We believe it is truly the Body and Blood of Christ. We ourselves do not receive communion unless we are making regular confession of our sins to a priest and are at peace with other communicants.
We fast from all food and drink-yes, even a morning cup of coffee-from midnight the night before communion. Where's the General Confession? In our experience, we don't have any general sins; they're all quite specific. There is no complete confession-prayer in the Liturgy. Orthodox are expected to be making regular, private confession to their priest.
The role of the pastor is much more that of a spiritual father. He is not called by his first name alone, but referred to as "Father Firstname. Another difference you may notice is in the Nicene Creed, which is recited. If we are saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and you from force of habit add, "and the Son," you will be alone. The "filioque" was added to the Creed some six hundred years after it was written, and we adhere to the original.
High-church visitors will also notice that we don't bow or genuflect during the "and was incarnate. Traditionally, hymns are sung a capela although most Greek Orthodox churches use organs as well. We often address her as "Theotokos," which means "Mother of God. We honor her, as Scripture foretold "All generations will call me blessed," Luke When we sing "Through the intercession of the Theotokos, Savior, save us," we don't mean that she grants us eternal salvation, but that we seek her prayers for our protection and growth in faith.
Just as we ask for each other's prayers, we ask for the prayers of Mary and other saints as well. They're not dead, after all, just departed to the other side. Icons surround us to remind us of all the saints who are joining us invisibly in worship. The three doors.
Every Orthodox church will have an iconostasis before its altar. The basic set-up of two large icons creates, if you use your imagination, three doors. The central one, in front of the altar itself, is called the "Holy Doors" or "Royal Doors," because there the King of Glory comes out to the congregation in the Eucharist. Only the priest and deacons, who bear the Eucharist, use the Holy Doors. The openings on the other sides of the icons, if there is a complete iconostasis, have doors with icons of angels; they are termed the "Deacon's Doors.
Where does a "non-Greek" fit in? For Orthodox Christians , worship joins the human being to God in prayer and unites them to the Church, the body of Christ. The main service is called the Divine Liturgy, during which people receive the bread and wine.
Eastern Orthodox Church. Essentially the Orthodox Church shares much with the other Christian Churches in the belief that God revealed himself in Jesus Christ, and a belief in the incarnation of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection.
The Orthodox Church differs substantially in the way of life and worship. However, although cremation is growing in popularity among Christians, some sects of Christianity, such as the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, retain more historical views of resurrection and do not consider cremation to be an acceptable practice for a Christian. Nine-Nights are no longer a time to mourn, but a time to celebrate since the loved one is no longer suffering in life.
As tradition has is on the ninth night it is believed that the spirit of the deceased passes through the party gathering food and saying goodbye before continuing on to its resting place. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, heaven is part and parcel of deification theosis , the eternal sharing of the divine qualities through communion with the Triune God reunion of Father and Son through love.
A second view, therefore, also prevailed: the sleep of the soul—i. At the Last Judgment the resurrected will be assigned either to eternal life or eternal damnation. If you were to attend a funeral at a Greek Orthodox Church, what should you expect?
Not really. It is, of course, true that an experience seems long or short depending on how much we are engaged in that experience. Fifteen minutes waiting in traffic can seem, for example, much longer than four hours with a close friend. So, Orthodox worship may, at times, strike the worshipper as short, even though it has lasted nearly two hours in length. We do know that worship in the early Church could last many hours.
Six hours may not have been uncommon. In the United States today, our services usually last between one and two hours. The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which is commonly used in most Orthodox churches on most Sundays of the year today, usually lasts about an hour and a quarter, including a ten to fifteen minute sermon. While this might seem to be a problem from the outside, it is not so for most Orthodox Christians. The Liturgy is lengthy, which means that the worshipper may have different parts of it speak to him or her from week to week.
Secondly, it is very true that none of us go through the same struggles and experiences from day to day. We come to worship each week with different concerns; the Liturgy, therefore, speaks anew to us. Finally, there is something spiritually deepening in the fact that we, who live in lives and worlds of change, come each week to participate in an unchanging Liturgy.
We bring our restlessness with us and find in the Liturgy both a peacefulness as well as an invitation to proceed further on our journeys toward God. There are two processions in the Liturgy, reminding us of the two parts of early Christian worship. The first procession brings the Gospel from the narthex, up through the congregation to the altar, where we then hear the words of Jesus. The second procession brings the ordinary elements of bread and wine around and through the congregation back up to the altar, from where, at the time of consecration, the Holy Spirit descends and transforms them into the real presence of Christ.
Baptized Christians confirmed in the Orthodox Faith who have prepared themselves may approach the priest for Communion. The fact that the Orthodox Church does not extend Communion to persons from other Christian groups who may be present is not meant as an insult, but as a sad acknowledgement that the Church is divided.
This means that, on any given Sunday, not every Orthodox Christian present will approach the priest for Communion. Of course, frequent Communion, and the spiritual preparation that precedes it, is strongly encouraged. Greek was the language of the early Church. Evangelists, such as St. Paul, evangelized the Roman world in Greek. The entire New Testament is written in Greek. The councils of the early Church were also conducted in Greek. To retain the Greek language is to connect ourselves with our Christian roots.
You will notice, however, from the liturgy books in the pews that English is offered for every aspect of the service. English and Greek are used for a majority of the service. Most emphatically NO!
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