About the Orthodox Faith
The Orthodox Church continues to live the faith of the early Church, which our ancestors in the faith have died, and lived, to pass on. The two millennia since Christ sent the Holy Spirit on the Church at Pentecost have given us a deep treasury of wisdom from across the world. And our fathers and mothers in the faith have provided us their personal examples of lives lived with Paradise in their hearts.
To be "Orthodox" refers to "rightly believing in" or "rightly praising" God, and those actions are inseparable. The Orthodox Church maintains that our rich Tradition, with its theology, art, and worship, guides us on the path of these past Christians; God wants each person to become His child, His friend, His coworker in making a good world, and on that path toward becoming like Christ, the Son of God, our steps are guided over and around pitfalls and hazards by the heritage of the Church's teachings: its memory.
It might seem to some that our Church is "stuck in its ways." We bow, we fast, and our priests wear cassocks and, often, large crosses. It is unusual, granted, but at its healthiest, it stands out in a similar way to how a green mountain stands out in a land where the sand shifts with the wind. Rootedness is a value: not just roots in anything, but particularly roots in the soil that grew the saints that have preceded us. Our Tradition, in all its aspects, grows slowly, losing nothing from the past but bringing all that is good across the centuries and all peoples to the Kingdom, which is the ground from which all good things come and to which they return.
The Nicene Creed
Expressed by the Council of Nicaea, AD 325 · the touchstone of Orthodox faith
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of light; true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets. In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed · AD 381The Orthodox Church in America
The Orthodox Church in America traces its origins to the arrival in Kodiak, Alaska of eight Orthodox missionaries from the Valaamo Monastery in the northern Karelia region of Russia in 1794. The missionaries made a great impact on the native Alaskan population and were responsible for bringing many to the Orthodox Christian faith. Today, the Orthodox Church in America numbers some 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries, and institutions throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The bishops of the Orthodox Church in America take part in the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. Distinguished by the different immigrant communities by which they were founded, these jurisdictions are all a part of the Orthodox Churches, and their faithful and clergy have unity in all sacraments. With other jurisdictions such as the Antiochian and Greek Orthodox, the Orthodox Church in America shares a single witness to the Orthodox faith, and forms part of the wider Orthodox communion throughout the world.
The Mission of The Orthodox Church in America is to be faithful in fulfilling the commandment of Christ to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…"
The Holy Mysteries
The seven sacraments of the Orthodox Church
The entrance rites into membership in the body of Christ are regularly offered for both adults and infants who have prepared to enter into the Church. The Orthodox Church maintains the apostolic and biblical understanding of the reality of the sacraments. Baptism and chrismation constitute the prayerful use of the physical creation to embody the acts of God. Christ told the Church to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The laying on of hands and the act of Chrismation is as old as the Old Testament and the anointing of prophets, priests, and kings. Children are baptized, chrismated, and given communion: full members of the Church from the beginning.
Confession is offered following evening services, as time allows prior to Liturgy on Sunday, and by appointment. The priest, as representative of the Church, hears the confession and binds or looses, witnessing the confession of the repentant person and admitting them to the communion of the table of Christ. Everything said to a priest in confession is under the seal of confession. The priest will not reveal your confessions. Confession is healthy for the soul. In confession we admit our faults out loud to another, and receive the assuring and healing words that what we have confessed is forgiven in Christ.
The Divine Liturgy, at which we partake of the body and blood and divinity of Christ, is offered every Sunday and on feast days. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote on his way to martyrdom in AD 108, the Eucharist is "the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but which causes that we should live for ever in Jesus Christ." Communion is for Orthodox Christians who have prepared themselves through fasting, prayer, and the sacrament of confession.
The celebration of a marriage in the church is determined by the Church's liturgical calendar and the parish calendar. The service consists of the Office of Betrothal (at which rings are blessed and exchanged, symbolizing that each spouse will constantly be complementing and enriching the other), followed by the Office of Crowning, in which the heads of the bridegroom and bride are crowned. The crowns are crowns of joy and Edenic vassalage, but also crowns of martyrdom, since marriage involves a self-sacrifice on both sides. At the end of the service the newly married couple drink from the same cup of wine, a symbol that after this they share a common life with one another.
The apostles of Christ ordained the first seven deacons, including the protomartyr St. Stephen. They also ordained men to be presbyteroi ("elders") or episkopoi ("overseers"), words that would later give the words "priest" and "bishop" in English. The three main offices of the clergy are deacon, priest, and bishop. Ordination to any of the offices of the clergy is a calling to service to the body of Christ.
The sacrament of unction involves the prayerful anointing of the sick with oil. Its prayers ask for the healing of soul and body, the restoration of both physical and spiritual health, as St. James describes and as the apostles practiced (Mark 6:13; James 5:14–16).
