About Orthodox Christianity

If you are like many of us, you may not have heard much about Orthodox Christianity. Or, you might assume, as some of us did, that it’s basically just like Roman Catholicism only based in different countries using different languages. Or that its emphasis is on a particular ethnic expression. 

But, Orthodox Christianity was established from the beginning of the church and has been passed down to our present day. It can be traced all the way back to the apostles and, remarkably, to this day, the Orthodox Church continues to faithfully pass down the Christian faith (2 Timothy 2:2).

Many of us at St. Michael’s are converts to Orthodoxy. Some of us have come from Protestant backgrounds, some from Catholic backgrounds, some from no religious background.

On our own journeys to becoming Orthodox, many of us were surprised to learn church history that we’d never previously known. As part of that, some of us discovered ancient church writings that explained the early church’s beliefs and practices. We traced the church all the way back to its ancient beginnings and we discovered – the Orthodox Church!

For some of us, our journey here was through learning the much more healing theology of Orthodoxy (and the ancient church) and its amazing understanding of the Scriptures! Others have been drawn because of the beautiful and reverent worship of the church. And, still others have been drawn by the spiritual disciplines – praying, sacrificial giving, and fasting that help to heal us into the true humans that God has made us to be.

All of these aspects of the Orthodox Faith are beautiful and healing. They are all an interconnected whole. The practices of the Orthodox church- its worship, its building structure, its icons, its incense, its beauty, its spiritual disciplines and life- are interconnected with Orthodox theology and the practices of the church from its ancient times. And, it is all to help us to be in union with God and with each other; to be transformed into the true humans we were made to be – images (icons) of Christ.