You will definitely need a Bible and various ecclesiastical references (e.g. Migne). The pages are not meant only to be browsed for a few minutes but you will need to read them in some detail. You are meant to go and look up all these Biblical references.

If you are an Orthodox Christian, then before you begin reading these notes, we urge you to prepare yourself by doing some prostrations, fasting, praying (esp. the euche "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner") -- in order for Christ to enlighten you to understand something from what is written here. In anything you do as relates to "theology" you must first and foremost learn to associate it with the liturgical life. There is no point in becoming experts in the theory of jogging while we sit in our chairs and put on weight instead of exercising. We also recommend that you take the various Orthodox books you and your family read over the course of the week (including printouts of these notes) and ask your local priest to place them on the altar for a day or two so that they receive a blessing. (Note that minor yet sometimes important corrections do take place so please make sure you visit once in a while in order to update your printed notes.)

If you are a non-Orthodox Christian, you may find some of this material a little difficult to read at times or confusing; perhaps even "offensive". Again, however, we believe that by not trying to hand you a "politically corrected" or otherwise "sweetened" placebo, but a more "bitter" yet effective medicine, we can be of some help.

After all, the Orthodox understanding of "heresy" is in terms of deviation from the Truth of Christ, which is not so much a reason for punishment (and by that we mean "punishment from God" and not some self-righteous punishment from us, God forbid!) but as a disease that needs the Physician of our souls to be healed. Think of "heresy" as a terrible disease that you may have and needs your immediate attention: what do you do? Clearly you need to visit the Divine Physician at His Hospital. Think of Orthodoxy as His Hospital. We do not place particular judgment on you or your life, nor do we consider ourselves superior to you. In an absolute sense, Orthodoxy is salvation: if we allow the Divine Physician to "operate" on us, we will be healed and thus in a safe haven of spiritual health. This salvation however is also relative, in the sense that we are required to do some things too. Again, think in terms of the example we gave. If you enter the Hospital and do not go to the Doctor to see you, and possibly go through some bitter medicine or even operation before becoming again well (out of fear or perhaps because you think "you know better than the Doctor") what will happen? Will the fact that you entered the Hospital be beneficial to you? No, because you will stay very ill and may even die. This is why Orthodox Christians who live like "dead members" can lose their soul even though they are "inside the Hospital". Of course, in all that relates to us we are also not saved automatically when we enter the Orthodox Church because even after our operation we may out of our own neglect fall into sins (illnesses) and need to see the Physician again!

For this reason Orthodoxy needs to be followed by Orthopraxis, in other words, living an Orthodox life, each to their ability, in communion with one another and all together in Christ. This is the essence of Paradise: communion. And bear in mind, dear interested reader, that you do not compete here against us or your brother but against yourself and your passions. "Heresy", in particular, is a sin of the flesh, as the Bible informs us. Like fornication, theft and so forth, it needs to be brought to our attention and corrected so we can allow God to come to us and thus begin to move upwards during our ascetic journey within Orthodoxy.

Orthodoxy, therefore, is nothing less than Christ's Truth and for this reason deviations from that truth inevitably lead to spiritual death. We ask you that you become a little acquainted with some material first. There are a number of excellent introductory books that we highly recommend -- found in our Bibliography section. These may be more appropriate for you. The books in bold come very highly recommended. These are books that we believe every Christian should know of and read. Apart from these books, we strongly recommend that you make the time to go to a Liturgy one Sunday. We especially recommend that you visit an Orthodox monastery near your vicinity. This is because (as we pointed out in the Introductory passage) it is possible that the temple you visit is "modernist" in some ways; which is fine (because it is still the Church of Christ, no matter what individual people may or may not do) but will obviously not make the same impact to you as an "other worldly" holy monk would, who, away from pretensions and the Western "worldly" spirit, may bear witness to the Truth of Christ in your heart by standing in front of you, even with only his divine silence. In many cases, visiting a monastery is easier said than done (we are aware of this), but if you pray to Christ humbly and ask that He helps you find the Truth, His Orthodoxy, and also pray that He helps you find an adept spiritual father, He will listen to you. If you wish so, write to us so we can include you in our prayers and perhaps give you some direction towards fulfilling such a God-pleasing goal.

