1. Orthodox Catholic Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially called the
Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as
the Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian
church in the world, with an estimated 225-300
million adherents, primarily in Eastern and
Southeastern Europe and the Middle East. It is the
religious denomination of the majority of the
populations of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine;
significant minority populations exist in Lebanon,
Jordan and Syria. It teaches that it is the One,
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by
Jesus Christ and his Apostles almost 2,000 years
ago.
2. Cross
Depictions of the Cross within the
Orthodox Church are numerous and
often highly ornamented, but its use
does not extend to all Orthodox
traditions. Some carry special
significance. The Tri-Bar Cross,
popular in Russia and Ukraine, but
common throughout the Orthodox
world, seen to the right, has three
bars. Its origins are in the early
Byzantine Church of the 4th century
AD.
3. Traditions
The tradition in the Orthodoxy faith is of special
importance,it consists of the Bible, Symbols of the
Faith, decisions of general councils and
documents coming from fathers of the Church,
canons, liturgical books and icons, understood as
a cohesive religious system are fitting into her
composition.
The Bible prayer rope
4. Liturgy
The services of the church are properly
conducted each day following a rigid,
but constantly changing annual schedule
(i.e., parts of the service remain the
same while others change depending on
the day of the year). Services are
conducted in the church and involve
both the clergy and faithful. Services
cannot properly be conducted by a
single person, but must have at least
one other person present (i.e. a Priest
cannot celebrate alone, but must have
at least a Chanter present and
participating).
5. Orthodox tenets
The goal of Orthodox Christians from
baptism is to continually draw
themselves nearer to God throughout
their lives. This process is called
theosis, or deification, and is a
spiritual pilgrimage in which each
person strives to both become more
holy through the imitation of Christ
and cultivation of the inner life
through unceasing prayer (most
famously, the Jesus Prayer) or
hesychasm, until united at death
with the fire of God's love
6. Icons
The Orthodox believe that the first icons of
Christ and the Virgin Mary were painted by
Luke the Evangelist. Icons are filled with
symbolism designed to convey information
about the person or event depicted. Icon
painting, in general, is not an opportunity
for artistic expression, though each
iconographer brings a vision to the piece.
Icon of participants in
1 General Council in
Nice in 325 yr
Włodzimierska
Mother of God icon
7. General councils
There is no single earthly head of all the Orthodox Churches comparable
to the Pope of Rome. The highest-ranking bishop of the communion is the
Patriarch of Constantinople, who is also primate of one of the
autocephalous churches. These organizations are in full communion with
each other, so any priest of any of those churches may lawfully
minister to any member of any of them.
8. The Orthodoxy in the
world
Moldova (c 93%) Romania (c 86%)
Georgia (c 82%) Bulgaria (c 82%)
9. Quiz
1.When was the Orthodox Church
created?
2.What are the characteristics of
the Orthodox Church?
3.What does the cross in Orthodox
Church symbolize?
4.What is an icon?
5.What are the traditions of the
Orthodox Church?
