More questions

Lux, some of your questions are answered on this website:

http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Q-and-A/index.html

I hope it helps!

HI!!!! Always good to see your posts in here...I'll give this my best shot. I'm sure my answers will be totally inadequate to the depths of the faith, but, here goes!

LuxPerpetua said:

1. What is the Orthodox view of salvation?

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Salvation is a process. We begin by affirming our faith, and following it througout life, in all ways.
We believe that salvation is conferred by God's grace, and he saves whom he will. We must strive every day to be faithful for our salvation. We cannot expect to say a prayer, and then go right back into the world and forget God, and have any assurance we will be saved. He "might" save us if we do that, but we do not KNOW that...so we must strive.

LuxPerpetua said:

2. Which sacraments are recognized in the Orthodox church?

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There are 7.

Baptism (immersion, Trinitarian, three times)
Chrismation (annointing with oil immed. after baptism to seal the gift of the HS)
Confession
Holy Eucharist
Marriage
Priesthood
Holy Unction (annointing w/oil for the sick, troubled, infirm, or any other time needed)

LuxPerpetua said:

3. Are all Orthodox churches the same in belief and practice, or are there more conservative and more liberal churches under the blanket heading of Orthodoxy (like some Prot denominations)?

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All cannonical Orthodox are in communion with each other and no other churches. It is one faith everywhere at all times. Some Orthodox out of communion are : Coptic Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, etc. These churches do not accept some of the ecumenical councils. Lots of history there. But to sum up, no there are no "liberals" and no "conservatives". They are all the same if they are cannonical.

LuxPerpetua said:

4. Why are Orthodox priests allowed to marry but Catholic priests are not?

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I really don't know what the Catholic position is, but in Orthodoxy it was always accepted that priests could marry, throughout the history of the church, including the early church Orthodox churches. They just were never prohibited in Orthodoxy. Bishops may not be married however.

LuxPerpetua said:

5. Why does the Orthodox church use leavened bread in the celebration of the Eucharist?

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The Lord himself used leavened bread at the Last Supper.

LuxPerpetua said:

6. I'm still confused on icons. Is it believed that it is the icon itself that works miracles or the saints of which the icon depicts? How does the Orthodox church know how to paint the saints (like what they looked like)?

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Icons do nothing of their own accord. Nor do Saints for that matter. All miracles come from God alone. Saints may be honored for their intercession in prayer, but any results ultimately must be attributed to God. Icons are such a big subject, I recommend Iconographer's essays....they're just excellent.
They can be found at: www.comeandseeicons.com Look for Michael Goeltz's bio and articles.

LuxPerpetua said:

7. Does the Orthodox church venerate the cross? Do you use a crucifix or what I call a triumphant cross (without Christ's body)?

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Yes. I have seen both. We cannot have a Church without the Cross or the work that was done there! He is risen!

LuxPerpetua said:

8. I read in the Mary as the Theotokos thread on PRE that "Mary, save us" was written in the early Christian catacombs. Do you know anything more about this?

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I have some references about this in a book around here somewhere...I'll try to get back with you on this, but I do believe that these have indeed been found and verified as authentic...


Hope this helps!
He is risen!

Heya,

I'm on the run and don't have time to say much, but your questions are pretty common ones and ones that I myself wrestled with during my journey. These are some websites that address such common issues as these. Hope they help!

http://www.stathanasius.org/teachings/questions_intro.html

http://www.philthompson.net/pages/faq/

http://www.protomartyr.org/links.html

LuxPerpetua said:

5. Why does the Orthodox church use leavened bread in the celebration of the Eucharist?

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I really like this article. Here's an excerpt, but be sure to read the whole thing.

http://www.prosphora.org/page27.html

In the service of Proskomide, the priest blesses it and says, “In remembrance of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We must then ask, was Christ not full of the Kingdom of Heaven? Was He not full of the Spirit and good works to which the Fathers liken leaven? It does not appear entirely inappropriate that we should commemorate the Body of Christ with leavened bread, so long as it is not sourdough or made of coarse and cheap flour.

