Imagine if more people actually sought after an intimate heartfelt relationship with Jesus Christ and stop following the traditions and customs of this world. A relationship that goes to the giver and not the gift. A power to see people set free of addictions and bondage to sin. Imagine a real authority in Christ demonstrated and not watching a powerless ceremony. Imagine a Church that's all symbols and examples and nothing real. Or Imagine a life where you actually see people do what Jesus said we would? How about going to care for widows and orphans? Or what about blessing the poor and not turning your face from them? What about praying for those who hate you and they that spitefully use you? What about loving your neighbor as yourself? I see a whole lot of talking about RELIGION and a form of Godliness but denying the power of it. It makes me sick watching people think the word and power of God is a social setting with rituals and picking what they like... Wow have mercy God Almighty these people know not they're the blind leading the blind.
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@Bishop Angaelos If you want folks to send you money, you might want to at least change up you're canned message you've posted numerous times before. And the Blesam Orphanage is in Nigeria, not in Italy. Is it 3 days from Italian, Nigerian, or local time here? Amazingly this same post is from Creflo Dollar ministries: Beloved, I don't know you in person but God knows you. God ministered to me in a revelation when I was on your profile to see things around you, I saw blessings but spiritual attacks holding onto them, in prayers, i saw a woman in the realm of the spirit monitoring and plotting delay in your life, with an evil mirror, and with a motive to destroy. But as I speak to you now her time is up, Render hand of favor with Anything you can afford or give to these motherless foundation (Godstime MOTHERLESS FOUNDATION) in kebbi state nigeria before 2DAYS with faith, as I Rise my hands towards heaven and pray for you they shall serve as point of contact wherever you are, you will receive double portion of grace to excel and total restoration of breakthrough in your life and in the life of your family. Ask for their account details and help them call the MD in charge of the orphanage to get their details on (WhatsApp or call them now on tell him I sent it +2348166495905 you. For it is not by might not by in power but of the spirit saith the lord (zechariah 4: 6). You shall testify to the Glory of God in your life. God bless you Go try to scam some other folks.
I'm Orthodox, and you pretty much nailed it. The Divine services, everything about them, from the art to the chanting, to the design of the sanctuary itself is meant to resemble heaven and meant to bring living people into communion with God, each other, and with all those beloved Saints who came before us. I grew up in a Protestant Church and with the church I grew up in, it did really feel like it was meeting modern people on their terms, where they were. There is merit to that, but with Orthodoxy, the inside of the church, the services themselves, it's meant to communicate this is ancient, this is sacred, this is eternal. Personally, I think it helps create a real attitude of reverence. It's almost as if we're in God's throne room. That is actually why we stand because if you were to meet the president or another earthly head of state you wouldn't sit until you were invited to do so, so we give Christ that same respect. I became Orthodox because I was seeking something stable, something eternal, something authentic, that wasn't easy or shallow, something that would really push me to grow in my relationship with Christ.
Very well stated. You brought up a topic i often read among evangelical scholars and pastors: The evangelicals are now beginning to ask for a deeper prayer life.
Dear friend i was born but not bred Orthodox since down under we still decide to use a 4th Century Koine Greek language in our Orthodox Churches, there's gradually change pls pray for us so may can hear and have the opportunity to be set free. Therefore i was a nominal Christian for 40 yrs but did not know it and according to the Bible a 'dead person walking'. I wept last night hearing Austin's testimony, 'meeting' him for the first time brought me joy. I thank you both for sharing and thank God we know Jesus and are God's family on earth. I understand both of you commenting on appreciating the 'beauty' of my Church but everything you have both described is meaningless without knowledge of Christ's Word. It's been 20 yrs since i met Jesus yet it seems like only minutes ago we installed cable tv and while surfing through the channels to see if there was anything intetesting to watch i noticed an elderly man, sophisticated looking, talking with a twinkle in his eye, that was the late Derek Prince and 20 yrs later after listening to everyone from Joyce Myer and Joel Osteen to Patriach Bartholomew and Fr. Paisios i listen to Mr. Prince on a daily basis. Dear brethren in Eternity our title will be the Children of God and my prayer for us all, no matter what denomination we Worship with, is the realization that we belong to God's Kingdom on earth foremost. Ive just turned 60 and because of the ACC (Aust. Christian Channel) i thank God i discovered early in my walk with Jesus that if we are part of a Bible teaching Church and after 6 months are not ready to roll up our sleves and FEED THE HUNGRY CLOTHE THE NAKED VISIT THE SICK & IMPRISONED A N D CARE FOR WIDOWS AND ORHANS we are not following Jesus. May we be known by Who we follow this day dear friend since tomorrow isn't promised. God's Peace Hope n Joy till our Lord Returns or we return to Him.
@@anastasiadare9231 I'm a Protestant convert to Orthodoxy and I feel the love and depth of prayer from the heart in Orthodoxy unequalled elsewhere that others here talk about but I also listen to Derek Prince and marvel that the Holy Spirit speaks the same Gospel through other denominations and traditions, where people have a heart to follow Him. Glory to Him forever!
For personal reasons, after our family experienced a very horrible tragedy, my Protestant church just didn't support us wasn't there when we needed them. It sent me on a journey to find somewhere where there was a deep spirituality, a merciful God, and some peace. My search brought me to the Orthodox church and I became a convert 5 years ago. it's been one of the best experiences of my life and continues to uplift me and brings me closer with my Lord everyday
I am sorry to hear that, that your family in Christ didn’t support you as that is not Gods will. I have to say not all Protestant churches are like that mine is always helping one another and the pastor always preaches about how we are one body in Christ so we need to be United as each of us are importan for the church and how Jesus came to serve not for us to serve him when he was on this earth, so we need to do the same and serve others. I am sorry about your bad experience, but as long you have your eye fix on Christ that’s all that matters.
Hugs, pace and love from Romania, the land of the Holy Apostole Andrew Orthodox Church. I’m a nativ orthodox christian, and i feel very blassed for that resason. I’m glad you got home!!!
Imagine if more people actually sought after an intimate heartfelt relationship with Jesus Christ and stop following the traditions and customs of this world. A relationship that goes to the giver and not the gift. A power to see people set free of addictions and bondage to sin. Imagine a real authority in Christ demonstrated and not watching a powerless ceremony. Imagine a Church that's all symbols and examples and nothing real. Or Imagine a life where you actually see people do what Jesus said we would? How about going to care for widows and orphans? Or what about blessing the poor and not turning your face from them? What about praying for those who hate you and they that spitefully use you? What about loving your neighbor as yourself? I see a whole lot of talking about RELIGION and a form of Godliness but denying the power of it. It makes me sick watching people think the word and power of God is a social setting with rituals and picking what they like... Wow have mercy God Almighty these people know not they're the blind leading the blind.
Austin - your comments re liturgical services SUCh as the mass being potentially empty ritual without constant engagement by parishioners or without explanations is highly offensive, as you can imagine for us long term Catholics. Your comments show a lack of understanding. Alll Catholics attending mass or other services know deep in their heart that they as a group are Jesus Christ. , but that said, Catholics do know what is going on. Catholics also understand that when they attend mass they do so for themselves and for others at the same time. This is a deep topic.
Former lifelong protestant here. I was raised pentecostal, then went to a presbyterian church, baptist church, anglican church, and then a fundamentalist non-denominational church as the last stop before Orthodoxy. I've never ever ever found a home such as this. Truly, I mean no disrespect, but I do believe that these confessions are man made and I simply cannot bring myself to say the same about the Orthodox Church. I love it. I believe that the liturgy is truly God-established and that nothing else can replicate or replace it. The Truth is in the Church and we believe that this and no other body is truly Christ's body. The Church is the ark of salvation. The Church is the bride of Christ. What we today call the Orthodox Church is truly and uniquely that one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church that the nicene creed talks about, for the creed was declared formally as dogma by that Church. Brother, you're on a beautiful journey. Pray that the Lord enlightens you! Be blessed!
