Day 27: The Orthodox Church

Since we talked about Pentecost yesterday, I thought today would be a good time to look at the Orthodox Church in a little more detail, since the Orthodox Catholic Church, or Eastern Orthodox Church, traces its origins to the “official” Christian church started by the Apostles soon after the Pentecost.

With an estimated membership of around 300 million people, the Eastern Orthodox Church is the second-largest branch of Christianity (Roman Catholicism is largest). Although there are “separate” Orthodox churches in different areas—Greek or Russian Orthodox, for example—the basic beliefs are universal.

The word orthodox comes from the Greek for “correctly believing” or “correctly glorifying.”

The Orthodox Church uses a few different books in its Bible, including a few that aren’t used by either Catholics or Protestants. And don’t even ask—no, I am not going to attempt to read the Orthodox Bible, too. It was hard enough getting through the other one. Maybe after this year is over, I’ll give it a shot, but for now . . . my Bible-reading days are over—at least until I become a Jew and have to read the Old Testament again. Ugh.

Orthodox Christians believe that their goal in life is to get closer to God. (Surprise, surprise—so far, that’s been the goal of every belief system we’ve looked at.)

The process of becoming close to God is referred to as theosis or deification. The idea is to be as holy as possible and to try to emulate Jesus Christ in everyday life.

In general, the Orthodox Church is less formal in structure and hierarchy than, say, the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ is considered the official head of the Church. Although there are church leaders, including patriarchs and bishops, there is no single earthly head of the Church, like the Catholic Pope. (The Patriarch of Constantinople is often viewed by outsiders as the equivalent of a Pope, but from everything I’ve read, Orthodox Christians insist that the two are not comparable.)

Orthodox Christians believe in many of the same principles as other Christians—such as the Holy Trinity. But they also differ a bit on a few points.

Although many other Christians recognize particular individuals—those who are especially holy—as saints, the Orthodox Church believes that everyone who makes it to heaven qualifies as a saint. Even so, there are a few who stand out—and those saints get their own celebrations. There are a lot of them, though. In fact, on any given day, the Orthodox Church may celebrate a whole bunch of different saints. The most important saint is the Virgin Mary, who is known as the Theotokos, or “God-bearer.”

Perhaps one of the best-known aspects of the Orthodox Church is the use of icons in worship. Icons are paintings that show images of Jesus or saints. According to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions, icons “are considered windows through which the viewer can catch a glimpse of the Divine during times of prayer and contemplation.”

The word icon comes from the Greek word eikona, which means “image.” Although icons are important symbols to the Orthodox, they are not considered true means of artistic expression. Instead, they’re painted according to a set formula and almost always copy earlier icons.

Orthodox churches almost never have the kind of freestanding statues seen in other Christian churches, especially Catholic ones. Icons are vastly more popular because, unlike statues, they focus on the spiritual nature of the saints or people depicted, rather than their physical, earthly bodies.

Icons are not objects of worship or idols. The Orthodox believe that the use of images to remind believers of the Divine only became possible after Christ walked the Earth. The logic goes: Before God took material form as Jesus Christ, it would have been sacrilegious to create a material image of the Divine.

There’s something I’ve always loved about icons. Even at the height of my distaste for Christianity, when I was in my early twenties, I was fascinated by icons. They’re so strange and mysterious looking. If I had any artistic skill whatsoever (and I think we can all agree that I have none), I might even try painting one. But oh well. I’ll just have to be satisfied with looking at them elsewhere, like here: http://www.orthodoxiconsonline.com/

The Orthodox Church also uses slightly different versions of the cross from those used by other branches of Christianity. The most commonly seen Eastern cross looks something like this (yes, I had the construction paper out again):

Unlike the Western cross, the Eastern cross has three bars going through the vertical bar. The top horizontal bar symbolizes the sign that Pontius Pilate put over Jesus Christ’s head during the crucifixion, which identified him as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

The slanted bar at the bottom as two meanings: It symbolizes the foot platform where Jesus was nailed, reminding viewers of the prolonged agony he suffered. It also symbolizes the fact that two thieves were crucified along with Jesus, and the one on Christ’s right chose to ask Jesus for forgiveness, taking the correct path to God, while the thief on the left did not.

Orthodox Christians sing almost the entire service when they attend church. They believe that the human voice is the best possible instrument to use when praising God. Clearly, they’ve never heard me sing. But I do like the idea of singing everything. It seems more mystical and magical than rushing through the service Protestant-style (no offense intended).

I’m kind of starting to think that if I were ever to really choose Christianity permanently, I’d be more inclined to be Orthodox than anything else. Who woulda thunk it?