THE HOLY BYZANTINE CATHOLIC ORTHODOX CHURCH (TENETS)

THE HOLY BYZANTINE KATHOLIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
Le Saint Église Bizantine Katholique Orthodoxe

A TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY

1. THE HOLY TRINITY, in the Trinity we worship three persons -- three
hypostases -- that of the Father, that of the Son and that of the Holy Spirit. We do not
confuse the persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

We do not believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are, as it were, three
masks of a single person. None of the persons is alienated from the others, but each
has the fullness of the Three together.

2. GOD THE FATHER is the fountainhead of the Holy Trinity. Who is without
beginning, indescribable, incomprehensible, Who is beyond every created essence,
Whose essence is known only to Himself, to His Son and the Holy Spirit; as it says in
the Holy Scriptures, upon Him even the Seraphim dare not gaze.

We believe and confess that God the Father never became the likeness of any material
form nor was He ever incarnate. In the Theophanies (appearances of God) of the Old
Testament, as our Holy Fathers bear witness, it was not God the Father Who
appeared, but rather it was always our Savior, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (i.
e., the Word or Logos, the Angel of the Lord, the Lord God of Sabbath, the Angel of
Great Counsel, the Ancient of Days) Who revealed Himself to the prophets and seers
of the Old Testament. Likewise, in the New Testament, God the Father never
appeared but bore witness to His Son on several occasions solely by a voice that was
heard from Heaven. It is for this reason that our Savior said, "No man hath seen God at
any time; the Only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,"
(John 1:18) and "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He Who is of God, He hath seen
the Father" (John 6:46). In addition, Acts Four, Five and Six of the Seventh Ecumenical
Council state that the Holy Trinity cannot be portrayed iconographically since He is
without from and invisible. Therefore, God the Father is not depicted in the holy
icons.

We believe that He is the cause of all things as well as the end purpose of all things.
From Him all visible and invisible creatures have their beginning and there was a
time when they did not exist. He created the universe out of absolutely nothing. The
earth too had a beginning and man was created by God's love. The creation of man
and of the universe was not out of necessity. Creation is the work of the free and
unconditional will of the Creator. If He had so wished, He need not have created us;
the absence of creation would not have been a privation for Him. The creature's love is
not one which gives Him satisfaction. God has no need to be satisfied. He needs
nothing. God's love cannot be compared to human love, even as His other attributes
such as paternity, justice, goodness cannot be compared to their human counterparts.
God's love is a love which constitutes a mystery unfathomable to man's reason or
intellect. God has no "emotions" which might create passion, suffering, need or
necessity in Him. Nevertheless, although the nature of divine love remains
incomprehensible and inexplicable to human reason, this love is real and genuine and
I confess, in agreement with Scripture, that God is love.

3. JESUS CHRIST is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, eternally born of the
Father. He became man, and thus He is at once fully God and fully man. His coming to
earth was foretold in the Old Testament by the prophets. Because Jesus Christ is at
the heart of Christianity, the Orthodox Church has given more attention to knowing
Him than to anything or anyone else.

In reciting the Nicene Creed, Orthodox Christians regularly affirm the historic faith
concerning Jesus as they say, "I believe... in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only
begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten,
not made; of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and
for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and
was buried; and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into
heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge
the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end."

4. THE HOLY SPIRIT is one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity and is one in
essence with the Father. Orthodox Christians repeatedly confess, "And I believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who
together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified..." He is called the
"promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4), given by Christ as a gift to the Church, to empower
the Church for service to God (Acts 1:8), to place God's love in our hearts (Romans 5:5),
and to impart spiritual gifts (I Corinthians 12:7-13) and virtues (Galatians 5:22, 23) for
Christian life and witness. Orthodox Christians believe the biblical promise that the
Holy Spirit is given through Chrismation (anointing) at baptism (Acts 2:38). We are to
grow in our experience of the Holy Spirit for the rest of our lives.

5.   INCARNATION. We believe that from the moment of His conception in the
virginal womb, Jesus Christ was one person, yet having two natures. From His
conception, He was God and Man before birth, during birth and after birth.