Dear friend im grateful to God you have found peace through our Prince of Peace. The Holy Spirit is not confined to our Orthodox Church and it breaks my heart that we think this. As the Head Christ desires His Body to be united and we shall be know by the love we have for one another. My story is different yet i understand the desire converts have when they call Orthodixy home since they"ve been dissatisfied with other denominations they believe Orthodoxy is the true Church well i belived it wasn't because i was dissatisfied with it since it 'kept me out of the Kingdom of God'. In 2000 when i heard the Good News of Jesus on Christian tv i was irate that i was Born Baptized Married Baprized our kids Burried my patents Had 40 Christmases & 40 Easters B U T did not participate therefore 'Taste and see' 'HOW GOOD THE LORD IS' Home is Heaven dear friend and our calling is to live the Good Samaritan as we are Fishers of the LOST. Praying that the Light of Jesus shines brighter today than yesterday in our lives so that others may come to the realization that Christ lives and lives in us and can live in them too :)
@@anastasiadare9231 The Orthodox Church doesn't claim that "only we have the Holy Spirit" though. The Holy Spirit is God; He can go wherever He wills. He is the one that holds together all existence, after all, the Giver of Life.
As an atheist convert to Orthodoxy, I've had to struggle through coming to terms with the exclusivity of the Orthodox Church. One thing that I think makes Protestants and Catholics very offended at the claim that the Orthodox Church is exclusively the true church, is because lots of Catholics & Protestants have the idea that being outside of the Church means that you are guaranteed to go to hell. As Orthodox, we do not claim to judge the state of anyone's soul. That is up for God to decide. It would be deeply arrogant for us to say that anyone outside or even inside of the Church is *definitely* saved, or *definitely* damned, except for the Saints, countless of whom have been reported as being personally escorted to heaven by angels. None of us have any certainty about our salvation, or anyone else's salvation while we're still alive. We put our complete trust in God & his judgement of us and others. That is why we pray for him to have mercy on us, and others, and why many of us have those outside of the Orthodox Church on our daily prayer rules, since we care for their salvation. The only thing that we have to do, is follow our conscience, open our hearts up to the one true God, pray to be led into truth and accept Christ's *exclusive* truth, since Faith in God is not just a rational acceptance of a contract, but a sacramental and deeply personal trust in him as the bridegroom of our souls. Christ did say that those who rejected Him would be grafted out, in Romans 11. To this day, there are those that follow in the tradition of the pharisees in their rejection of Christ, and in pretense convince themselves they're following the one true God, which they're not, because they have rejected the truth of who he is. Those who grow up in that tradition, unfortunately, inherit a rejection of truth himself, Christ. There is a reason why the dogmas of the faith are affirmed in the ecumenical councils, and why you can't consider Arians to be Christians for example. The dogmas preserve the faith and fidelity of the Church, by refusing to compromise on accepting doctrines that make a spiritual life impossible. Arianism was anathematised because Arians don't believe that Christ is God. One who does not believe that Christ is actually God cannot have a true spiritual life in communion with Christ. Thus, they as a spiritually dead branch have been grafted out. The faith is serious. It is actually a matter of eternal life, and eternal death. You cannot afford to play games with what the eternal truth of our Lord is. Forgive me if I've spoken too harshly or forwardly, but I hope that as a truth-seeking Christian you can see that I'm coming from a place of deep care, and a desire for everyone to be united in in the spirit of truth.
Kris - thanks for your comment. Was worth reading. Orthodoxy has always known the church must be vigilant in protecting and guarding the true word of Christ.
By attending Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran divine services you are seeing something completely different than what American evangelicals have done to church services. It's not entertainment. You go to church to hear God's word and receive the Sacraments.
Is what you're not seeing that's important. Correct to state that eternal life (or damnation) is not entertainment. Well said but I would discount Lutheran in this case.
@@Kitiwake LOL. Can you point out where the Bible says that? I know that you'll mention Peter but Peter wasn't the only one spreading the Gospel. Are you saying that the churches that Paul and Timothy started were not Christian churches and could not properly administer the Sacraments?
I became Orthodox 5 years ago, and I thought the service was very strange at first since I had never even been to any liturgy. While I still have such fond memories of my Protestant upbringing, I have found such peace in Orthodox services. When I’m having a bad day at work, I imagine myself at church while I say a prayer. It calms me and gives me peace every time. Thanks for being so kind and curious about the churches you visit.
The icons have roots in ancient Christianity, when the Church was still very underground. You have to remember that everyone being able to read is a very modern thing, for most of history the general population couldn't read or write. Icons are pictures to remind people and for them to visualize the Gospels, the life and actions of Our Lord, and the Saints. Bibles were very rare for the longest time, that combined with the people not being able to read, the icons were accessible for all people. They don't require anything to explain and understand what's going on in them. And no, we don't worship wood, we venerate the subject of the images, whether it's Christ, Mary, the saints, etc. Just to draw a genuine icon takes one to go through fasting and prayer to prepare yourself to paint one.
@@andreasr2454 The upper classes, like the Patricians, yes, most could read and write. The lower classes on the other hand, like the Plebians, slaves, freedmen, etc, most could not. That's not to say that all of the lower class people couldn't read or write, for example, most tutors, good tutors at least, came from the Greeks, and in many cases, were slaves themselves, or freedmen. Also, you have to remember that the majority of Christians, after Our Lord gave the Great Commission to the Apostles, were from the lower classes of the Empire, they were the people that the Apostles evangelized the most, remember Matthew 19:24. That, plus the rarity of Bibles, was how the icons came about, to help the faithful that could not read, or, with there being only a handful of Bibles, was not in an area with a Deacon who had a Bible.
That one guy - very well said. In this discussion, my brain automatically goes to the reality of peasants, the most common, far out of the way area peoples. I read lots of Russian lit. The auto bio of Maxim Gorky shows life before the revolution. The literacy and the great deal of class distinction and abuse in Russia and eastern block regions is stunning. Plus, my own family extensions in mexico in far off god-forsaken outbacks in an area where families had 1 or two that were literate. And yes they had a bible but it was thought of an icon, so to speak.
I am a Deacon in the Greek Orthodox Church. Same faith, just a little different "flavor". It's not easy for a Protestant to step into an Orthodox church for the first time. I know because I did it myself 15 years ago. I stayed and now I've been a Deacon for 7 years. You made some excellent observations. Just as we have pictures of family members in our homes, we Orthodox have pictures of our Christian family in our churches. They are our heroes and we venerate them. We do not worship them, but we show them honor in a very Eastern way by bowing to them and kissing them. Orthodox churches, with their icons, give one a sense of being surrounded by a "cloud of witnesses". You will find that nearly the entire liturgy is scriptural (much of it comes directly from the Psalms) and yes, it is often described as one long song with the hymns being sung and the prayers and readings chanted. I look forward to your upcoming video taking a tour of the church. Χρονια πολλα! - May God grant you many years!
Question.... If the old testament is the word of god and for the new testament to be true, the old testament has to be true FIRST. And if the old testament is inaccurate then so is the new. Isaiah 44:6.. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god Isaiah 43:11 I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Galatians 3:20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one Now, almost all biblical scholars agree the old testament contains absolutely zero implication of a trinity...actually it says the complete opposite is true. If that is the case amd the old testament is the word of god, only 2 conclusions are possible. Either the new testament is a lie or the interpretation has been corrupted.