And that the Savior received first-fruits of those whom He was to save, Paul declared when he said, ‘And if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy,’ teaching that the expression ‘first-fruits’ denoted that which is spiritual, but that ‘the lump’ meant us, that is, the animal Church, the lump of which they say He assumed, and blended it with Himself, inasmuch as He is ‘the leaven.’
-St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies , Book 1, ch. 8, para. 3

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If the bread and wine we offer are a sacrifice, then they can only be likened to the first-fruit sacrifice of the Old Testament, since Christ’s death replaced all other atonement for sin. And, as we recall, the first-fruit sacrifice was made with leavened bread. This is what St. Irenaeus is implying by his mentioning of the first-fruits. We offer ourselves with the bread (i.e. the lump as the Church), but we are filled with Christ (i.e. as leaven). We cannot offer ourselves apart from Christ as an unleavened loaf, and so we use a leavened loaf to symbolize Christ within us as we offer the spiritual first-fruits of our lives.

Unleavened bread is connected with mourning, something totally inappropriate in connection with the Lord’s Day. The Eucharist is about the Resurrection as much as the Crucifixion, which is why fasting is forbidden on Sundays and liturgies are festive.

Keep your nights of watching in the middle of the days of unleavened bread. And when the Jews are feasting, do you fast and wail over them, because on the day of their feast they crucified Christ; and while they are lamenting and eating unleavened bread in bitterness, do you feast.
-Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book 5, Section 3, para. xvii

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We do not eat the unleavened bread of bitterness on Sundays. The strong memory of unleavened bread’s association with fasting and putting off old ways is not compatible with the Lord who had no ‘old ways’ to put off and no sins to repent of.

The Anaphora prayers of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom speak of the bread in terms of “the night on which He was betrayed.” While the combined witness of the Scriptures draws a close connection between the Passover and the Last Supper, there is no unity between accounts as to exact chronology. Christ’s final meal with His disciples may have been in advance of the Passover because He knew that His death would fall on the exact day or before it. We do not know for sure what kind of bread Christ broke when He said, “This is My Body.”

We can therefore conclude that unleavened bread is not specifically connected with the Eucharist, while there appears to be a strong affinity between leavened bread and the symbolism of the Kingdom of Heaven. None of the Fathers seem to have any dread of leavened bread. Nor does Christ, since He never Himself condemned one or the other. And so, we can conclude that between leavened and unleavened bread there is a difference of symbolism, and that leavened bread has a more favorable meaning when we speak of Christ’s Body.

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Dear LP,

I know others may tire of hearing this recommendation, but I have found the book "Common Ground" with subtitle- Introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy for the Western Christian. This is a wonderful book by a man named Jordan Bajis and I know it to be available through Light-N-Life Publishing. I first read it in 1998 and I continue to refer to it on a very regular basis.

I think you will find it will answer many questions that we all faced as we approached Orthodoxy and came to embrace Truth as we never had before. I think one common thread of all our conversion experiences was that we felt we somehow had to "test" this new found truth...only to find that it is harder to explain/understand the simple than the most complex. Christ's Truths are so simple, yet we seem to always cloud them up with our own "knowledge". Let the little children come to me were Christ's words...and I think it was because of their all embracing innocent love that was so simple and pure. That is the heart we must seek and it is also our difficult task... to have the mind of an adult yet the heart of an innocent who can love the Lord without any hesitation.

In the love of our Saviour,
Alfred the rambler, lowliest chief of all sinners

Dear Lux:

Oblio was hoping to have an online study of Common Ground. With all the inquirers we have here at TAW, perhaps sometime soon we could start a discussion on the book Common Ground.

I have my copy which I obtained from Light and Life Publishing. It's an excellent book expecially for Protestants who are converting.

Yours in Christ our God,
Elizabeth