We believe and confess that the Most Holy Virgin Mary, after the image of the bush
which burned and was not consumed, truly received the fire of the Godhead in Herself
without being consumed thereby. I believe and confess that She truly gave of Her own
blood and of Her own flesh to the Incarnate Word and that She fed Him with Her own
milk.

We confess that Jesus Christ was, in His Godhead, begotten of the Father outside of
time without assistance of a father. He is without mother in His divinity and without
father in His manhood.

We believe that through the Incarnation, the Most Holy Virgin Mary became truly
the Theotokos (the Mother of God) in time. She was a Virgin before, during and after
birth. Even as Jesus Christ arose from the dead despite the fact that the Jews had
sealed His tomb with a stone, and even as He entered into the midst of His disciples
while the doors were shut, so also did He pass through the virginal womb without
destroying the virginity of Mary or causing Her the travail of birth. Even as the Red
Sea remained un-trodden after the passage of Israel, so also did the Virgin remain
undefiled after giving birth to Emmanuel. She is the gate proclaimed by the Prophet
Ezekiel through which God entered into the world "while remaining shut"     (Ezekiel
44:2).

6. SIN literally means to "miss the mark." As St. Paul writes, "All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We sin when we pervert what God has given us
as good, falling short of His purposes for us. Our sins separate us from God (Isaiah 59:
1, 2), leaving us spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). To save us, the Son of God assumed
our humanity, and being without sin "He condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3). In
His mercy, God forgives our sins when we confess them and turn from them, giving us
strength to overcome sin in our lives. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"(I John 1:9).

7. SALVATION is the divine gift through which men and women are delivered
from sin and death, united to Christ, and brought into His eternal kingdom. Those
who heard St. Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost asked what they must do to be
saved. He answered, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Salvation
begins with these three steps: (1) repent, (2) be baptized, and (3) receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit. To repent means to change our mind about how we have been, to turn
from our sin and to commit ourselves to Christ. To be baptized means to be born
again by being joined into union with Christ. And to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
means to receive the Spirit Who empowers us to enter a new life in Christ, to be
nurtured in the Church, and to be conformed to God's image.

Salvation demands faith in Jesus Christ. People cannot save themselves by their own
good works. Salvation is "faith working through love". It is an ongoing, life-long
process. Salvation is past tense in that, through the death and Resurrection of Christ,
we have been saved. It is present tense, for we are "being saved" by our active
participation through faith in our union with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Salvation is also future, for we must yet be saved at His glorious Second Coming.

8. BAPTISM is the way in which a person is actually united to Christ. The
institution of the sacrament just before Our Lords Ascension to heaven, with these
words: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things I have
commanded you..” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Baptism is the gateway into the Christian Church; the saving action of God who
through water and the Spirit recreates his creation; the initial sacrament through
which he who is immersed in water three times in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit is cleansed from all sin and regenerated spiritually. As our
Lord Himself stated: “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the
Spirit.” (John 3: 5).

9.   NEW BIRTH is receipt of new life. It is how we gain entrance into God's
kingdom and His Church. Jesus said, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). From its beginning, the Church has taught that
the "water" is the baptismal water and the "Spirit" is the Holy Spirit. The new birth
occurs in baptism where we die with Christ, are buried with Him, and are raised with
Him in the newness of His resurrection, being joined into union with Him in His
glorified humanity (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3, 4). The idea that being "born again" is a
religious experience disassociated from baptism is a recent one and has no biblical
basis whatsoever.

10. JUSTIFICATION is a word used in the Scriptures to mean that in Christ we
are forgiven and actually made righteous in our living. Justification is not a once-for-
all, instantaneous pronouncement guaranteeing eternal salvation, regardless of how
wickedly a person might live from that point on. Neither is it merely a legal
declaration that an unrighteous person is righteous. Rather, justification is a living,
dynamic, day-to-day reality for the one who follows Christ. The Christian actively
pursues a righteous life in the grace and power of God granted to all who continue to
believe in Him.