@@VoltedSoldier A response to your question from a faithful but not belonging to the clergy: It is rather simple, it's one God who's manifested in three inseparable and consubstantial entities. In Genesis 1:2 it is stated: And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face (or surface) of the waters
@@wonderingpilgrim It is a tradition very strong in the world of fine arts. They say it can be traced back to the Bizantine Empire, 8th century, during the iconoclast heresy crisis. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodegetria PS: Iconoclasm was a political-religious movement aggressively opposed to the image veneration, which began in the early 8th century and lasted until the 9th century and was driven by the Byzantine emperors. Iconoclasts argued, as a matter of revealed faith and not even a theological opinion, that the sacred images of Christians were identified with idols ("eidolon"); in the tuning fork, their veneration was assimilated to what they advocated to be idolatrous cult. The “iconophiles”, on the other hand, understood that the icons represented figurations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, angels and saints, or even passages or episodes of faith, so that the honor devoted to them was equivalent to the honor given through the image. We know that the iconoclasm of the 8th and 9th centuries was propelled by the Byzantine emperors because, as the economy of Christian images was substantially foreign to Jews and repugnant to Islamic peoples - faithful to a religion that had recently been founded in Arabia in the 6th century and was already dominant in vast part of Byzantine territories - the removal of such elements from the iconographic economy would stimulate a closer relationship with Christians, tend to reduce the ghettoization of Jews and Muslims and, therefore, facilitate their homogeneous subordination to the emperor's powers. On the iconoclast crisis, again (like it was with Arianism, Monophysism, Nestorianism, Monothelitism and many other seminal heresies) it was the Pope and the West that corrected the wrong doctrines of the East in defense of the true faith after a council with almost 400 Eastern bishops prevented the Bishop of Rome and the Westerners to participate in - it was the Council of Hiera. Today, the feast day of the Second Ecumenical Council of Nicea is also called “triumph of the Orthodoxy” in the East, so important the victory over iconoclasts is in the history of the Church. The Catholic Church is very direct and emphatic here: _”The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first commandment”_ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2141).
The divine liturgy is really the place where you can understand orthodoxy. You will observe a tradition unchanged for 1500 years and feel the presence and love of God !
@@dartagnan2861 It's a shame the western liturgies weren't preserved in the same way. Like the east and south Christians say, the west innovated and the north suffered
The icons follow precise guidelines and also essentially function as theological statements. And since our hymns do the same thing, you could think of an icon as a painted hymn.
Elder Spyridon calls icons "visual gospels". Because the limitless and immeasurable God decided to be born as a human in a limited and measurable world some of the laws have been changed... You can not depict a limitless and immeasurable God, but Christ was born also for the sake of being able to depict Him.
Saint Paisios of Mount Athos on holy icons: "A mother whose child is fighting in a war, fears for his life, day and night. She is constantly in anguish and always anxious. Suddenly, she gets a letter from her child with his photograph inside. When she sees the photograph, what does she do? She takes it into her hands and she kisses it, and afterwards she brings it up to her chest so that it always touches her heart. Well, what do you think? Do you think that this mother with such burning desire for her child believes that she is kissing a photograph? She, of course, thinks that she is kissing her very own child! The situation is the same for the faithful people who have a burning respect and passion for the All Holy Theotokos and the Saints. We don’t venerate the icons but rather we venerate the holy persons they depict. And we venerate these holy persons not because they are the faces on the icons, but because they fought and many times they died for Christ. God is jealous, that is the truth, though He is not jealous of us venerating His own children (the saints). He is jealous when we venerate the devil and the devil’s children. The father isn’t jealous of his own children. Do not worry, the Lord is proud and happy when He sees you respecting and loving His Mother and the Saints."
I absolutely love this Saint who has God's grace and along with another Saint firing his time on the Holy mountain, Saint Porphyrios, has taught me what divine humility and love for others truly means.
On the topic of icons, Christ himself is a flawless icon of the Father, Christ is a perfect image of divinity itself in human form, the human form of all people is then an icon of divinity, but an imperfect one. We are all icons.
Yes, we are all imperfect images of God, but let's not forget what St. John of Damascus said is done to an icon when it loses it likeness to God (or to the saint): it is consigned to the flames!
As a bit of a curve ball, I would like to thank you for reading and responding to the comments to your videos. It shows you care for and respect your audience and their opinions and questions.
Former Protestant, been Orthodox for 12 years now. Wonderful video! Very much looking forward to your interview with the priest. Forgive the online Orthodox crusaders - none of them are good representative of the faith because we are not supposed to be arrogant or demeaning. The one true Church claim is bold; but if true as we believe it to be, then we do say so humbly and out of love. We pray for everyone to have the fullness of the life in Christ in in the Orthodox Church. We're not saying you're damned or don't know Christ but we firmly believe that you will find Him more fully in the life of the Orthodox Church
Imagine how much better our world would be if more people had this young man's insight and ability to explore and understand other religious traditions with an open mind?
Imagine if more people actually sought after an intimate heartfelt relationship with Jesus Christ and stop following the traditions and customs of this world. A relationship that goes to the giver and not the gift. A power to see people set free of addictions and bondage to sin. Imagine a real authority in Christ demonstrated and not watching a powerless ceremony. Imagine a Church that's all symbols and examples and nothing real. Or Imagine a life where you actually see people do what Jesus said we would? How about going to care for widows and orphans? Or what about blessing the poor and not turning your face from them? What about praying for those who hate you and they that spitefully use you? What about loving your neighbor as yourself? I see a whole lot of talking about RELIGION and a form of Godliness but denying the power of it. It makes me sick watching people think the word and power of God is a social setting with rituals and picking what they like... Wow have mercy God Almighty these people know not they're the blind leading the blind.
It's great as long as he manages to maintain his sense that evil does exist in the world, and that religions are not immune. I hope that if he found himself in some Christain cult or a Scientology service his open mind would know to close.
It's not just beautiful! It is the True one! Except a few seats for old or sick people who cannot stand, in the Orthodox Church you don't seat, like in a theater or cinema! The Liturgy is not a show! You stand! It's part of your sacrifice!
@@eu3145 I’m was also a convert to Orthodoxy and this helped me with the History explained. First it speaks about the first 1000 years and goes into the Protestant reformation around the 15th minute. I suggest anyone looking as to why Orthodox are the Church mentioned in the Bible and the one Jesus’s Apostles established to listen to this ... I guess you are Orthodox though ruclips.net/video/hZNtaFzIqJc/видео.html
@@peterconverttoorthodoxy2788 yes, i am! I am very happy to hear about your convert! I hope you baptized exactly as Christ said in the Scripture to be done in order to be valid. I say this because i heard about people converting but dont do, or some priests dont do the entire job done, they exclude the part of the 3 sinking in the holy water, considering it's not necessary, especially for the ones that convert from the Chatolic Church! Well... it is very very important, otherwise God cannot send the Holy Spirit, you wont have the guardian angel and ofcourse you cannot get the Salvation in the End! Also when you are baptized like this in the Orthodox Church, ofcourse after you repent, God erase all of your sins, including the one of our ancestors Adam and Eve. This is are not foolish words, it is the Truth! Now that you are baptized in the right and the True Church of Christ i strongly recommend to read, to knowledge the Teachings and Learnings of the Elders, the Saints of the Orthodoxy! They speak 100% the Truth, the Wisdom, the discernment, etc.... the Holy Spirit speacks through them. As an advice, keep away and do not share and be agree with this Ecumenical movement, which try to reunite all the Religions in One, even if there are priests, bishops or even Patriarchs who are agree with it. This is the new Religion of Satan they want to establish! They will succed one day, and this day is not to far, the Orthodox Church will also fall, God will take the 7 mysteries out of it, it will remanin just buildings and walls, beautiful raised buildings, museums! All the churches will lost their mainly role, the salvation of the christians through the 7 mysteries. Practicaly it will be the same situation in which the Chatolics were in 1054 after Schism. Stay very very close to the learnings, teachings and wisdoms of the Saints and the true Elders. Start search, find and read also their prophecies. God Bless You! And yes i am born orthodox in the Romanian Orthodox Church. There only 7 Canonical Churches, all orthodox.. anyother ones except this 7 are missing the grace of God, they are not saving.
Glad to see you enjoyed the Divine Liturgy! I’ll be chrismated into the Greek Orthodox Church in a few days myself, coming from a former Methodist background.
