A learner’s guide
- Christian family
- Ancient apostolic communion
- Historical setting
- The Greek-speaking East and the ancient patriarchates
Historical origin
Where this tradition came from
Eastern Orthodoxy developed in the Greek-speaking East and other regions evangelised from it. It receives the first seven ecumenical councils and understands itself as preserving the faith and worship of the undivided church. Its estrangement from the Latin West grew over centuries and is conventionally dated to 1054. It has no single worldwide bishop equivalent to the pope.
Authority
How teaching is discerned
Holy Scripture lives within Holy Tradition: the worship, councils, fathers, saints, canons, and continuing life of the church in the Holy Spirit. Ecumenical councils hold special authority. Bishops teach in synod, but no bishop is considered individually infallible or universally supreme.
Salvation
How God saves and transforms
Salvation is healing, liberation, and participation in God’s life, often called theosis. By grace, human persons are united to Christ and transformed by the Spirit. Faith, sacraments, prayer, repentance, and love belong together within this life, and grace and human response are not treated as rivals.
The church
Leadership and belonging
Episcopal and conciliar. Each self-governing, or autocephalous, church is led by its synod of bishops. The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople holds a primacy of honour (“first among equals”), not a jurisdiction like that of the Catholic papacy.
Sacraments and ordinances
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Baptism
Normally administered by threefold immersion in the Trinitarian name, to infants as well as adults, followed immediately by chrismation and Communion. It is initiation into Christ and his church.
Communion / Eucharist
The Eucharist is truly Christ’s body and blood and the central mystery of the Divine Liturgy. Orthodox teaching affirms real change and presence without requiring one philosophical explanation of how the mystery occurs.
Gathered life
What worship may feel like
Ancient liturgies, sung prayer, icons, incense, fasting, feasts, and a strong rhythm of communal and personal prayer. Worship is understood as participation in the worship of heaven.
Distinctive emphases
- Theosis (participation in divine life)
- Conciliar authority
- Icons and the communion of saints
- Divine Liturgy and holy mysteries
- Continuity with the first seven ecumenical councils
Read with care
Internal diversity and a common misconception
Where members differ
Greek, Slavic, Arab, Georgian, Romanian, and other churches have distinct languages and customs, and they share doctrine and a common liturgical inheritance. Communion between them is currently impaired: in 2018 the Moscow Patriarchate broke communion with Constantinople over Constantinople’s recognition of a self-governing Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Calendars also differ. Some churches keep the Julian calendar and others the Revised Julian for fixed feasts, though nearly all date Easter by the Julian reckoning.
Do not assume
Orthodox Christians do not worship icons. They distinguish veneration from the worship due to God and understand honour shown to an image as passing to the person represented.
Go to the source
Read this tradition in its own words
These links lead to confessions, catechisms, or teaching resources produced by churches within this tradition. They open in a new tab so you can keep this guide available.