NationStates Jolt Archive


Ask A Greek Orthodox Christian... wtf? ;)

Ancient Byzantium
01-04-2005, 09:55
Well, I've seen a few threads pop up about religions that not many know about, and I am pretty confident that very few people know much about Orthodoxy.

Who's the head of the Church?
There really isn't one, aside from the Spiritual head of the church, who has about as much power as Prince Charles :). The true head of the church is supposed to be Christ/God. When decisions are to be reached, a synod/council, etc., is held with a large number of higher ranking Priests coming together to discuss certain topics, and together try to choose the decision that fits best with the Church Doctrine, a.k.a. what God wants.

I've never heard of them... how long have they been around?
As long as organized Christianity has. The Orthodox Churches and the Catholic churches used to be one, but due to a few conflicting issues, namely we didn't believe one man could be the head of the Church (a Pope), we split. Catholocism and Orthodoxy are very similar, but there are huge aesthetic differences, and a few Big-Picture dissimilarities. In fact most Orthodox rituals date back to the beginning of Christianity. Our most important ritual is the Holy Flame, something some may need to experience to believe... more on this here: http://www2.cytanet.com.cy/gogreek/miracle.htm

Oh wait, I've heard of them, they have Easter like at different times, um... why?
Because at one point every religious holiday was changed, why I have no clue, frankly I think it's kind of dumb (Off Topic: I'm pretty sure that the Greek Orthodox Church is the ONLY Orthodox Church that changed the holidays to a different day, which again, I find stupid). The Holy Flame, for those of you that didn't check the link out, happens at midnight between Great Saturday and Easter Sunday (When Saturday turns into Sunday). When the ritual was tried on the date that Easter was changed to, it didn't work. So instead of losing it's most cherised ritual, the Orthodox Church decided to leave Easter on its original day.

What, are there like 8 Orthodox Christians in the World? lololo!!11!1!!!
Actually, there are around 250 million. 98% of Greek citizens are baptised in the Greek-Orthodox Church, the vast majority of Greeks abroad are Orthodox, the majority of Russians are Orthodox, many middle-eastern Christians are Orthodox, a large number of Indians have converted to the Orthodox faith, and others. The Orthodox make up a fairly large chunk of Christianity.

The Churches:

Autocephalous Churches:
The Church of Albania
The Church of Alexandria
The Church of Antioch
The Church of Bulgaria
The Church of Constantinople
The Church of Cyprus
The Church of the Czech and Slovak Republics
The Church of Georgia
The Church of Greece
The Church of Jerusalem
The Orthodox Church in America
The Church of Poland
The Church of Romania
The Church of Russia
The Church of Serbia

Autonomous Churches
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
The Church of Finland
The Church of Japan
The Church of Sinai
The Church of Ukraine

Semi-Autonomous Churches
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

More Information
The website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is loaded with lots of information about the church and its history.
Link: http://www.goarch.org

If you guys have any questions about Orthodoxy, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them as best I can, thanks :).

Please note that this thread isn't meant for any flaming, or direct debate on the existence of God etc. I only made it so people can find out more about my faith, or at least find out that it exists. ;)

=George=
Pepe Dominguez
01-04-2005, 10:18
Well, I don't have any questions myself off the top of my head, since I was raised in the Greek Orthodox faith, at least while I was with my dad every two weeks for a few days, but forbidden to attend Church when with my other relatives. Needless to say, that's a chaotic situation for a kid, and I never fully learned what I should have.

However, although I work Sundays, I live in my dad's relatives' neighborhood again, and have been periodically attending their church in Pomona and sometimes in Irvine (two absolutely beautifully designed Churches, btw).

http://www.saintdemetriosgoc.com/ (Pomona)

In any case, I know there aren't very many of us, unless you're from parts of Chicago, Florida or North Carolina, so I thought I'd speak up.. So hi! :)
Argyres
01-04-2005, 10:20
Greek Orthodox people rule ;)
Resistancia
01-04-2005, 10:25
actually, the split came about over a despute between the roman church, based in rome's 'spiritual' capital, and the emperer, based in the 'new' capital of constantinopal, and was originally that the pope was the head of the church in the west roman empire, and the emperer was the head in the east. as such, it could possibly be seen as the for-runner of some later protestent churches, such as the anglican church.
Freddiezstan
01-04-2005, 10:29
Do you have communion? If so do you beleive it actually turns into Jesus' body, like Catholics do, or not?
Ancient Byzantium
01-04-2005, 10:35
First off, hey to all the other Orthodox out there, and yes I am in the Chicago area :p. My Church is also called St. Demetrios :).

Anyway Freddie, yes and yes. Except we don't use the wafers, we use real wine and real bread (Freshly Baked ;)). We are supposed to have a fast for a week prior to communion, this fast consists of not eating meat, milk, or oil for that one week. Unless that is you do this fast every Wednesday and Friday, and for the 40 days before Christmas and 40 days of lent. (During lent you can have oil on Weekends) :cool:. But ya, technically not mandatory, but technically is.

My Church: http://www.st-demetrios.org/

Oh, I reccomend that everyone check out the article on the Holy Flame. I hate reading and I couldn't stop reading it :eek:.
Pepe Dominguez
01-04-2005, 11:40
First off, hey to all the other Orthodox out there, and yes I am in the Chicago area :p. My Church is also called St. Demetrios :).


That's cool. My family is originally from Chicago, too. I just moved from Deerfield and some still live in Skokie. My grandparents moved to the U.S. in the 1920's and were married in Chicago, at a church later bought and defaced by the "Nation of Islam" in the 1970's, unfortunately. It used to be one of the most beautiful in the country, but now not even bleach and steel wool could scrub the hate out of the place.

http://www.noi.org/maryam.html

But enough griping, sorry. I mainly wanted to ask if or what you study in terms of history. I've been reading a lot on the Pseudo-Dionysius and Eriugena recently, and to some degree the Cappadocian Fathers. I also wanted to keep the thread somewhere near the top, so I can find it tomorrow, 'cause it's near 3 A.M. here. ;)
Ancient Byzantium
01-04-2005, 19:01
I'm not deeply studying anything specifically yet, although I try to read and find out as much as I can. But I plan to learn Ancient Greek in College, and take quite a few courses in Greek history, but this is a little off topic :).

Anyone else have any questions?
Ancient Byzantium
01-04-2005, 19:40
Here is a website of some Greek Orthodox churches:

http://www.greekchurchbook.com/

My Church St. Demetrios (The Cover):
http://www.greekchurchbook.com/images/book.gif

The Church I was Baptized at (The Holy Assumption):
http://www.greekchurchbook.com/images/CAIL_IMG.jpg
http://www.greekchurchbook.com/images/CAILclose-up-af-arch.jpg