We keep saying "we". Who is "we"? We are everyday lay Orthodox Christians full of sins and shortcomings that have lived Orthodoxy both in the East and in the West, which is something that gives us a unique perspective. The analysis pages themselves are for the most part based upon the words and works of renowned Orthodox theologians, in the true sense of the word, that lived the life of Orthodoxy from within. Such theologians are fr. Yannacopoulos and fr. Alevizopoulos; both were charismatic priests who lived life in the Spirit and written patristically using the words of the Pillars of Orthodoxy, the Fathers (which words however they "incarnated" in their own lives), as these in turn have always talked in the Spirit -- and always within the atmosphere of Holy Tradition. Your wishes and blessings must go towards such holy fathers. The mistakes are entirely ours, so please inform us of these by sending us feedback (c.f. Updates/Feedback Menu and Contact Info Menu). Please double check Biblical references, since the large amount of references made increases the possibility of human error. If you find an error, please report it back to us at the Feedback Menu. 
We must stress here that while we strive to stay on the Orthodox path in these notes, it is entirely possible that mistakes creep in at times. Usually, these are relatively mild (Bible references etc.)

But we urge the reader to examine other Orthodox web pages too, to read a few Orthodox books and more importantly to pray that Christ leads him or her to His Truth, to His Orthodoxy, something that also needs his or her cooperation (by humility). Eventually, we recommend that the reader leaves the Internet to go and see the life of Orthodoxy from within. Orthodoxy cannot be taught, it has to be lived to be truly understood. Therefore we do not want you to keep coming back here; we will have fulfilled our purpose with these notes if you leave the Internet and go to an Orthodox monastery to talk to the monks there, or find a pious Orthodox community where you attend the services as often as you can. Beginners must realise that they need to spend most of their time examining their self and thus their shortcomings than reading books. Beginners must also seek enlightened elders, something that is not an easy task to accomplish if for example you live in the United States. Therefore people away from the faith need to concentrate their efforts on finding an adept priest or monk who will catechise them into the faith, on attending the Liturgy and the other services of the Church as often as they can, and to examine their self and shortcomings, making a note of their sinfulness. Perhaps reading a small catechism like Cartlon's would also be beneficial. However, do not spend too much time with books at this stage; you will have plenty of time when you are being catechised, during the time when you will read while also putting to practice a few things thus beginning your struggle towards Baptism and Chrismation. Orthodox readers can spend some more time with these and other notes, but we strongly recommend against losing your time in IRC chat rooms, discussion groups or other Internet-related activities.

This web page is mainly written for all Orthodox who wish to learn more about Orthodoxy and how to defend her against heresies. It is also written for heterodox (i.e. non-Orthodox) Christians who through God's mercy and infinite love have started their journey into Orthodoxy and somehow stumbled upon this page looking for a little more.

Remember that Orthodoxy is one. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, American Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox and so forth, indicate the local Churches and not that they differ in matters of doctrine. All Orthodox believe the same doctrines.

The Orthodox understanding of the Church of God is that the Church universal (both visible and invisible parts of the Orthodox Church) which is the One and Indivisible Body of Christ abides in, i.e. is wholly and indivisibly present in, each Church, i.e. in the visible unity of the people of God, the Bishop, and the Eucharist.

The Orthodox ecclesiology does not of course transform the local Church (diocese) into a self-sufficient monad, without any "organic" links with other similar monads. There is no "congregationalism" here.

The organic unity of the Church universal is not less real than the organic unity of the local church. But if universal ecclesiology interprets it in terms of "parts" and "whole", for eucharistic ecclesiology the adequate term is that of identity: "the Church of God abiding in ... ".