Coming from a Protestant background, I appreciate how Orthodoxy engages you on every level. Not just in the Divine Liturgy but through the prayer routines prescribed and fasting throughout the week and year. Theologically it is very deep and there is no shortage of writings from the early Church fathers to read and study. Not judging or saying one Church is better than that other, just my take on something fairly new for me.
Awesome, I'm stoked you went to the Liturgy. I'm a Protestant convert to Orthodoxy. The Liturgy, for me, is an unparalleled experience. The story of Russia's conversion to Orthodox nails it in my opinion. In the 10th century, Prince Vladimir of Kiev sent out a bunch of emissaries to various countries to check out their religions in an attempt to find a unifying faith for the Russian people. After experiencing the Divine Liturgy, the emissaries that went to Byzantium reported back: "We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget the beauty."
@@GospelSimplicity hello gospel from greece..i suggest you to go in mount athos.you can"t imagine how will love this place and you will learn the truth
6:43 please note Orthodox christians also wear jeans in churches and also have cup of coffee after the Liturgy all to gether as continuation of Liturgy this is called Agape...
I personally don't see what the big deal is with putting on some dress slacks and a button-up shirt; it's the only time of the week I personally do it, and it makes me feel like it's the most important thing I do all week, which usually it is. It's not like you couldn't wear jeans to my OCA church, and indeed some do wear nice-looking ones, but most respect the church enough to just not look like a slob. But it's not like a dress code or anything - a few times due to exigent circumstances I have shown up looking like a slob, and the love I felt from my fellow partitioners did not diminish. And yes, not only during non-plague times is their fellowship, there is fellowship + amazing donate-what-you-can food, like seriously usually one of the best meals I have all week!
@@danieljclark5922 Indeed Daniel, we are also thought especially for Sunday Liturgy since it is Resurection every Sunday, to kind of " dress up" since it is a special day, and we are going to receive a special " Guest" in our heart therefore we prepare inside out and want to show some respect... I just tried to tell Austin that it is not a must to be in a skirt since in Orthodox church it is not a uniform and people do as they feel.. I have friends who go to services almost every day, so they would for example go to the morning service and after that go to their job and therefore they would wear whatever they wear at work...it does not matter in that sence.. I think and feel communication is abs not complete through messages and people can often misunderstand each other.. in any case wish you all well! Have a good week!
@@biljanamiljkovic4646 well I wouldn't say it doesn't matter ,in general long skirts and a headscarf is a sign of respect toward the icons and the Church and God,also NO make up ,and trying to be as modest (covered)as possible
We are called to dress modest, yes we can wear jeans if it is cold outside and you don't show off with your clothes, but it is preferred long skirts for women .
I'm a Protestant convert. Orthodox Christianity is not just about the Sunday liturgy. To compare a liturgy to a Protestant Sunday service would be missing the point entirely. Orthodox Christianity is about working out one's own salvation. We don't believe in once saved always safed like most Protestants. Instead we seek to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Through the sacraments we confess our sins worship God and partake in the communion. We understand God became man so man can become like God.
Wow you twisted one verse to prove a false doctrine Salvation by works will send anyone straight to hell You just rejected Christ Sacrifice Faith alone for salvation Not works
@@heavenlycorzo of course it's Christ who ultimately saves us. Without his help it's not possible for anyone to repent, however you know faith without works is dead. I reread my last comment and I did kind of leave out God's help in causing sinner to repent. don't forget at the judgment Christ himself said many will come to me on that day and say Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out many demons? and I will tell them plainly , away from me you will doers I never knew you. Are you telling me those guys did not have faith in Christ? They did, why isn't their faith enough to save them on the last day? I'll also throwing there as a Protestant you guys are completely illegitimate. You have no real connection to the real Christ. All you have is a charismatic speaker who interprets the bible like a pack of tarot cards and some nice rock music before and after, That's not a church. Christ didn't bring a book, The Bible , he brought a church. I pray you research Orthodox Christianity. We confess our sins receive forgiveness and partake in the body and blood of Christ. Confession and communion that's what it's all about. Look at John 20:23. You will never hear a Protestant pastor preach on that scripture. This is where the sacrament of confession begin. Jesus gave the apostles authority to remit or retain men's sins. The apostles passed that authority down to their own disciples and them to their own through the ages to the present day. It's called apostolic succession. Every Orthodox Christian priest and Bishop can be traced back directly to Christ and the apostles. You won't find Benny hinn anywhere in that lineup.
@@radvlad1431 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful WORKS?
Boom! There it is, about 4:49 in, "liturgical churches do a much better job of engaging all of our senses". You hit the nail on the head there, my brother in Christ. I never thought of it that way, but it is so true! Thanks again for your ministry.
I just know that you are a blessing to your parents. If I had a son I wished he would be just like you. May God always put a hedge around you and keep you safe in these days.
As an Orthodox Christian I would like to explain why Orthodoxy practices closed communion. I also ask your forgiveness if it made you feel uncomfortable. In Orthodoxy we believe that Holy Communion is literally the incorruptible body and blood of Christ and is a sacrament. Because it is so holy Orthodox Christians need to properly prepare themselves to partake in Holy Communion. This preparation includes a midnight to communion fast (if able), confession, and saying the pre-communion prayers. Confession in the Orthodox Church is also a sacrament that is only open to Orthodox Christians. So reverence is need when approaching Holy Communion because it is the true presence of Christ amongst us. Also, by partaking in Holy Communion one is saying that they agree that Holy Communion is the body and blood of Christ and that they agree with the teachings of the Orthodox Church. I want to mention that not all Orthodox Christians take Holy Communion every Sunday. I myself take Holy Communion about 2-3 times per month usually because I didn't have the time to go to Saturday night vespers for confession. The reality is that Holy Communion is only open to those who have properly prepared themselves for Holy Communion. Note: proper preparation varies depending on cultural traditions within Orthodoxy. I hope this helps.
That is exactly the way it was in catholicism pre Vatican II.. Today the fasting requirementv is the only thing that has changed... It's now one hour. We can still fast from midnight of course
Another well stated comment. Thanks. The church as the body of christ (believers) always seeks to protect the sanctity and authenticity of Holy Communion. In past centuries, the church got to realize that reverence needed to be added to liturgical services.
@@Kitiwake not the same at all, in the Orthodox church you must confess every time you are going to receive communion. I believe Roman Catholic require confession once a year.
When I first experienced the full divine Orthodox worship (St. James Liturgy in the West Syriac rite), I felt like I was in Heaven! It was an experience I would never forget!
I feel that every time I m in His orthodox Temple. That is the feelings of Paradise. For someone who do not know "orthodox" in greek means " the right doctrine" with the meaning of the right worship.
I’m actually glad you’re doing these series on Catholism and Orthodox churches because I didn’t know much about them. I also share this with my bible study because often times these denominations are seen as “not christian”
The etymology of the word denomination meant to separate from the whole. Since Catholics and Orthodox believe that together this is the Church established by Jesus on the foundation of the apostles we call ourselves the Church and do not consider either to be a denomination. We are the whole and the communities that separated from us are denominations. Officially neither church recognizes "Protestant Church" we use the term communities. This is not meant to be disparaging in any way.
I was Nondenominational for years, my friend showed me the Coptic Orthodox Church and I instantly fell in love. Im reading books on orthodoxy. There’s a really good book called The Orthodox Prayer life
The reason we as Orthodox when being compared to other confessions are very serious of making a distinction is not because of personal aversion, or something petty, trivial, or superficial but because we believe that the Holy tradition and the purity and fullness of the faith that has been handed down to us by the holy Fathers (even some at the cost of their suffering and shedding of their blood) is imperative to the quality of one's spiritual healing, and it is important for those who are seeking reconciliation with God and complete healing from their sins to understand the difference, so they would not be deceived or led astray, experiencing spiritual harm and trauma, receiving poison instead of medicines. Nevertheless, this is not to say that we do not reverence God's providence in other people receiving a start in a religion of their culture or different traditions in their life, and the Holy Spirit and the angels, etc. working in everyone's life through their consciences to bring each person as far along the path of truth in their lifetime as their strengths and weaknesses allow. But the fullness of the truth of Jesus Christ, His body and revelation we without fail confess is preserved in the Orthodox Church, because this is not only what we believe, but what continues to be confirmed in a living, sacramental, experiential and resurrectional way when we participate in Her life, and all His promises which God unfailingly fulfills through Her.