11.   SANCTIFICATION is being set apart for God. It involves us in the process
of being cleansed and made holy by Christ in the Holy Spirit. We are called to be
saints and to grow into the likeness of God. Having been given the gift of the Holy
Spirit, we actively participate in sanctification. We cooperate with God, we work
together with Him, that we may know Him, becoming by grace what He is by nature.

12.    THE BIBLE is the divinely inspired Word of God (II Timothy 3:16). We
believe that all the Scriptures are inspired by God and that, as St. John Chrysostom
says, "It is impossible for a man to be saved if he does not read the Scriptures." However, the
Holy Scriptures cannot be dissociated from the Church, for She wrote them. The
Scriptures were written in the Church, by the Church and for the Church. Outside the
Church, the Scriptures cannot be understood. One trying to comprehend the
Scriptures though outside the Church is like a stranger trying to comprehend the
correspondence between two members of the same family. The Holy Scriptures lose
their meaning, the sense of their expression and their content for the man who is a
stranger to the Church, to Her life, to Her Mysteries and to Her Traditions, since they
were not written for him.

We believe and confess that there is no contradiction whatsoever between the Sacred
Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church. By the word "Tradition," I do not mean an
accumulation of human customs and practices which have been added to the Church.
According to the holy Apostle Paul, the written and oral Traditions are of equal value;
for it is not the means of transmission that saves us, but the authenticity of the
content of what has been transmitted to us. Furthermore, the teaching of the Old
Testament as well as that of the New Testament was transmitted orally to God's
people before they were written down. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures themselves are
a part of Holy Tradition which is a unified whole and we must accept it as a whole, and
not choose bits and parts according to our private opinions or interpretations.

The official versions and texts of the Orthodox Church are the Septuagint version of
the Old Testament (which was used by the Apostles when they recorded the New Testament)
and the Greek text of the New Testament. Translations into the various languages
have also been approved by the Church and are extensively used. I acknowledge that
there is a plurality of meanings for each verse of the Bible, provided that each
interpretation is justified by the teachings of the Holy Fathers who are glorified by
God.

I reject all human systems of interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, whether they are
allegorical, literalistic, or otherwise. I confess that the Holy Scripture was written
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it is solely through the Holy Spirit
that we can read and understand it. I acknowledge that I cannot read or understand
the Scriptures without the assistance of the Holy Spirit and the illumination of the
Tradition of the Church, even as the eunuch of Candice could not understand the
prophets without the aid of St. Philip, who was sent to him by the Holy Spirit (Acts 8).
I denounce as blasphemous every attempt to correct, re-adapt or   "de-mythologize" the
sacred texts of the Bible.

I confess that Tradition alone is competent to establish the Canon of the Holy
Scriptures since only Tradition can declare what belongs to it and what is foreign to
it. Move over, I confess that the "foolishness of preaching" (I Cor. 1:21) is superior to the
wisdom of man or his rationalistic systems.

13. WORSHIP is to render praise, glory, and thanksgiving to God: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. All humanity is called to worship God. Worship is more than
being in the "great-out-of-doors", or listening to a sermon, or singing a hymn. God can
be known in His creation, but that doesn't constitute worship. And as helpful as
sermons may be, they can never offer a proper substitute for worship. Most prominent
in Orthodox worship is the corporate praise, thanksgiving, and glory given to God by
the Church. This worship is consummated in intimate communion with God at His
Holy Table. As is said in the Liturgy, "To Thee is due all glory, honor, and worship, to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen." In
that worship we touch and experience His eternal kingdom, the age to come, and we
join in adoration with the heavenly hosts. We experience the glory of fulfillment of
all things in Christ, as truly all in all.

14. EUCHARIST means "thanksgiving" and early became a synonym for Holy
Communion. The Eucharist is the center of worship in the Orthodox Church. Because
Jesus said of the bread and fruit of the vine at the Last Supper, "This is my body", "This
is my blood", and "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22: 19,20), His followers believe --
and do -- nothing less. In the Eucharist, we partake mystically of Christ's Body and
Blood, which impart His life and strength to us. The celebration of the Eucharist was a
regular part of the Church's life from its beginning.

