Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Christianity (or Eastern Orthodoxy) comprises primarily the Christian traditions that developed within the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium. Speaking narrowly, Eastern Orthodox Christianity refers to a specific group of Christian church jurisdictions that accept the first seven Ecumenical Councils and share full communion and specific doctrines and traditions, historically reaching back to and continuing to the modern day communion among the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople.

The "Eastern" churches with the largest number of adherents, according to the primary and narrow sense of "Eastern Orthodox", are the Russian and the Romanian Orthodox churches. The most ancient of the European Orthodox churches however is the Greek Orthodox Church. As English-speakers in the West generally use the term, however, "Eastern Orthodoxy" has a wider remit, which includes the "Oriental Orthodox" churches. All branches of Eastern Orthodoxy trace a continuous apostolic succession back to the five major centers of Christianity in the early church: Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople.

The formal division of the Church into separate Eastern and Western churches is regarded as having occurred in 1054 in what is known as the Great Schism. Both churches claim to be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and reject the other's claim to this title. The designation "Orthodox" reflects the additional claim of the Eastern church to have retained unchanged the original church traditions of teaching and worship. "Catholic" meanwhile reflects the claim by church leaders who are in full communion with the Pope of Rome and ascribe to him an all-encompassing authority on Christian matters. A tiny minority within Orthodoxy might claim that the church of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, represents the "Western tradition", but most Orthodox Christians hold that Rome has fallen away from Tradition and is consequently outside the Church. To date, there has not been a final statement on behalf of the whole Orthodox Church with regard to the status of Rome. This is not surprising, since such general, authoritarian statements are simply unheard-of within Eastern Orthodoxy, even upon issues with little to no internal disagreement. Therefore, a lack of a definitive, authoritarian, "Church-wide" statement cannot be taken to mean that the Eastern Orthodox Church necessarily espouses or rejects a specific belief. This sort of centralized communication is not typical of nor appropriate to Eastern Orthodoxy.

The distinction between the body that would give rise to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the remainder of Western Christianity vs. the Oriental Orthodox churches was established many centuries before the Great Schism at the fourth and fifth ecumenical councils. And in some fundamental aspects the Oriental Orthodox churches are as dissimilar from the narrowly defined Eastern Orthodox churches as they are from the Roman Catholic Church. Oriental Orthodox churches include the (arguably) "monophysite" Coptic Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Church. The "Nestorian" Assyrian church is also often included among this group, although it does not belong to the Oriental Orthodox Communion.

The primary causes of Orthodox differences with Rome include the Filioque clause, papal claims to authority over all Christians (papal primacy), and other doctrinal and liturgical developments approved by the Holy See. After the split, Roman Catholics defined other dogmas that Eastern Orthodoxy also considers heretical, among them papal infallibility, the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, and purgatory. The Holy See considers the Eastern Orthodox churches to be in schism. The general Eastern Orthodox consensus is that Roman Catholics are both schismatics and heretics, although a minority of Orthodox Christians try to gloss over any differences.

The various churches of the Eastern Orthodox Communion are distinct in terms of administration and local culture but exist in full communion with one another, but in this case the term Full Communion can be misleading. There are groups within the church that consider other jurisdictions to be in error and thus, do not commune mysteriologically in these jurisdictions, though they do recognize the apostolic succession of its bishops and its fundemental beliefs are exactly the same. An example of this is the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Holy Synod in Resistance (Moderate Greek Old Calendarists), both of which question the modernism of other jurisdictions especially with regards to the use of the Gregorian Calendar, the proper training of priests, and the truncation of the religious services associated with Orthodox worship. On the other hand, the Oriental Orthodox Churches are not members of this communion, nor are groups such as the Old Believers or the immoderate Greek Old Calendarists (Paleoimerologites) who have adopted the radical belief that theirs is the only true church left in the world. A much stronger distinction exsists between the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox who hold major theological differences in regards to the nature of Christ. The Eastern Church considers these differenes to be heresy.

All bishops of the Orthodox Church are equal. There is no Orthodox equivalent of the Roman Catholic papacy. Jurisdictions and positions of authority are administrative only. There is no single leader of the Orthodox Church. Therefore attachment to a single, specific hierarch, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch (of Constantinople) is not a litmus test for Orthodoxy, as there have been heretics and schismatics in even that venerable See. The measure of the legitimacy of a Bishop and his jurisdiction is in how closely and carefully he upholds the teachings of the church and maintains its traditions. Obedience to him is required only if he, in fact, does his job properly. It is therefore, the responsibility of the individual to reject a bishop who begins to turn toward teachings other than the ones the church supports.