Hey great video! I'm going to stick around and see what you think after your tour and your interview. My family converted to Orthodoxy from evangelical Protestantism and we absolutely love it. Thanks for coming in with and presenting your thoughts with an open mind, not just to criticize ♥️
You'll be really excited about hearing from the talk with ft Trenham. I don't need to have seen it to know it will be great, having seen how both the interviewer and interviewee operate.
When I lived in Geelong, Victoria I was able to attend a small Ukrainian Catholic church that offered the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostem and it was a really nice change from the constant back and forth between "Ordinary form and Extraordinary form" with the roman liturgy. I also found it very exotic, the emphasis on icons and rituals within the sanctuary with the chanting all helped pull it together into something beautiful that I haven't experienced before as a recent Catholic (received Feb 29th this year). I feel like the fight for the church will be fought in the Latin church and for that reason I feel that I should stick around to help fix it at least in some small way.
I'm pretty sure the whole cross/ dont cross the tiber exchange is a pretty clear illustration of the attitudes Austin was concerned regarding triumphalistic stances that might lack humility. I think we can all do better, don't you?
I can genuinely attest to the fact that the Eastern Orthodox Church is the fullness of Christ church on earth. That do any mean that Christ doesn't act on the hearts of all men or that he is simply absent from places where other Christians gather in His name. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church contains the fullness of His teaching, His true presence and the full wonder working power of the Holy Trinity. May our Lord Bless you all in your walk with Him and in His leading you on the path of Righteousness!
As a Catholic who recently studied Orthodox chant with a professional cantor I found my interpretation of Gregorian chant radically changed knowing it’s actually heritage. If you interested in this or general early liturgical music please let me know. 😊 Glad you had a positive experience !
God bless you dear brother. May the light of Christ shine in all those around you. Please dont ever change yr heart about the simplicity of our Lord's Gospel.
Gospel Simplicity Hello! Oh no, it’s actually easier to pray standing through the liturgy on an empty stomach, your senses are more “awake”. I started going to church when I was a teenager: at first it was hard to stand through the whole liturgy, I was irritated, but then I listened and observed what was going on, did some research at home and “fell in love”. The vespers is the first part of the service btw, so it’s essential to go on Saturday evening too. The liturgy is the climax, but I like the vespers sooo much, there’s a good bunch of psalms read when all the candles are extinguished , it reminds us of the Last Judgment, then all the candles are lit again and it’s sooo beautiful)) These things are made to help us
Doesn’t matter which. Most of us make due with what is readily available. For some, that means ROCOR, for others, that means GOA. Orthodoxy is such a minority in USA that one cannot be picky.
@@777Justin true, was just putting it out their so if some people that are put off by the more ethno centric Churches and maybe have multiple Churches nearby could make a decision. My Church is Antiochian, I first went because it was closest, and it's an hour away lol.
@@kenny187ful No biggie, I understand, brother man. For Gospel Simplicity sake, it sounds like OCA would be most likely parish. Are you ready for nativity? I am....not yet. Must consume more steaks...
Glory to God! Very good talk. Added this to my "Orthodox" playlist and am going to listen to your interview with Father Josiah (whom I love) next. I have added you to my prayers, Austin. I hope you continue to find the fullness of Christ which is His Church. ❤️☦️🙏
If you'd ever like to email me you may do so at innocent [at] noelgreen [dot] com I don't post on RUclips, nor am I on any other "social media". I'm just a layman but I love being available to those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
I'm roman catholic, but I really appreciate the Eastern liturgy (Catholic and Orthodox) and all its tradition. In almost all of Brazil it is difficult to find churches of oriental rite. In my entire state there is only one, a Greek Orthodox church (www.ecclesia.org.br/igrejasaonicolau.com/?p=11573 pictures at the end), in which I sometimes participate of the divine liturgy - as a spectator, I am not Orthodox, but the beautiful is beautiful (i don't no if "beautiful" is the right word in english), even if it is not in communion with Rome, they have apostolic succession, so valid sacraments. Very excited about this video!
Hi, my friend. A fellow Brazilian and (Roman) Catholic here! The Eastern Orthodox are estimated in something between 135.000 - 200.000 people in our country. So I understand it may be easier to find here churches from Eastern rites that are from “sui iuris” status in full communion with the See of St Peter. For example, both the Maronite Eparchy and the Greek Melkite Eparchy in Brazil (due to the relevant amount of Lebanese and Syrian migrants that came specially to São Paulo) are estimated in more than 400.000 people each, having Eastern rites and being both in full communion with the Apostolic See. Notice that the Ukranian Catholic (who are estimated in more the 10.000.000 worldwide if I am not mistaken) also have an Archeparchy here, but in Curitiba, Paraná, not São Paulo (the largest city of our country) due to Ukranians having migrated to that region. But they are not as relevant as the Polish, Italian and German migrants who were Roman Catholics in their large majority. That being said, still the Ukranian Catholic Church has a Bishop/Archeparch/Metropolite governing from Curitiba in full communion with the See of Peter. They use the Bizantine rite (the same the Bizantine Orthodox Church uses) but they are not that numerous here to my understandings. You can see some churches on the Internet: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melkite_Greek_Catholic_Eparchy_of_Nossa_Senhora_do_Para%C3%ADso_em_São_Paulo en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maronite_Catholic_Eparchy_of_Our_Lady_of_Lebanon_of_São_Paulo pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquieparquia_de_São_João_Batista_em_Curitiba_dos_Ucranianos Considering specifically the Eastern Orthodox Church that is not in communion with the Holy See, by far the most relevant church is the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of São Paulo and All Brazil, specially because of the Syrian and Lebanese migrants as I previously stated. It is governed by an Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop and they alone are estimated in around 130.000 faithful, almost the entirety of Eastern Orthodox of our country. pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquidiocese_Ortodoxa_Antioquina_de_São_Paulo_e_Todo_o_Brasil The largest Eastern Orthodox building in Brazil is the beautiful neo-bizantine Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral in São Paulo (I have visited it once and it is for sure worth visiting. It was inspired in the monumental Hagia Sofia, pride of the East): en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_Metropolitana_Ortodoxa Greetings, my brother!
Besides we do not venerate the icons as a piece of wood as I noticed in Latin tradition, but we venerate a Saint or Christ or His Mother depicted in it.. the icon is a window to Heaven. That's why the reverted perspective is used to paint them..
Hey, I love your channel! While I am a roman catholic, if there's any other religion I'd consider converting to first it would be the Orthodox! There really is something special about their churches and about their liturgy. Make church beautiful again! =)
@@johnvictorroderos8842 yea I'm from India..I once visited in Kerala a Syrian malabar rite...a church build by st Thomas himself...using Aramaic language .....which is in full communion with rome..
"People aren't just looking for a Sunday morning experience, but for a community to be a part of." YES, YES, YES. I'm still Protestant like you and feel the same way about everything you said especially this point. And I want a community that really cares for people including the poor and marginalized. Many Protestant churches with young families these days are strong on the intellectual word, but it's hard to see their love for outsiders. It seems to me a lot of "outsiders" have found a home in the EO church, and I'm very thankful for that.
As an orthodox Christian it made me so happy seeing your video and your good intentions(καλή προαίρεση, in Greek) and openness to learn!🤗 Sorry for my bad English. Because of that I cant express exactly what I wanted to, but anyway I'll pray to God for you to show you His will! Greetings from a friend in Greece! You just got a new subscriber 🌞💙 If you're interested you should search for father Efraim of Arizona! He was a graceful man! He was spiritual child of the elder Joseph of Hesychast, for whom a film has recently been made. Hope I helped! 😊
I am really so very appreciative of this work and all the effort you put into it despite being a full-time student. I am learning so much from your exploration. I do not know that there is any Orthodox church in the entire Caribbean region where I live, so I am really happy to learn of it here. Thanks again!
