to every Eastern Orthodox Church, the person singing and the priest talking were always combined together to the point that everything that was being spoken/sung was indecipherable.

Could someone point me in the right direction of what's going on, so that if I were to go to that Church again, I could be a little more prepared?

I (19F) have been particularly drawn to Eastern Orthodox Christianity after I began questioning my pentacostal upbringing. I am ethnically Nigerian (Yoruba) but I was raised in England. I have a number of concerns.

I am aware that many Eastern Orthodox churches are ethnocentric and this does not bother me. I am very used to being the only black person in the room. However, I do want to be married and start a family. I don't think anyone in the Eastern Orthodox Church is racist at all. That being said, I do recognise that because of various cultural attitudes towards interracial unions, I fear that my options to marry will be limited. I personally have nothing against it but I desire peace. I do not wish to ruffle any feathers nor do I want to cause unrest in any families. Furthermore, there are not many people from my ethnic background that consider Orthodoxy. Does this mean I should just expect to remain single? I can come to accept this but I still want to explore my options.

Joining an Orthodox Church with a high level of black membership is hard in the UK. The few that exist are very far from where I live and I currently do not have the finances nor the transportation to get there. This is not the States and the West African immigrants are traditionally Pentacostal.

I am considering moving to Nigeria but again Nigeria is a) a large country with very few Orthodox Churches b) a very foreign nation to me, Britian is all I know c) the economic state of the country is not good and is rather difficult to navigate. I am willing to try but it's definitely easier to stay here for now.

My final option would be considering Catholicism instead which I am aware has slightly higher numbers of Black British and West African membership. But I feel more moved towards the Orthodox Church.

Where should I direct my efforts? Or should I just expect to remain single for now?

Btw I'm referring to the doctrines of those Methodists who are theologically conservative and not the liberal/progressive ones. Thank you for your response. 😊

Of course I am speaking of us Eastern-Orthodox-based-in-America as a whole, not just OCA. Precursory googling (Googling?) leads to more confusion, not less. What do you all think and say and know?

Thanks in advance.

I have read Catholic sources label St John of Damascus (died c. 749) as "the last of the Greek Fathers" – do Eastern Orthodox agree with that?

Conversely, Catholic sources tend to identify the endpoint of the Church Fathers at somewhat different places in the Latin West, but not consistently. The most conservative endpoint is St Isidore of Seville (died 636). Other Catholic authors include later figures as Church Fathers – the St Bede the Venerable (died 735), Bernard of Clairvaux (died 1153) and Pope Innocent III (died 1216). I can't see any Orthodox agreeing that Bernard or Innocent are Church Fathers – they were both born after the East-West schism, but what about St Bede the Venerable, given that he was a (geographically distant) contemporary of St John of Damascus? Who would Orthodox call "the last of the Latin Fathers"?

Whoever is the last of the Church Fathers, does it follow that all Saints prior to that, who have left us their writings, also count as Church Fathers?

Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jehudiel, Barachiel, Jeremiel

Christology is essentially our study and understanding of who Jesus is from a theological perspective. Ecclesiology is the study of the nature of the Church. Orthodox writer and theologian Vladimir Lossky in his work "The Mystical understanding of the Eastern Church" speaks and reflects on this in his work. And I think its a relevant observation for this reason. One of the things that Lossky points out is the fact that in the Christology of the Church, Christ is both human and divine. In the Chalcedonian Creed we call this the hypostatic union. Non Chalcedonian Churches like the Oriental Orthodox Churches still hold to this truth, but experience it using terminology outside of Chalcedon.

Why is this relevant? Because we also believe the Church is the body of Christ. Jesus's presence on earth. So if Christ is both human and divine, the Church itself is both a human AND divine reality. Vatican II in its documents such as Lumen Gentium and its writings on the Liturgy reflect this as well. The human aspect is of course ordinary human beings like you or I who make up the Church. The divine aspect are the sacraments, liturgy, the word, the mystical reality of the Church, etc.

This insight grounds us against extremes we can fall into when it comes to the role of the Church in the world. There are some people who only emphasize the human aspect of who Jesus's is, and consequently on the human aspect of the Church. Essentially reducing it down to a social club. There are others who focus exclusively on the divine aspect of who Christ is, and subsequently only the divine aspect of what the Church is. This is a 1st century heresy called Docetism. A Docetic Christology, leads to a Docetic Ecclesiology(understanding of the Church) which in turn leads to a other worldly understanding of the Church where, because the Church is only focused on heavenly things, it doesn't care about what happens in this world.

That is deeply unbiblical from a Christian perspective. Christ in the Lord's Prayer said "Thy Kingdom come thy will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven". Moreover Christ incarnates himself in the world. Well if the Church is the body and Christ is the head, just as how its head incarnates himself in the world, the body, the Church, also incarnates itself in the world. It incarnates the divine realities of God and his Kingdom to sanctify the world through love, justice, righteousness and peace. Which is what planting the seeds of the Kingdom of God that Christ spok

I know that there are Orthodox churches in Warsaw and Bialowieza, a cathedral in Lodz, and a monastery in Suprasl. I also read that Metropolitan Sawa is head of the Orthodox Church in Poland. Are there ethnically Polish people who adhere to Orthodoxy? Or are they mostly all of Eastern Slavic descent? What is the role of such churches in places like Lodz and Warsaw if there are so few Orthodox people, and do they have regular attendance?

Btw, Is Miaphysite Ideology really that controversial?

A bit on the local levels parish by parish. And it has to also deal with most likely what part of the country it is in the parish jurisdictions. For example the oca which is the American orthodox church has autocephalous. But it's not recognized by the EP. So it creates the situation where you can have multiple nationalities in one area. The only positive experience I see is if you ever drive out West through the South or even the Northwest it becomes incredibly Pan-orthodox until you hit Cali.

I know there was conversations back in the nineties but they kind of fell apart with the is art with the approval of electricity weddings and/women being made priests and bishops.

But have they gotten better is there any good place between them right now with possibly communion?

For some reason I’ve been unable to find anyone online discussing this matter oddly enough. I’m not just discussing the use of the word “orthodox,” but the use of the phrases “Orthodox Church” and “Eastern Orthodoxy”/“Orthodoxy” to refer to those in communion with Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

Hello, I want to know if there are still Aramaic churches that is in full communion with the Eastern Orthodoxy especially the Greek Orthodox since I noticed that the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch uses Koine Greek and Arabic but no Aramaic. I also want to know the reason why Arabic was use instead of Aramaic.

I’m a Baptist attending a Catholic high school who would like to learn more about the Eastern Orthodox Church. How should I go about doing that? And what are the major differences between Roman and Orthodox churches, and why the Orthodox as opposed to the Roman tradition? Sorry for the questions, but I am quite curious about these different traditions within the Christian faith. I am considering becoming a member of the Eastern Tradition.