History

From its founding the church spread quickly throughout most of the Roman Empire, despite much official opposition. Widespread, organized persecution finally stopped in 313 when Emperor Constantine I so ordered it in the Edict of Milan. From that time forward, the Byzantine emperor exerted various degrees of influence in the church. Sometimes this was seen as positive, as in the calling of the Ecumenical Councils to resolve disputes and establish church dogma on which the entire church would agree. Sometimes this was seen as negative, as when Patriarchs (usually of Constantinople) were deposed by the emperor, or when the emperor sided with the iconoclasts in the eighth and ninth centuries.

The Church within the Empire

There were several doctrinal disputes from the 4th century onwards. Some of them led to the calling of Ecumenical councils to try to resolve them. The Church in Egypt (Patriarchate of Alexandria) split into two groups following the Council of Chalcedon (451), owing to a dispute about the relation between the divine and human natures of Christ. Eventually this led to each group having its own Patriarch (Pope). Those that remained in communion with the other patriarchs were called "Melkites" (the king's men, because Constantinople was the city of the emperors), and are today known as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, until recently led by Patriarch (Pope) Petros VII (who was killed in a helicopter crash on September 11, 2004), while those who disagreed with the findings of the Council of Chalcedon are today known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, led by Pope Shenouda III. There was a similar split in Syria. Those who disagreed with the Council of Chalcedon are sometimes called "Oriental Orthodox" to distinguish them from the Eastern Orthodox, who accepted the Council of Chalcedon. The Oriental Orthodox are also sometimes referred to as "monophysites" or "non-Chalcedonians", although today the Coptic Orthodox Church denies that it is monophysite and prefers the term "miaphysite", to denote the "joined" nature of Christ.

Note: The term Pope is simply an affectionate term for the lead bishop in a major patriarchate. Any of the original Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, Rome, or Alexandria can be called Pope as it is not an official title. The more common term today is Patriarch in order to make distinction from the Pope in Rome who is not an Orthodox bishop.

An important symbol for the eastern Orthodoxy and its spread north to the Slavic peoples was the construction in the 530s of the Church of the Holy Wisdom ("Hagia Sophia"), a most impressive church building in Constantinople, under emperor Justinian I.

Muslim conquest and Iconoclasm

In the 7th century the areas administered by the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were conquered by Muslim Arabs, and the native Christians were treated as second-class citizens, or dhimmi. Westerners tend to think of Christianity as the dominant social force for a long period of history, but Christians in three of the five ancient churches have been in Muslim-dominated societies for 13 centuries. It was the Muslims who first opposed the Christian use of icons, though many Christians held a similar doctrine, based on Judaizing tendencies within the Church. The use of icons was defended and upheld at the Second Council of Nicaea, called by Pope Adrian I [1], where it was dogmatically established that Christians give honor not to the image but to those the image represents. The end of that council is still celebrated as the "Triumph of Orthodoxy" in Orthodox churches today, and icons remain a central part of Orthodox faith and practice.

Conversion of the Slavs

In the ninth and tenth centuries, Orthodoxy made great inroads into Eastern Europe and Russia. This work was made possible by the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who translated the Bible and many of the prayer books into Slavonic. They found themselves competing with missionaries from the Roman diocese in places like Great Moravia and Bulgaria. After being driven out of Great Moravia, they were later welcomed in Bulgaria, in part because they prayed in the people's native language rather than in Latin, as the Roman priests did. Today the Russian Orthodox Church, in spite of 70 years of persecution under the atheistic government of the USSR, is the largest of the Orthodox Churches.

The Great Schism

In the 11th century the Great Schism took place between Rome and Constantinople, which led to the Church of the West, the Roman Catholic Church, to become distinct from the Churches of the East. There were doctrinal issues like the filioque clause and the authority of the Pope involved in the split, but they were exacerbated by cultural and linguistic differences (Greek East and Latin West).