I appreciate your understanding of communion of saints on earth and in heaven. Its simply like missing a loved ones like a wife or a parent who may have passed away. We sometimes missed them so much that we actually have a picture of them in our wallets or on the wall of our room. We looked at them, maybe talk to them, coz we missed them, and even asked for their intercession. We believe they are with God already and are continuously offerring our prayers to Him as told in Revelation.. We asked our brethren on earth to pray for us, how much more we can asked the saints in heaven. And its a great way of telling our children about them. Ain't that woderful! God bless.
@Phillip Hickman A false gospel?? Not just with errors but an actual false gospel? A very harsh judgement to make who are you and who do you represent?
@Phillip Hickman I now know you represent a smaller sect of american/anglo saxon christians who do not even acknowledge that roman catholics or orthodox christian but regards them as false religions. Amidst the great persecution of christians in the world this rhetoric further divides us when the lord prayed for unity. It's strange because in a country like Hungary there are both catholics, orthodox and protestants and while they consider each other to have errors they still acknowledge each other as brothers in Christ who doesn't have a complete "False gospel" but in the USA one christian is another ones enemy It's fine you believe they have errors but this belief that they are false religions forces you to believe only a false gospel existed prior to the reformation. I am a student of church history, and the countless types of newer protestant theologies and interpretations of scripture DIDNT exist prior to the reformation. Everyone was either catholic or orthodox after the schism or exceptionally minor part was coptics, assyrian church of the east etc. In practice very similar to orthodoxy. In the first four hundred years of christian history the bible wasn't canonized and formed into a single book. God used the church to form the bible Did God use an apostate church to assemble the bible? Look at the church fathers and see the similarity between them, catholicism, orthodoxy or even tradicional lutheranism. You can't ignore the people God used to assemble the bible - even if you disagree with them, they can't be complete heretics because that would mean God used heretics to assemble the holy bible. Please stop this exagerated rhetoric. You can disagree with Rome and Constantinople without condemning them in this manner
@Phillip Hickman It seems to be really important to you that orthodox and catholics know that they are not elect. I'm curious why that is. Surely no matter what arguments you make, they can have no effect on whether a person is elect or damned. Even if they change their minds, go to your church and believe exactly as you do, that all makes no difference to whether or not a person is elect or damned. So what are you trying to achieve here? Why bait people for arguments on RUclips? It achieves nothing but sowing discord.
@Phillip Hickman I can tell that you are really concerned for these people and their souls. However, like I said previously, if as you say, God alone elects the elect and damns the damned, then nothing I or you or anyone can do can enable damned to become elect. Therefore if there are people in those churches who are elect, then likewise, neither the church they attend, nor anything we say or don't say can impair their election. Unfortunately, we can, by our words and approaches, to others cause offense, anger, hatred and disunity. If I may expand upon the passage you quoted earlier. "5But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1.5-11
I am 66 and was Protestant until only 4 yrs ago. I was so confused. What of the liturgy is prayer and what is hymns. I finally decided, Forget it, it's all just liturgy. Just enjoy it and worship. Love my church!!!
Thanks Austin, While I am a Roman Catholic, I decided to go to a Byzantine Catholic Church Divine Liturgy. It truly was a pleasure to experience the different style of the service. I was constantly reminded of what my choir director said at SJC, “When we are adding music, we are enhancing the prayer.”
I'm a former protestant who is now Orthodox. You have given an excellent overview of Orthodoxy from the protestant perspective. Thank you for your honesty and insight. May God bless you as you continue to seek Him.
Love it that you are so young and searching and questioning faiths. it gives me hope for our youth that there is meaning to our lives and there is hope for eternal salvation
You speak with clarity and a true sense of love and community in your heart. Thank you for this, and may we all pray for the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. God bless you all, from an Anglican brother in Christ from Canada. 🇨🇦✝️🕯️
What a wonderful video! As others in the comments have mentioned, I too am a convert. Raised Catholic, spent nearly 20 years in various Protestant churches then my journey brought me to the Orthodox Faith. I'm a new subscriber, I want to see more of your videos. Thank you!
I have been born in orthodox family, but when I was 17 I found Jesus when I went to Baptist church. Orthodox church puts traditions and church forefathers writings on first place and God and Bible on second. Orthodox Christian are focused on traditional beliefs that have origin in pagan beliefs. If you would take everything that comes from paganism in orthodox church, it wouldn't exist.
In answer to your concern and apprehension over using the word "hymn": Yes, Hymn is a perfect and correct tern to use in Orthodox Christian worship. "ὕμνος/ Hymnos" is a Greek word meaning "songs of praise".
Beautiful video, Austin - thank you! I have both immediate family and close friends in Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches and appreciate your efforts to foster more unity, love, understanding, and dialogue. Each part of the body of Christ has been entrusted with priceless treasures to be shared with all. We all have much to learn. God bless you!
I very much enjoyed this. I have never attended an Orthodox Church liturgy before. I have seen short video pieces on them on the nightly news when the Orthodox celebrate Christmas, Good Friday which I believe they call Great Friday if, I recall correctly, and their Easter.I would love to experience the Orthodox liturgy myself, after watching this video of your first experience. And look forward to your upcoming videos on the Orthodox Church. Sung liturgies I believe help draw people into the divine takes ones mind off the promblems going on in the world, and promblems in ones own life and focus ones attention on the divine opening one up to encounter the Lord . We need a different experience in church then we experience in our daily life. Always look forward to your videos.
Try visiting your nearby Orthodox Church bro... You will want more and more... Experience is that matters as it is written:Come and see.. His bless you
I appreciate your exploration of liturgical churches. We Catholics consider the Orthodox to be true churches with valid sacraments conferring grace unlike the protestants. There are also 23 other Catholic churches that use the eastern rite litirgies aside from the Roman or Latin rite. I have to admit, the easterners have more otherworldly liturgies than what we Latin Catholics have. Our Latin rite is more rigid. While the some Orthodox believe we Catholics left them, we Catholics believe it's more like it's was a mutual separation. No one left anyone, we just parted ways due to cultural and political reasons.
It's important not to gloss over the theological differences between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, especially the ones that developed before 1054 and the ones that aren't relevant to politics or culture. To reduce it to politics and culture is actually derogatory in some sense because what's being said is that the teachings, dogma, and ecclesiology that their Fathers, Mothers, saints, hierarchs, and forebears devoted their lives to defending - sometimes under persecution or even death in some cases - weren't actually that serious and were just a matter of cultural quirks like beards and funny hats or [petty] political disputes. I'm not saying this is what you mean at all, just drawing out the implication of that idea that I've seen repeated a lot. Plus, when you consider the cultural and political diversity and tension of the Eastern Christian world, that doesn't really hold up. Then when you think about theology and praxis, the Eastern Orthodox is actually much closer to the Oriental Orthodox despite breaking schisming in centuries before the East-West Schism. Plus, up until Vatican II, no Pope would have seen the East-West break as simply being over politics and culture
@@geneparadiso6258 Similarly, this isn't untrue, but it's a simplification of the matter. The fall-out was more about what authority means for both sides and what this implies for the Church as well as what this means for unity and doctrine. Not coming down on one side or the other, but it definitely wasn't just old men fighting over who's in charge (well, there was a little bit of that lol)
Fascinating...more rigid? Theologically, you mean? Because in practice, the Orthodox Church lives their faith much more. Latin rite monastics don't fast with the same rigor as lay people in Orthodoxy...
Just wanted to recommended visiting the Shrine of Christ the King and meeting the Canons of the Institute of Christ the King. I think you will enjoy speaking with them.