15.   LITURGY is a term used to describe the shape or form of the Church's
corporate worship of God. The word liturgy derives from a Greek word which means
"the common work". All the biblical references to worship in heaven involve liturgy.

In the Old Testament, God ordered a liturgy, or specific pattern of worship. We find it
described in detail in the books of Exodus and Leviticus. In the New Testament we
find the Church carrying over the worship of the Old Testament Israel as expressed
in both the synagogue and the temple, adjusting them in keeping with their
fulfillment in Christ. The Orthodox Liturgy, which developed over many centuries,
still maintains that ancient shape of worship. The main elements in the Liturgy
include hymns, the reading and proclamation of the Gospel, prayers, and the Eucharist
itself. For Orthodox Christians, the expressions "The Liturgy" or "Divine Liturgy" refer
to the Eucharistic Rite instituted by Christ Himself at the Last (Mystical) Supper.

16. COMMUNION OF SAINTS: When Christians depart this life, they remain
a vital part of the Church, the body of Christ. They are alive in the Lord and "registered
in heaven" (Hebrews 12:23). They worship God (Revelation 4:10) and inhabit His
heavenly dwelling places (John 14:2). In the Eucharist we come "to the city of the living
God" and join in communion with the saints in our worship of God (Hebrews 12:22).
They are that "great cloud of witnesses" which surrounds us, and we seek to imitate them
in running    "the race set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). Rejecting or ignoring the
communion of saints is a denial of the fact that those who have died in Christ are still
part of his holy Church.

17.   CONFESSION : Is the open admission of known sins before God and man. It
means literally "to agree with" God concerning our sins. St. James the Apostle
admonishes us to confess our sins to God before the elders, or priests, as they are
called today (James 5:16).

We are also exhorted to confess our sins directly to God (I John 1:9). The Orthodox
Church has always followed the New Testament practices of confession before a priest
as well as private confession to the Lord. Confession is one of the most significant
means of repenting, and receiving assurance that even our worst sins are truly
forgiven. It is also one of our most powerful aids to forsaking and overcoming those
sins.

18.   DISCIPLINE: It may become necessary to maintain purity and holiness in
the Church and to encourage repentance in those who have not responded to the
admonition of brothers and sisters in Christ, and of the Church, to forsake their sins.
Church discipline often centers around exclusion from receiving communion
(excommunication). The New Testament records how St. Paul ordered the discipline
of excommunication for an unrepentant man involved in sexual relations with his
father's wife (I Corinthians 5:1-5). The Apostle John warned that we are not to receive
into our homes those who willfully reject the truth of Christ (II John 9,10).
Throughout her history, the Orthodox Church has exercised discipline with
compassion when it is needed, always to help bring a needed change of heart and to
aid God's people to live pure and holy lives, never as a punishment.

19. BLESSED MARY: Called Theotokos, meaning "God-bearer" or "the Mother of
God", because she bore the Son of God in her womb and from her He took His
humanity. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, recognized this reality when she
called Mary, "the Mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43). Mary said of herself, "All
generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48). So we, Orthodox, in our generation, call
her blessed. Mary lived a chaste and holy life, and we honor her highly as the model of
holiness, the first of the redeemed, the Mother of the new humanity in her Son.

We believe that the nature of the Most Holy Virgin Mary is identical to our own.
After her free and conscious acceptance of the plan of salvation offered to man by God,
the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and the power of the Most High covered her, and
"at the voice of the Archangel, the Master of all became incarnate in her." Thus our
Lord Jesus Christ, the New Adam, partook of our nature in all things save sin, through
the Theotokos, the New Eve. The nature of fallen man, the nature of Adam, which
bore the wounds of sin, of degeneration, and of corruption, was restored to its former
beauty, and now it partakes of the Divine nature. Man's nature, restored and
regenerated by grace, surpasses Adam's state of innocence previous to the fall, since as
the Fathers say, "God became man so that man could become God." Thus St. Gregory
the Theologian writes: "O marvelous fall that brought about such a salvation for us!"
man, created "a little lower than the angels" (Ps. 8:5), can, by God's grace, surpass even
the angelic state, and so we praise the Most Holy Virgin Mary, as: "More honorable
than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim."

