The Orthodox Faith
Orthodoxy holds that the eternal truths of God's saving revelation in Jesus Christ are preserved in the living Tradition of the Church under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy has preserved untainted, the very genuine teachings of Jesus Christ. The very teachings delivered to every subsequent generation of believers. These teachings came down the centuries, from the Holy Apostles, explicated and carefully interpreted by their legitimate successors, (their disciples and the holy Fathers), traditioned and conserved unaltered by our Eastern Church which is alone able to prove her right to be called "the Orthodox Church."
The Holy Scriptures are at the heart of the Tradition and the touchstone of the faith. While the Bible is the written testimony of God's revelation, Holy Tradition is the all-encompassing experience of the Church under the abiding guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Essentially, Orthodox Christians consider that their beliefs are very similar to those of other Christian traditions, but that the balance and integrity of the entire Apostolic faith once delivered to the Saints has been preserved inviolate.
God is personal and God is Love. We believe that God is One in essence and Triune in persons. We worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. Creation is the work in time of the Blessed Trinity. The world is not self-created, neither has it existed from eternity, but it is the product of the wisdom, the power, and the will of the One God in Trinity. God the Father is the prime cause of creation and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit took part in creation, God the Son perfecting creation and God the Holy Spirit vivifying creation.
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly God. As we affirm in the Creed, he is “true God from true God” one in essence with God the Father. He is Jesus, that is, the Saviour and Christ, the Lord's Anointed, a Son not created of another substance, as is the case with us, but a Son begotten of the very substance of the Father before all time, and thus consubstantial with the Father. Jesus Christ is equal to the Father: he is God in the same sense that the Father is God, and yet they are not two Gods but one. He is also truly man, like us in every respect, except sin. The denial either of His divinity or of His humanity constitutes a denial of His incarnation and of our salvation.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and is also one in essence with God the Father. The faith of the Church about the procession of the Holy Spirit was confirmed by the Second Ecumenical Council, which added to the Creed the following clause: "And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father." The Church is the holy institution founded by our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of men, bearing his holy sanction and authority, and composed of men having one and the same faith, and partaking of the same sacraments. It is divided into the clergy and laity. The clergy trace their descent by uninterrupted succession from the Apostles and through them from our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church is ONE because our Lord Jesus Christ founded not many, but only one Church; HOLY because her aim, the sanctification and salvation of her members through the sacraments, is holy; CATHOLIC because she is above local limitations;
and APOSTOLIC because she was "built upon the foundation of the Apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone" (Eph. 2:20). The Head of the Church is our Lord, Jesus Christ.
We recognise seven Sacraments: Baptism, Chrism or Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Confession, Ordination, Marriage and Holy Unction. Baptism is the door through which one enters into the Church. Confirmation is the completion of Baptism. In the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, with the bread and wine, we partake of the very Body and the very Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for remission of sins and eternal life. Both the New Testament and Sacred Tradition bear witness to the real Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. In the sacrament of Confession Jesus Christ, the founder of the sacrament, through the confessor, forgives the sins committed after Baptism by the person who confesses his sins and sincerely repents of them. In the sacrament of Ordination through prayer and the laying-on of hands by a bishop, divine grace comes down on the ordained enabling him to be a worthy minister of the Church. Apostolic succession is fundamental to the Church. Without it there can be no continuity of the Church. In the sacrament of Marriage, divine grace sanctifies the union of husband and wife. In the sacrament of Holy Unction the sick person is anointed with sanctified oil and divine grace heals his bodily and spiritual ills.
Our Orthodox Faith is summed up in The Creed.