The Orthodox Church really makes me feel that my soul is hungering for salvation and longs to commune with Jesus. I am curious about protestantism in a sense and always wonder why they seem to reject so much of the Church’s history? i love and respect my protestant brothers and was only asking out of curiosity. I do believe they are Christians who love and accept Jesus as their Lord amd Savior but I just can’t wrap my head around the countless denominations. I wonder why they branched off so many times after the Reformation?
Former protestant here. I love them as well, but the founders of their faith, the reformers unfortunately and sadly believed a demonic lie, that THEY could reform the Church. That's a lie. Nor Christ, nor the Holy Spirit departed from the Church, and it is an aberration to believe that you can create a Church according to your own interpretation of texts that were only meant to be properly interpreted and utilized by the Church to begin with! That is why there is a fracturing among them, because it testifies of the humanly-lead organizations that they lead. I love them, but I cannot affirm their practices or ways because ultimately I believe it works against the Church and ultimately against God.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I think the reason for a lot of the splintering is sola scriptura. While this wasn't it's intended purpose, it easily leads to division as it allows people to individually judge tradition
@@GospelSimplicity If they have the Holy Spirit, why does the Holy Spirit tell them each something different but to all the Orthodox only says the same unchanging thing regardless of time or place?
Former Protestant that converted to Orthodoxy. I did not know Christ when I was a Protestant. I didn’t began to learn about him how to worship him how to keep his commandments how to Glorify him how to pray to him how to seek him first until after I converted. May the Lord keep me for this journey.
I'm glad you found it meaningful. I came to the EOC after years of serving in music ministry in non-denom churches. Total burnout. I found the EOC to be like water to my thirsty soul. And while I don't wholly embrace everything about it, it's become my home. The Divine Liturgy, the icons, candles, incense, music, chant, etc. all point to the transcendence of a Holy God. But the death and resurrection of Jesus is paramount. Have you gone to a Saturday Vespers service? They are so beautiful, so calming.
I'm a catechumen in Greek Orthodoxy (I think. Baptized as a baby, but never chrismated). My priest and the whole congregation have been so welcoming, warm, and loving. And the Liturgy is mesmerizing. I really feel a stronger connection to Christ than I ever had before. This church feels alive.
Part of the reason we chant the readings is to keep the reader from adding their own inflection or emphasis to scripture. When the Church started, most of Her followers were illiterate, so they needed to have Scripture read to them. Reading it to them in chant allows the faithful to absorb Scripture as closely to reading it themselves as possible. Similarly, the icons have an entire convention on how to “read” them. Many icons are not just of one person, but of an entire scene. Different colors, where someone appears on the icon, how they appear, animals, domes, birds, angels - they all help tell a story on an icon, and looking at the icon could help illiterate faithful to remember a story or a lesson. Icons are almost their own little books - in fact, most people don’t say that icons are “painted” but that they are “written.” Really excited that so many Protestants are beginning to look into the Ancient Faith (and that the Orthodox Churches in the US have become a LOT more welcoming and less ethnocentric).
Also, there are Eastern “particular” Catholic Churches (I actually grew up in a Byzantine Catholic Church before converting to Orthodoxy) that have basically the same theology, and even celebrate the same liturgies, and take the Sacrament the same way as the Orthodox Church
@Gospel Simplicity, there is a practical reason why almost everything, including the readings, is either sung or chanted. Orthodox services very much predate the invention of microphones, so if you had a large Church building, chanting the Gospel reading meant that everyone would be able to actually hear it. And unlike what happened in the Western Church where eventually the Mass was all in Latin and the ordinary people didn't always understand it, the Orthodox always tried to have our services "in the language of the people", so Greek for Greek speakers, Church Slavonic for Slavs, etc. And of course, since beautiful music developed around these things, they were kept even after microphones were invented. "Orthodox" doesn't just mean "right doctrine", but more properly in terms of the Orthodox Church means "right glory" or "right worship". When the missionaries to the Slavs had to translate the Greek word Orthodox, they chose to go with Pravoslavne "right glory".
Because Divine Liturgy is the meeting of Heaven with earth, and the laity find themselves standing among the Seraphim and the Cherubim and the Thrones before God, and Angels do not merely speak, they sing and chant to the glory of God, "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord Sabaoth, Heaven and Earth are full of Thy Glory!" (Isaiah 6,1-7) Moses was a hymnographer, and taught the people to chant in the Tabernacle: "And Moses wrote this song in that day, and taught it to the children of Israel; and Moses went in and spoke all the words of this law in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Naue." (Deuteronomy 32,44 LXX) Psalm is the Greek word for chant. If you are familiar with the Psalms, you will recognize that the Divine Liturgy is made up almost entirely of verses from the Psalms, with only a few later alternating hymns added in specific places.
Hi I am new here . I am orthodox and I would like to tell you that you seem to be a very honest person and I really liked your description of the hole thing . I really wish you all the best
"Ethnocentric" churches are important for us who are out of our countries of origin. I went to OCA or Greek or Russian churches but always I long for Serbian language in service. That is why we started to use local languages long time ago in first place and not only greek, latin or hebrew. Because it feels closer to us. You want english because it is your native language and you see us who do not use it ethnocentric, but actually I can say the same thing for OCA english services. They just do not feel natural to me as greek, serbian, georgian, etc. do not feel natural to you. But anyway, nice video.
@@GospelSimplicity Yes the ethnic churches in this country reflect the diversity of America. It's not factionalism. It can get that way, but that's always sinful and against Orthodoxy. Greeks are not superior to Russians, nor Russians to Serbs, nor Serbs to Americans. This is all one Church.
I go to an Orthodox church where I'm not of the predominant ethnicity (Russian), and I love it. The people aren't purposefully ethnocentric, it's just the history of the church. I get to find out about a new culture and food prep, and the food is fantastic. Compare this to the less ethnocentric Roman Catholic church nearby, awful kinda generic-American food, probably as a compromise due to the many ethnicities. Ditto on crafts. I don't care if my church goes from being 80% ethnic Russian to 0%, but I do really hope that we'd keep to the various Russian traditions that were established by our forebearers rather than descend into the generic American muck / Standard American Diet (SAD) that is causing so many people around the world serious health problems.
@@Ioannikios174 Well said. As a Serb from Serbia, I am amazed by the way people from other cultures become Orthodox, especially in USA where you have great variety of choices, thus probably being hard to even hear about Orthodoxy. We who are born in Orthodox "environment" often forget the gift we are given by our birth and often disregard it, mostly in terms of discipline in prayers, going to liturgy, fasting, ... I really do feel that Orthodox Christianity is the only path to God and once you experience it, things like nation don`t matter.