We reject all the doctrines, which are alien to the teachings of the Fathers,
concerning original sin and the immaculate conception of Mary.

We reject every doctrine which endeavors to distort the position of the Theotokos,
who, with a nature identical to ours, represented all humanity when she accepted the
salvation offered her by God. Thus, God is the Savior of the Most Holy Virgin as well
and she is saved by the same grace whereby all those who are redeemed are saved. She
is not the "Mother of the Church," as though she where dissociated from the Church
or superior to It, but rather she is the “Mother of all the faithful of the Church,” of
which she also is a part.

20.    PRAYER TO THE SAINTS: We believe that God "glorified those who
glorify Him" (I Kings 2:30), that He is "wondrous in His saints" (Ps. 67:35), and that He
is the "Savior of the body" of the Church (Eph. 5:23).

We believe that we are saved insofar as we are members of the Body, but that we
cannot be saved by any individual relation with God outside of the Church. For the
Lord said, "I am the true vine... As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide
in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. If a man abides not in Me, he is
cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the
fire, and they are burned." (John 15:1, 4, 6). The saints are those members of the
Church, the Body of Christ, who have achieved great sanctity.

We believe that our God is the "God of our Fathers" and that He has mercy upon us
because we are the children of our Fathers, who were and are His saints and His
servants, as the Holy Scripture attests in many places.

We believe that, even as St. James the Apostle says, "the prayer of a righteous man
availeth much" (James 5:16), even as the Three Youths who prayed in the fiery furnace
attest: "Cause not Thy mercy to depart from us for Abraham's sake, Thy beloved, for
Isaac's sake, Thy servant, and for Israel's, Thy holy one" (Dan 3:34). Those whom God
has glorified, I also glorify. Because of Him Who glorifies them, I entrust myself to
their prayers and intercessions, even as the Scriptures require, for the angel of the
Lord appeared to Abimelich and counseled him to seek Abraham’s prayers, saying: "He
shall pray for thee and thou shalt live" (Gen. 20:7).

We believe that our honoring of the saints is a well-pleasing to God since it is because
of Him and for His sake that we honor them.

We give adoration to no created thing, no other being, be it visible or invisible and do
not kneel or prostrate to any icons or images of the saints for this is only and act
devoted to God alone. We bow in respect to or beloved Blessed Mother Mary and
saints.

We do not venerate or adore no man, but we honor those that have lived a holy life
and "for the grace of God which is given" (I Cor.1:4). In celebrating the feast of a
saint, it is God Who is always worshipped, the saint's contest and victory being the
occasion for God to be worshipped. Our Lord said,"I will dwell in them" (II Cor. 6:16)
and, by grace and adoption, they shall be called gods (John 10:34-35).

God Himself has granted His saints their ministry of interceding on our behalf. We
supplicate them and we are in communion with them, even after their death in the
flesh, since this death, according to the Apostle, cannot separate us from the love of
Christ which unites us. According to the Lord's promise, they who believe in Him
"shall never die... but are passed from death into life"(John 11:26, 5:24).

21. APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION: Has been a watershed issue since the second
century, not as a mere dogma, but as crucial to the preservation of the faith. Certain
false teachers came on the scene insisting they were authoritative representatives of
the Christian Church. Claiming authority from God by appealing to special
revelations, some were even inventing lineages of teachers supposedly going back to
Christ or the Apostles. In response, the early Church insisted there was an
authoritative apostolic succession passed down from generation to generation. They
recorded that actual lineage, showing how its clergy were ordained by those chosen by
the successors of the Apostles chosen by Christ Himself. Apostolic succession is an
indispensable factor in preserving Church unity. Those in the succession are
accountable to it, and are responsible to ensure all teaching and practice in the Church
is in keeping with Her apostolic foundations. Mere personal conviction that one's
teaching is correct can never be considered adequate proof of accuracy. Today, critics
of apostolic succession are those who stand outside that historic succession and seek a
self-identity with the early Church only.