The final breach is often considered to have arisen as a result of the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. This Fourth Crusade had the Latin Church directly involved in a military assault against the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, and the Orthodox Patriarchate thereof. The sacking of the Church of Holy Wisdom and establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204 is viewed with some rancor to the present day. In 2004, Pope John Paul II extended a formal apology for the sacking of Constantinople in 1204; the apology was formally accepted by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Something also must be said about modern terminology in reference the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The term Roman applied to all members of the Roman Empire. Even after the Emperor Constantine moved the capitol to Byzantium, any common man would have referred to himself as Roman. Long after the Great Schism the Orthodox East continued to refer to itself as Roman Catholic, however, what we in modern times refer to as the Roman Catholic Church they would have called the Frankish Church, referring to Charlemagne’s supposed re-establishment of the Roman Empire. As far as the Orthodox countries were concerned, they were the Roman Empire, and that empire did not fall until the 15th century. The Orthodox argues that they remain the same while the Frankish church had fallen into heresy. But because of the ascendancy of western ideas in modern literature, the Roman Empire of that period is now referred to as the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Catholic Church is now the Orthodox Church, Charlemagne’s Frankish empire is now called the Holy Roman Empire and the Frankish church, the Roman Catholics.

In 1453, the last of the Roman Empire (with its capital at Constantinople) fell to the Ottoman Turks. By this time Egypt was also under Muslim control, but Orthodoxy was very strong in Russia; and so Moscow, called the Third Rome, became a new major center of the Church at that time.

Orthodoxy and the Reformation

Orthodoxy did not undergo the Reformation, and attitudes of the Protestant churches towards it have been ambiguous since the beginning. Lutheran Bishops led by Melanchthon sent delegates to the Patriarch of Constantinople to explore ecumenical possibilities, but the discussions went nowhere. Both sides remained cordial and brotherly, but fundamental doctrinal differences came to light, specifically regarding Holy Tradition, The Procession of the Holy Spirit, free will, Divine predestination, justification, The number of sacraments, Baptism by immersion (Orthodox) vs. sprinkling or pouring (Lutheran), and the immediate performance of Chrismation and the giving of the Eucharist to those baptized (Orthodox), the meaning of the change in the Eucharist, and the use of unleavened bread, infallibility of the Church and of the Ecumenical Councils, veneration, feasts, and invocation of saints and their icons and relics, fasts and other ecclesiastical traditions. Ultimately, the dialogue was broken off (see 16th Century Lutheran & Orthodox Exchange in External links below).

Structure / organization

Bishops, priests, and deacons

Since its founding, the Church spread to different places, and the leaders of the Church in each place came to be known as episkopoi (overseers, plural of episkopos, overseer), which became "bishop" in English. The other ordained roles are presbyter (elder), which became "prester" and then "priest" in English, and diakonis (servant), which became "deacon" in English (see also subdeacon). The bishop of the most important city of a region (Metropolis) was sometimes called a "Metropolitan", and smaller local churches looked to those in large cities for leadership. The East (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern-rite Catholic churches) has always allowed married priests and deacons, provided the marriage takes place before ordination. If divorced or widowed, priests and deacons are not allowed to remarry. It is common for such a member of the clergy to retire to a monastery. This also applies to the wives of clergy who pass away, they do not remarry but become nuns. Bishops are always celibate as they are selected from the ranks of monks (who take a vow of celibacy). Bishops, priests, and deacons have always been men only because they represent Christ; and Christ chose to be male. Nevertheless, Orthodox consider men and women equal before God. A priest's wife is therefore called presbytera (literally Priestess) and a deacon's wife diaconissa for the same reason. A married man cannot accept ordination without his wife's approval, and it is common for these dedicated women to be just as busy ministering to the faithful as their husbands. There also exsisted in the early church the official position of deaconess. The deacon/deaconess usually acted as an assistant to a bishop and indeed even today bishops always travel with deacons accompanying them. It is not known why the position of deaconess has mostly fallen out of use; there is no official reason a woman could not occupy that position. St Nektarios of Pentopolis who was a bishop in the 19th century had a deaconess.

Church jurisdictions

The different Orthodox churches can generally be said to be united in faith and in liturgy, but not in polity. There is no single Pope or similar office that corresponds to the Roman Catholic Pope, nor is there a standing synod of bishops or patriarchs. In general, the church is organized along national and regional lines in hierarchical fashion, with the "top" hierarchs or patriarchs recognizing and remaining in communion with the other patriarchs. From about the fourth century the most important churches were Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The bishops of Rome and Alexandria had the title "Pope", while those of the other three cities were called "Patriarchs". Today there are approximately 15 separate autocephalous jurisdictions who remain in communion with Constantinople and each other; these are the "canonical" Orthodox Churches. Churches which call themselves Orthodox but are not in communion with these are termed "non-canonical" Orthodox Churches. A separate article is devoted to the topic of Eastern Orthodox Church organization.

