THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

(I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church).

The Orthodox Church is The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which has as its head Christ and members all the baptized faithful, who try to live according to God’s will.

The Orthodox Church is the only true Church of God on earth and maintains the fullness of Christ's truth in continuity with the Church of the Apostles. She has the same faith, the same spirit and the same ethos with the early Church.

“This is the Apostolic faith, this is the faith of the Fathers, this is the Orthodox faith, this faith has established the universe” (From the Synodikon of the 7^th Ecumenical Council read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy).

The Church is both visible and invisible. The visible Church is the Church Militant on earth. The invisible Church is the Church Triumphant in Heaven, “the heavenly Jerusalem.... innumerable angels in festal gathering....the assembly of the first-born who are the enrolled in heaven” (Hebrews 12:22-23).

Christ has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church and that He would be with Her until the end of the world.

In the Nicene Creed we confess: I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. What do these words means?

ONE means that the Church is one because God is one. “There is one body, and one Spirit....one hope...One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God of Father of all” (Eph. 4:4-6)

HOLY The Church is holy because our Lord made her so and because through the Grace of the Holy Spirit sanctifies all the faithful. “Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for her; that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27). Not only is the Church holy but it is also her purpose to make us holy, i.e.., different from the world, conformed to God's will.

CATHOLIC. The Orthodox Church is Catholic, meaning whole, because she has preserved the wholeness of the faith of Christ through the centuries without adding or subtracting to that divinely revealed faith. For this reason she has come to be known as the «Orthodox» Church, the Church that has preserved the full and the true faith of Christ. Orthodox Christians believe that the Church, which has Christ Himself as Head and which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, cannot err. Her voice is the voice of Christ in the world today.

She is Catholic because she embraces all people without any discrimination. She preserves the faith undiluted, the worship and the administration of the ancient Church of the Ecumenical Synods unchanged.

APOSTOLIC. The Church is Apostolic because she teaches what the apostles taught and can trace her existence historically directly back to the apostles. It was the Apostle Paul for example, who established the Christian Church in Greece through his early missionary journeys.

The birth date of our Church is the day of Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and that which holds together and guides the Church in every truth.

In the Orthodox Church we experience the presence of our Lord in the worship, in which the faithful experience the Incarnation, Crucifixion and the Resurrection of the Savior.

More concretely, in every Divine Liturgy, the leading Mystery of our faith, we see the Lord being incarnated during the time of the offertory service (Proskomide), where the manger is portrayed. Then we see Him, afterwards, entering in the public life to preach the good news of deliverance and salvation, during the time of the Small Entrance with the Gospel. We hear Him declare the message of truth with the sacred readings of the Epistles and Gospel. We watch Him on His path to Golgotha with the Great Entrance.

Lastly, we hear His voice offering to us His most Holy Body and His most Holy Blood, for our own spiritual nourishment, sanctification, salvation and our deification.

“Take, eat, this is my Body which is broken for you for the forgiveness of sins.” “Drink of it all of you; this is my Blood of the new Covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

With the annual Calendar and the rich devoutness and the joyful Hymnology that the Church uses in the worship gatherings of the faithful, a chance is given continuously for the mystical experience of the intense presence of Christ in our hearts.

The figures of the Holy Ones, the Saints, whose lives are historically narrated in our Churches, constitute the living prototypes that inspire and lead towards the Lord. They are the ones that lived with the Orthodox faith, with Orthodox consistency and steadfastness. They loved Christ more than anything in their lives and martyred for His love, teaching with their examples and admonishing others to follow them, keeping the Orthodox Faith and Orthodox life.

The faithful enjoy within the Church, daily, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit, expecting the Resurrection of the dead and their participation in the Life of the age to come.

The highest authority of the Eastern Church is the Ecumenical Council, involving the whole church. It is the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, formulated by the Bishops under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and accepted by the clergy and the laity.

The Body of Christ is constituted through Baptism, Chrismation, and the Eucharist.

Through Baptism we are grafted into the Body as members; through Chrismation we are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit; through the Eucharist Christ comes to dwell in us making us truly members of His Body, the Church.

As members of Christ's Body, as God's people, we are called to be the Church wherever we are. We leave the Holy Liturgy and go out into the world to be the Church for the rest of our life. Amen and Glory be to God.