22.    COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH: A monumental conflict recorded in (Acts
15) arose in the early Church over legalism, the keeping of Jewish laws by the
Christians, as means of salvation. "So the apostles and elders came together [in
council] to consider the matter" (Acts 15:6). This council, held in Jerusalem, set the
pattern for the subsequent calling of councils to settle problems. There have been
hundreds of such councils -- local and regional -- over the centuries of the history of
the Church, and seven councils specifically designated "Ecumenical", that is,
considered to apply to the whole Church. Aware that God has spoken through the
Ecumenical Councils, the Orthodox Church looks particularly to them for
authoritative teaching in regard to the faith and practice of the Church.

23.   CREED: It comes from the Latin credo, "I believe". From the earliest days of
the Church, creeds have been living confessions of what Christians believe and not
simply formal, academic, Church pronouncements. Such confessions of faith appear as
early as the New Testament, where, for example, St. Paul quotes a creed to remind
Timothy, "God...was revealed in the flesh..." (I Timothy 3:16). The creeds were
approved by Church councils, usually to give a concise statement of the truth in the
face of the invasion of heresy. The most important creed in Christendom is the Nicene
Creed, the product of two Ecumenical Councils in the fourth century. Delineated in
the midst of a life-and-death controversy, it contains the essence of New Testament
teaching about the Holy Trinity, guarding that life-giving truth against those who
would change the very nature of God and reduce Jesus Christ to a created being,
rather than God in the flesh. The creeds give us a sure interpretation of the Scriptures
against those who would distort them to support their own religious schemes. Called
the "symbol of faith" and confessed in many of the services of the Church, the Nicene
Creed constantly reminds the Orthodox Christian of what he personally believes,
keeping his faith on track.

Our symbol of faith:
We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and
invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all
ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same
essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came
down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made
human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. The third
day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right
hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His
kingdom will never end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is
worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and
apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the
resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come. Amen.

24. SPIRITUAL GIFTS: When the young Church was getting under way, God
poured out His Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and their followers, giving them
spiritual gifts to build up the Church and to serve each other. Among the specific gifts
of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are: apostleship, prophecy, evangelism,
pastoring, teaching, healing, helps, administrations, knowledge, wisdom, tongues, and
interpretation of tongues. These and other spiritual gifts are recognized in the
Orthodox Church. The need for them varies with the times. The gifts of the Spirit are
most in evidence in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.

25.   SECOND COMING: Amid the current speculation in some corners of
Christendom surrounding the Second Coming of Christ and how it may come to pass,
it is comforting to know that the beliefs of the Orthodox Church are basic. Orthodox
Christians confess with conviction that Jesus Christ "will come again to judge the
living and the dead", and that His "kingdom will have no end". Orthodox preaching
does not attempt to predict God's prophetic schedule, but to encourage Christian
people to have their lives in order so that they might be confident before Him when
He comes   (I John 2:28).

26.   HEAVEN: Is the place of God's throne, beyond time and space. It is the abode
of God's angels, as well as of the saints who have passed from this life. We pray, "Our
Father, who art in heaven..." Though Christians live in this world, they belong to the
kingdom of heaven, and that kingdom is their true home. But heaven is not only for
the future. Neither is it some distant place billions of light years away in a nebulous
"great beyond". For the Orthodox, heaven is part of Christian life and worship. The
very architecture of an Orthodox Church building is designed so that the building
itself participates in the reality of heaven. The Eucharist is heavenly worship, heaven
on earth. St. Paul teaches that we are raised up with Christ in heavenly places
(Ephesians 2:6), "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God"
(Ephesians 2:19). At the end of the age, a new heaven and a new earth will be revealed
(Revelation 21:1).