Orthodox Christians believe that they have preserved apostolic succession from the first Apostles. While Rome traces its papacy back to the Apostle Peter, Orthodox Antioch traces its Patriarchate to an even earlier foundation by the selfsame Apostle. Alexandria, for example, traces its papacy back to Mark the Evangelist, who founded the church in Alexandria in AD 40. (In Alexandria, two primates call themselves "Pope" and claim to be the successor of the apostle Mark: the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, also called the "Pope of Africa", and the Coptic Pope. Those two lines of succession separated from each other in a schism in AD 451. Roman Catholics also have a high-ranking bishop called the "Patriarch of Alexandria" in that city, but he does not claim the title of "Pope".)

Orthodoxy in North America

The Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th century. Among the first was Saint Herman of Alaska. This established missionary precedence for the Russian Orthodox Church in the Americas, and Eastern Orthodox Christians were under the omophor (Church authority and protection) of The Patriarch of Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church was devastated by the Bolshevik Revolution. One side effect was the flood of refugees from Russia to the United States, Canada, and Europe. Among those who came were Orthodox lay people, deacons, priests, and bishops. In 1920 Patriarch Tikhon issued an ukase (decree) that Orthodox Christians under his leadership but outside of Russia should seek refuge with whatever Orthodox jurisdiction that would shield them from Communist control. The various national Orthodox communities thus were permitted as an emergency measure to look towards their immigrant homelands for ecclesiastic leadership rather than be tied to Russia. Some of the Russian Orthodox formed an independent synod that became the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR). Some of the Russian Orthodox remained in communion with Moscow and were granted autocephaly in 1970 as the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). However, recognition of this autocephalic status is not universal, as the Ecumenical Patriarch (under whom is the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America [2]) and some other jurisdictions have not officially accepted it. The reasons for this are complex; nevertheless the Ecumenical Patriarch and the other jurisdictions remain in communion with the OCA.

Today there are many Orthodox churches in the United States and Canada that are still bound to the Greek, Antiochian, or other overseas jurisdictions; in some cases these different overseas jurisdictions will have churches in the same U.S. city. However, there are also many "panorthodox" activities and organizations, both formal and informal, among Orthdox believers of all jurisdictions. One such organization is SCOBA, the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, which comprises North American Orthodox bishops from nearly all jurisdictions. (See list of Orthodox jurisdictions in North America.)

There is a general acknowledgment that the situation should not continue as it is indefinitely, and that at some point all the Orthodox churches in the U.S. will need to be united under a single Metropolitan or Patriarch. There is also a general acknowledgment that this can be taken care of slowly over time. In June of 2002, the Antiochian Orthodox Church granted autonomy to the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. Some observers see this as a step towards greater organizational unity in North America. (Note that this future American Orthodox Church will be a church of Americans, for people who consider themselves Americans and speak primarily or only the English or Spanish languages; people who retain their original nationality and/or whose primary language is not English will most likely remain members of their churches, and their churches' activities will continue).

Theology

In general, the Orthodox Christian approach to scriptural interpretation and theology is patristic. That means that every effort is made to continue believing and practicing the same theology that Christ gave to the Apostles and that the Apostles gave to the early Church Fathers. Theological innovation is always met with suspicion; if an idea is truly different from what the Church has always believed and taught, it is likely heretical. It is acceptable to elaborate and more fully explain traditional theology, however. The last major theological milestone took place in the 14th century at the Hesychast Councils. There, Saint Gregory Palamas explained how God can be both utterly transcendent, yet make himself known to men.

Phronema refers to how something "smells" or "feels". The Western church (i.e. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism) generally has a legal flavor to much of its theology. Sin is understood primarily as a legal violation, and salvation is legal forgiveness for the legal offenses. Also, the West tends to first look at God in his unity, then in his three persons. The Eastern church generally has a much more relational flavor. Sin leads to relational separation from God, and repentance involves restoring the relationships between the penitent and God, and between the penitent and humanity. God is viewed first as three persons in perfect relationship with each other, then as a unity sharing a single divine essence. The doctrine of the Trinity is the basis for most if not all of Eastern Orthodox theology.