And if universal unity is indeed unity of the Church and not merely unity of Churches, its essence is not that all Churches together constitute one vast, unique organism, but that each Church -- in the identity of order, faith and the gifts of the Holy Spirit -- is the same Church, the same Body of Christ, indivisibly present wherever is the "ecclesia". It is thus the same organic unity of the Church herself, the "Churches" (whose external forms and topical issues we briefly discuss in the Introduction) being not complementary to each other, as parts or members, but each one and all of them together being nothing else, but the One, Holy, Catholic (which means "whole, lacking nothing"), and Apostolic Church.

To put it simply for you the reader: in practice, whether you visit an English-speaking temple under an Antiochean diocese in the United Kingdom, a temple under the North American Greek archdiocese, a Chinese Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate or a Russian Church in Russia or any other temple of a local Orthodox Church (so long as it is in spiritual intercommunion with the other Orthodox Churches), you have visited a temple of the One Church of Christ and been mystically transported to the One Divine Liturgy conducted on heaven and earth; and conversely, all and any of these local Churches are the One Church of Christ: not because when you put them all together you get one whole, but because they are each and all the one Church of Christ, mystically.  

This fundamental identity in faith and life of the individual catholic ("whole") Churches guarantees the unity of all of them together. This means that the unity of the worldwide Church is neither secured by nor dependent upon any particular super-diocesan structure. However, this worldwide unity is expressed by the intercommunion of the Churches and the concelebration of the sacramental heads of these Churches with one another.

Our Lord prayed that His followers might be one even as He and His Father are one. The mystery of the unity of the Church is, therefore, a Trinitarian mystery. Just as each person of the Trinity is "catholic" -- that is, possesses the fullness (plenitude) of the divine nature, without being "part" of a greater whole -- so each local Church (i.e. diocese in the modern sense of the word) is catholic, possessing and manifesting the fullness of life in Christ in communion with all of the other Catholic Churches (not related in any way to any parts of the heretical self-proclaimed "Catholic Church" of Rome). The local Church, however, can in no way be regarded as part of a greater whole. This would be tantamount to saying that the Son is only part of God. At the same time, this identity implies a necessary communion and even order (taxis) between the Churches.

It is in this light that the Introductory and other notes on Church must be understood. We use "loose" language, but we do not imply that the Universal Orthodox Church consists of the various local Churches in an external way. Rather, the Orthodox Church abides in each one of them in the sense described above (unity of faith and life) and constitutes the Body of Christ. Each Local Church is the Catholic Church, as the ancient Fathers unanimously agreed (e.g. c.f. St. Justin's First Apology I:65). In particular, the Ecclesia as the Body of Christ is uncreated (as elder Porphyrius the Hagiorite would confess against modernist theologians) and always existed in the pre-eternal will of God,  revealed and realised as Body of Christ on the Day of the Pentecost. Even though it is often called as a religion, it is not so as in reality it is a revelation of God Himself and not some human invention.

The Ecclesia, being the true Body of Christ, with the revealed truth that it contains, helps man be healed from ideology, which gives birth to fanaticism, hatred and terrorism, and helps him live the true love, which has truly the capacity of an "atomic bomb", though instead of destroying, it gives life, it re-bears and it makes human communities consist of glorified human beings, humans in the way we were meant to be (unlike what the ideologies of humanism do).

So what is the Ecclesia? As father Hierotheos Vlachos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and St.Vlasios, writes: The Ecclesia is the Body of Christ. At the same time it is the body, which He received from the Virgin Mary, deified, and resurrected; it is the Eucharist bread found on the Altar table, and it is the saints who make up the members of Christ's Body (in his excellent book Entering the Orthodox Church).

 Please visit each Part individually from the Menus to continue.

Yours in Christ

The Eastern-Orthodoxy.Com Team.