27.   HELL: Unpopular as it is to modern people, is real. The Orthodox Church
understands hell as a place of eternal torment for those who willfully reject the grace
of God. Our Lord once said, "If your hand makes you sin, cut it off. It is better for you
to enter into life maimed, than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched -- where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched"
(Mark 9:44-45). By the rejecting Gods grace there will be no hope and the absence of
hope which is God is if it were a fire that never shall be quenched bringing eternal
torment. Saint Mark challenged the religious hypocrites with the question: "How can
you escape the condemnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:33). His answer is, "God did not
send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved" (John 3:17). There is a day of judgment coming, and there is a place of
punishment for those who have hardened their hearts against God. It does make a
difference how we will live this life. Those who of their own free will reject the grace
and mercy of God must forever bear the consequences of that choice.

28.    CREATION: Orthodox Christians confess God as Creator of heaven and
earth (Genesis 1:1, the Nicene Creed). Creation did not just come into existence by
itself. God made it all. "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God..." (Heb.11:3). Orthodox Christians do not believe the Bible to be a science
textbook on creation, as some mistakenly maintain, but rather to be God's revelation
of Himself and His salvation. Also, we do not view science textbooks, helpful though
they may be, as God's revelation. They may contain both known facts and speculative
theory, but they are not infallible. Orthodox Christians refuse to build an unnecessary
and artificial wall between science and the Christian faith. Rather, they understand
honest scientific investigation as a potential encouragement to faith, for all truth is
from God.

29.   ECUMENISM: We welcome the rejection of the age-old separation of
Christianity. This is an opportunity to disclose the treasures of Orthodoxy, to bring
those who have fallen away from the Church back to unity in Orthodoxy. We also
welcomes all attempts by the heterodox to study the teaching of Christ about the
Church, in the hope that through such investigation, especially with the participation
of representatives of the Holy Orthodox Church, they will eventually arrive at the
conviction that we are all members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
It is by dialogue that will lead others to the see and witness the One Truth and the
One Church in Christ. By putting aside ego driven believes of being the only truth
and only church we will discover that true orthodoxy is the belief in the son of God
Jesus the Christ Savior of all those that profess his name. One of the ways of attaining
this unity is by the holding of joint prayers and study groups but the communion from
a common chalice (inter-communion) may be achieved only with those that hold the
Orthodox catholic faith. "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22: 19-20).

30.    ABORTION: Is the termination of a pregnancy by taking the life of the baby
before it comes to full term. The Scriptures teach, "For You have formed my inward
parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb" (Jeremiah 1:5). When a child is
aborted, a human being is killed. For the Christian, all children, born or unborn, are
precious in God's sight, and are a gift from Him. Even in the rare case in which a
choice must be made between the life of the child and the life of the mother, decision-
making must be based upon the recognition that the lives of two human persons are at
stake.

31.    MARRIAGE: It is God who joins a man and a woman in a relationship of
mutual love. The Sacrament of Marriage bears witness to His action. Through this
Sacrament, a man and a woman are publicly joined as husband and wife. They enter
into a new relationship with each other, God, and the Church. According to Orthodox
teachings, Marriage is not simply a social institution; it is an eternal vocation of the
kingdom. A husband and a wife are called by the Holy Spirit not only to live together
but also to share their Christian life together so that each, with the aid of the other,
may grow closer to God and become the persons they are meant to be. In the
Orthodox Marriage Service, after the couple have been betrothed and exchanged
rings, they are crowned with "crowns of glory and honor" signifying the
establishment of a new family under God. Near the conclusion of the Service, the
husband and wife drink from a common cup which is reminiscent of the wedding of
Cana and which symbolized the sharing of the burdens and joys of their new life
together.

32.   DIVORCE: While extending love and mercy to divorcees, the Orthodox
Church is grieved by the tragedy and pain divorce causes. Though marriage is
understood as a sacrament, and thus accomplished by the grace of God, and
permanent, the Church does not deal with divorce legalistically, but with compassion.
After appropriate pastoral counsel, divorce may be allowed when avenues for
reconciliation have been exhausted. If there is a remarriage, the service for a second
marriage includes prayers offering repentance for the earlier marriage, asking God's
forgiveness, and protection for the new union.