It should perhaps also be mentioned that the Western churches have been especially influenced by Augustine and, to a lesser extent, Tertullian. Although Augustine was an early church father, writing in the fourth century, he had very little influence in the East. First of all, he wrote in Latin rather than Greek. At the time, Latin was commonly spoken in the West, but Greek was the main language of the Byzantine Empire. His writings weren't translated to Greek until the fourteenth century. Consequently, Western doctrines that are based on Augustine's views are typically not shared by the East. Eastern theologians tended to rely more on Greek philosophers than did the west, often borrowing their categories and vocabulary to explain Christian doctrine. In the first few centuries after the fall of Rome, knowledge of Greek in the West dropped considerably, and so the Western church was generally less aware of the Greek philosophers. These gradual differences contributed to the growing gap between the Eastern and Western churches.

Asceticism and Theosis

Asceticism is the set of disciplines practiced to work out the believer's salvation, and further the believer's repentance. Ultimately, it is believed, salvation comes only by the grace of God, but God's grace and right belief are expected to produce changes in behaviour. Changes in behaviour can also influence beliefs. Asceticism can include anything from taking part in prayers with the church, fasting, almsgiving, or even working hard not to lose one's temper or similar acts of restraint and self-control. Corporate prayers are generally prayed as a "liturgy", which literally means a "work of the people." One prayer that is very widely used and is the subject of much discussion of spirituality is the Jesus Prayer.

Theosis, or divinization, is the process of becoming more like God and more united with God. It is the goal of the Christian life. It means becoming all that people were originally created to be. It is not something to wait for passively, but something to be taken by force, by hard work done in one's soul.

The four chief activities of the believer are:

The Mystery of Repentance (or confession)
The Mystery of the Eucharist
Fasting
Almsgiving

Mystery of Repentance

In the earliest days of the Church, Christians confessed their sins to each other publicly, and publicly forgave each other, announcing God's forgiveness. This was possible in part because only believers were meeting together, and they were close-knit communities in which everyone trusted each other. As time went on, and more people came into the Church, some people attending were seekers or catechumens rather than faithful members, and believers began to feel uncomfortable confessing in public. Then the practice developed of members quietly confessing to God (typically in front of an icon of Christ blessing the icon's beholder) in the presence of an elder or priest, who would offer counsel and confirm God's forgiveness. This would take place in the context of a series of prayers said by the priest and penitent together, often including Psalm 51 and other scriptures and prayers. However, it should be noted that anyone with sufficient experience and knowledge, if given a blessing from a Bishop, can hear confessions. Thus, a confessor might be a priest, monk, nun, man, woman, etc. It may make sense that married couples confess to a married person, or a woman confess to another, more experienced, woman. Such things are not unusual. However, Only a priest can read the prayers of forgiveness over the person in preparation for communion. Repentance is essential preparation for receiving the Eucharist. The Orthodox Church has never bothered with the concept of anonymity in confession the way the Roman Catholics have. Orthodox confession often takes the form of a discussion between the confessor and the penitent concerning his or her sins and the best course of action to take in overcoming them. Penitence is not handed out in the same way as the Catholics either. Usually all that is required is the attempt in overcoming the sin or making restitution with the person wronged.

Mystery of the Eucharist

The Eucharist is at the center of Orthodox Christianity. In practice, it is partaking of the bread and wine in the midst of the Divine Liturgy with the rest of the church. The bread and wine are believed to be the genuine Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Church has never described exactly how this occurs, or gone into the detail that the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have in the West. The doctrine of transubstantiation was formulated after the Great Schism took place, and the Orthodox churches have never formally affirmed or denied it, preferring to state simply that it is a mystery and sacrament. Long before the year 1054 it was the practice to in some way hide the mysterious process within the liturgy. In the Catholic Church of the Latin Rite, this was achieved through the use of Ecclesiastical Latin; in the Orthodox churches the altar area was kept behind a curtain or other shield called a templon, sometimes mistakenly called an iconostasis (literally "icon stand"); this was at times adopted by the Holy See as well. Believers are encouraged to partake regularly of the Eucharist, and once a year at the very least. One recent book describing the role of the Eucharist in Eastern Orthodoxy is For the Life of the World by Father Alexander Schmemann; another by the same author is The Eucharist.

Fasting

The practice of fasting is one of many Jewish practices the earliest Christians kept, and which Orthodox Christians continue to keep to this day. Fasting typically involves differing levels of abstainence depending on the day or season and ranges from a complete fast from all food to abstainance from meat, dairy, olive oil, and wine. Seafood and oils are permitted on certain days and weeks of the fast. Thus, on the harshest of days the fasting guidelines resemble vegan vegetarianism with all frying/cooking done simply with water (no oil), and most vegetarian recipes are appropriate during fasts. In addition to restrictions on food, it is generally understood that married couples refrain from sexual relations during a fast. Monastaries typically have stricter fasting rules. The time and type of fast is generally uniform for all Orthodox Christians living within a particular jurisdiction; the times of fasting are part of the ecclesial calendar. In this way, the whole church fasts together, and the whole church feasts together (when the fast is broken). Infants, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and people with other medical needs are often encouraged not to follow the usual fasting guidelines, but to work out alternatives with their priest or spiritual elder. Also, if someone wishes to follow a stricter fast, they are generally encouraged to do so only under the guidance of their priest or spiritual elder.

The major fasting periods are Great Lent (40+ days leading up to Pascha (Easter), the Feast of the Resurrection); Winter Lent (also known as Philip's Fast or the Nativity Fast, 40+ days leading up to Christmas or the Feast of the Nativity); about 15 days leading up to the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (the falling asleep of the Virgin Mary) on August 15; the Apostle's Fast, leading up to the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Prime Apostles; a few other shorter fasts; and on Wednesdays and Fridays during most of the rest of the year. Wednesday fasts are in remembrance of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus Christ and of the prostitute who anointed Jesus with ointment, and Friday fasts are in remembrance of Christ's crucifixion and death. There is also a complete fast (all food and drink) from the beginning of Sunday (traditionally this is Saturday sundown following Jewish custom, though many parishes observe the beginning of the day at midnight) until after reception of the Holy Eucharist on the same day, and similar fasting before receiving the Eucharist on other days. The exact number of fasting days often varies from year to year, as the dates of various feasts change, but usually more than half of the days in a year are spent in some form of fast. See the Eastern Orthodox section of the liturgical year article.

The Orthodox approch to fasting is quite different from the Latin West who see fasting as a penitence for sins, almost a punishment and burden. The Orthodox, on the other hand, are reminded that perfect man, as in the garden of Eden, man ate only vegetables and sexual relations did not occure. The Orthodox seek to recapture paradise through fasting, to regain a measure of purity. It is never looked on as a hardship or punishment, but rather a great privilage and joy.

Fasting without prayer was often called the "fast of demons" by the Church fathers, since the demons neither eat nor pray. Therefore, fasting should always be accompanied by prayer and almsgiving.

Almsgiving

"Almsgiving" refers to any charitable giving of material resources to those in need. Like fasting, it is a practice carried over from Judaism and reinforced by Christ and the authors of the New Testament, and has remained a prominent teaching. It is often coupled with fasting (see above), as consuming less food and less expensive food should free up more resources that can be given. It is also connected to the Eucharist, in which thanks is given for all things, and it is acknowledged that all things ultimately belong to God. Almsgiving is one of the most practical of Orthodox Christian practices.

Salvation and the afterlife

Orthodox Christianity teaches that there is no salvation outside the Church. That does not mean, however, that those who lack formal membership in the Orthodox Church are necessarily damned, nor does it mean that those who have such a membership are necessarily saved in the end. Rather, all must cooperate with the mercy and grace of God in order to attain to the fullness of the stature of Christ. Within the incarnational embrace of the Church one has the best opportunity to engage in this cooperation.

Many Orthodox theologians believe that all people will have an opportunity to embrace union with God, including Jesus, after their death, and so become part of the Church at that time. God is thought to be good, just, and merciful; it would not seem just to condemn someone because they never heard the Gospel message, or were taught a distorted version of the Gospel by heretics. Therefore, the reasoning goes, they must at some point have an opportunity to make a genuine informed decision. Ultimately, those who persist in rejecting God condemn themselves, by cutting themselves off from the ultimate source of all Life, and from the God who is Love embodied.

Orthodox Christians do not take their own salvation for granted. The icon of the "Ladder of Divine Ascent" depicts a ladder going from the bottom left to the top right of the icon. At the top is Jesus Christ in glory with hands outstretched towards those people who are climbing the ladder. In the air and on the ground are a number of demons trying to shoot (with arrows) or drag people off the ladder. And some people are falling from the ladder. The point is that no matter how high a person might ascend, no matter how close to God one may come, it is still possible to fall, to turn from God, and so each of us must remain watchful and vigilant. The question is not, "What is the minimum that I can believe or do in order to be saved?", but rather "How can I be most saved? How can make my salvation certain and persevere in it?"