33.    PRE-MARITAL SEX: The Orthodox Christian faith holds to the biblical
teaching that sexual intercourse is reserved for marriage. Sex is a gift of God to be
fully enjoyed and experiences only within marriage. The marriage bed is to be kept
"pure and undefiled" (Hebrew 13:4), and men and women are called to remain celibate
outside of marriage. Our sexuality, like many other things about us human beings,
affects our relationship with God, ourselves, and others. It may be employed as a
means of glorifying God and fulfilling His image in us, or it may be perverted and
abused as an instrument of sin, causing great damage to us and others.   St. Paul
writes, "Do you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body..." (I Corinthians 6:19, 20).

34.    HOLY ICONS: We venerate holy icons of our Lord and the Theopokos in
perfect accord with the second commandment of the Decalogue     [Ten
Commandments] and not in contradiction to it. For, before the Incarnation of God,
before the Nativity of Jesus Christ, any representation of Him would have been the
fruit of man's imagination, a conception of man's reasoning concerning God Who is
by nature and in His essence incomprehensible, indescribable, immaterial,
inexpressible and unfathomable. Every conception or imagination concerning God
will, by necessity, be alien to His nature; it will be false, unreal, an idol. But when the
time was fulfilled, the un-depicted One became depicted for my salvation. As the
Apostle says; "we have heard Him, we have seen Him with our eyes, we have looked
upon Him and have handled Him with our hands” (I John 1:1).

We honor the holy icons we do not worship matter, but we confess that God Who is
immaterial by nature has become material for our sakes so that He might dwell
among us, die for us, be raised from the dead in His flesh and cause our human nature,
which He took upon Himself, to sit at the right hand of the Father in the Heavens.
When we kiss His venerable icons,

We confess the relatively describable and absolutely historical reality of His
Incarnation, His Death, His Resurrection, His Ascension into the Heavens, and His
Second and Glorious Coming.

We honor he holy icons by bowing but not prostrating before them, by kissing them,
by showing them respect and honor. We do not adore them for is only reserve for the
Most Holy Trinity, they are held in a very special place in the church as a remainder
of those that are dear to God and by there life show us the great love of man towards
the Most Holy One Bless it be His name.

We do not adore but honor the saints, their holy relics and their icons. They are
honor because of their relation to Him and on account of Him. This has always been
the teaching of Our Church: Not to honor the saints is to deny the reality of their
communion with God, the effects of Divine sanctification and the grace which works
in them; it is to deny the words of the Apostle who said, "I no longer live, but Christ
liveth in me." (Gal. 2:20).

We believe that icons of our Lord are a consequence of and a witness to His
Incarnation and an integral part of Christianity.

We believe and confess that the holy icons are not only decorative and didactic objects
which are found in Church, but also holy and sanctifying, being the shadows of
heavenly realities; and even as the shadow of the Apostle Peter once cured the sick --
as it is related in the Acts of the Apostles -- so in like manner do the holy icons, being
shadows of celestial realities, sanctify us.

35.   CULTS: The word "cult" has several meanings. The usage to which we refer
designates a group of people who focus on a religious doctrine which deviates from
the tradition of the historic Church as revealed by Jesus Christ, established by His
Apostles, and guarded by the seven Ecumenical Councils of the Church. A cult usually
forms around an individual who proclaims a heresy as truth. The error itself assures
the separation of the group from historic Christianity. Many cults claim the Bible as
their basis, but they alter the historic interpretation of Scripture to persist in their
own idea. Cults may do some things that are good (e.g. care for the poor, emphasize
the family) and thus at least appear, to casual observers, to be part of true Christianity.
St. Paul's counsel on cults is: "From such withdraw yourself" (I Timothy 6:5). The
danger of the cult is that it removes those in it from the life of Christ and the Church,
where the blessings and grace of God are found. All cults die; the Church lives on.

THBKOC