@@Lionzvezdara78 it matters ,we as Orthodox nations have a bit different role historically ,but of course individual converts also have a chance of Salvation 😊
I really enjoyed your video. I was raised in an African Baptist Church, which focuses on singing and dancing in a rhythmic fashion that's not much different from a club. And even the sermon was completely of the world. Nothing more than the pastor's interpretation of the scripture to popular culture. And it was of the world so much, that by the time I was old enough to make the decision that I no longer wanting to attend service, not going was a no brainer. Because even though my belief in Christ and GOD was firm, I didn't see the need of the church to further promote my faith. But I married a unbelievably beautiful and faithful Serbian woman who introduced me to the Orthodox faith and it completely change my prospective on both true faith and the purpose of the church. It's like you so elegantly put, when I go to church, I am able to leave the standards and behaviors of the world outside. Which has made Church an avenue that allows me to escape the functions of our day to day existence and search for who I am in my most faithful self! Sure, nothing that contains some element of human interaction is incorrupt. But the Orthodox Church is the closest to the PERFECTION of Christ
I appreciate your willingness to understand and experience other perspectives and theology. As an Orthodox Christian, I can understand how the statement that we're the original Church can appear arrogant or be difficult for people of other confessions to process. What keeps us humble as Orthodox, or what should, is that while yes, this is the original Church, we who have inherited the Church have done absolutely nothing to make it that way. It isn't through our personal actions or attributes that the Church is what it is. Additionally, we have the duty to be stewards of the Church and pass down the Church to other generations exactly as it has always been. Finally, we have the remembrance that simply because our Church is the original and does not need change, that does not at all apply to us simply because we are Orthodox Christians. We do not consider ourselves (or shouldn't) as being above everyone else. I think that may be part of what's meant by the statement that we humbly claim to be Christ's Church. Regarding ethnocentrism, I can also see how that can seem to be a downfall or struggle within our Church. As a Greek Orthodox Christian and as a Greek American, I've grown up understanding how some cultures have become so irrevocably intertwined with Orthodoxy that to belong to a culture means to be Orthodox and vice versa. There are many predominantly Orthodox countries who have retained the faith despite centuries of violence and oppression. Countless holy martyrs have resulted from this. In addition to being persecuted for their faith for centuries, the persecution of Orthodox Christians has often extended to being forbidden to speak one's own native language. In such cases, the Church has helped people retain their language and has helped preserve some of the original languages in which holy texts were written. Simply because certain parishes have a majority of a certain ethnicity, maintain ethnic ties, or honor cultural traditions, or just because a parish uses more than one language, that does not mean that others aren't welcome or that we believe Orthodoxy is exclusive to us. Christ's Church and His teachings are more important than anything. It would simply be painful for many of us, me included, to forget where we came from and the sacrifices that were made so that current generations can continue to inherit the Church all over the world. This also serves as a reminder for me and for many others of what we should be willing to do, as well. This is long-winded, but thank you for your videos and your perspective. God bless you.
Was raised prot.
Became a Buddhist monk.
Was atheist.
Found the true church ☦️
What a journey!
@@GospelSimplicity read The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios
Imagine if more people actually sought after an intimate heartfelt relationship with Jesus Christ and stop following the traditions and customs of this world. A relationship that goes to the giver and not the gift.
A power to see people set free of addictions and bondage to sin.
Imagine a real authority in Christ demonstrated and not watching a powerless ceremony.
Imagine a Church that's all symbols and examples and nothing real.
Or Imagine a life where you actually see people do what Jesus said we would?
How about going to care for widows and orphans? Or what about blessing the poor and not turning your face from them?
What about praying for those who hate you and they that spitefully use you?
What about loving your neighbor as yourself?
I see a whole lot of talking about RELIGION and a form of Godliness but denying the power of it. It makes me sick watching people think the word and power of God is a social setting with rituals and picking what they like... Wow have mercy God Almighty these people know not they're the blind leading the blind.
@@mapa6772 such an amaaaazing book that is! I was just blowen away by the content. I finished reading it in 5 days but a few times i had to put IT down just to try and have a breack because the content was too powerfull and i had to digest all before i continue reading. I recomand it to anyone involved in yoga and. Reiky and all other forms of witchcraft. Great great book!
Similar path :) Prot. Cath. Buddhist (almost monk), bunch of any and everything.... and then home ☦
Orthodoxy is like Pringles: once you pop, you can't stop.
😂
I love this analogy! 😂
Lol, I knew you'd show up here with a cheesy comment 🤣
It's like the choice between the red and blue pill in the Matrix. Once you go, there's no going back!
@Bishop Angaelos If you want folks to send you money, you might want to at least change up you're canned message you've posted numerous times before. And the Blesam Orphanage is in Nigeria, not in Italy. Is it 3 days from Italian, Nigerian, or local time here?
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Go try to scam some other folks.
I'm Orthodox, and you pretty much nailed it. The Divine services, everything about them, from the art to the chanting, to the design of the sanctuary itself is meant to resemble heaven and meant to bring living people into communion with God, each other, and with all those beloved Saints who came before us. I grew up in a Protestant Church and with the church I grew up in, it did really feel like it was meeting modern people on their terms, where they were. There is merit to that, but with Orthodoxy, the inside of the church, the services themselves, it's meant to communicate this is ancient, this is sacred, this is eternal. Personally, I think it helps create a real attitude of reverence. It's almost as if we're in God's throne room. That is actually why we stand because if you were to meet the president or another earthly head of state you wouldn't sit until you were invited to do so, so we give Christ that same respect. I became Orthodox because I was seeking something stable, something eternal, something authentic, that wasn't easy or shallow, something that would really push me to grow in my relationship with Christ.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and a bit of your story!
May God bless orthodoxy.
Very well stated. You brought up a topic i often read among evangelical scholars and pastors: The evangelicals are now beginning to ask for a deeper prayer life.
Dear friend i was born but not bred Orthodox since down under we still decide to use a 4th Century Koine Greek language in our Orthodox Churches, there's gradually change pls pray for us so may can hear and have the opportunity to be set free.
Therefore i was a nominal Christian for 40 yrs but did not know it and according to the Bible a 'dead person walking'.
I wept last night hearing Austin's testimony, 'meeting' him for the first time brought me joy.
I thank you both for sharing and thank God we know Jesus and are God's family on earth.
I understand both of you commenting on appreciating the 'beauty' of my Church but everything you have both described is meaningless without knowledge of Christ's Word.
It's been 20 yrs since i met Jesus yet it seems like only minutes ago we installed cable tv and while surfing through the channels to see if there was anything intetesting to watch i noticed an elderly man, sophisticated looking, talking with a twinkle in his eye, that was the late Derek Prince and 20 yrs later after listening to everyone from Joyce Myer and Joel Osteen to Patriach Bartholomew and Fr. Paisios i listen to Mr. Prince on a daily basis.
Dear brethren in Eternity our title will be the Children of God and my prayer for us all, no matter what denomination we Worship with, is the realization that we belong to God's Kingdom on earth foremost.
Ive just turned 60 and because of the ACC (Aust. Christian Channel) i thank God i discovered early in my walk with Jesus that if we are part of a Bible teaching Church and after 6 months are not ready to roll up our sleves and
FEED THE HUNGRY
CLOTHE THE NAKED
VISIT THE SICK & IMPRISONED
A
N
D
CARE FOR WIDOWS AND ORHANS we are not following Jesus.
May we be known by Who we follow this day dear friend since tomorrow isn't promised. God's Peace Hope n Joy till our Lord Returns or we return to Him.
@@anastasiadare9231 I'm a Protestant convert to Orthodoxy and I feel the love and depth of prayer from the heart in Orthodoxy unequalled elsewhere that others here talk about but I also listen to Derek Prince and marvel that the Holy Spirit speaks the same Gospel through other denominations and traditions, where people have a heart to follow Him. Glory to Him forever!
For personal reasons, after our family experienced a very horrible tragedy, my Protestant church just didn't support us wasn't there when we needed them. It sent me on a journey to find somewhere where there was a deep spirituality, a merciful God, and some peace. My search brought me to the Orthodox church and I became a convert 5 years ago. it's been one of the best experiences of my life and continues to uplift me and brings me closer with my Lord everyday
Thanks for sharing that!
Welcome home brother (or sister?) in Christ! Hugs from the UK.
I am sorry to hear that, that your family in Christ didn’t support you as that is not Gods will. I have to say not all Protestant churches are like that mine is always helping one another and the pastor always preaches about how we are one body in Christ so we need to be United as each of us are importan for the church and how Jesus came to serve not for us to serve him when he was on this earth, so we need to do the same and serve others. I am sorry about your bad experience, but as long you have your eye fix on Christ that’s all that matters.
Hugs, pace and love from Romania, the land of the Holy Apostole Andrew Orthodox Church. I’m a nativ orthodox christian, and i feel very blassed for that resason. I’m glad you got home!!!
Imagine if more people actually sought after an intimate heartfelt relationship with Jesus Christ and stop following the traditions and customs of this world. A relationship that goes to the giver and not the gift.
A power to see people set free of addictions and bondage to sin.
Imagine a real authority in Christ demonstrated and not watching a powerless ceremony.
Imagine a Church that's all symbols and examples and nothing real.
Or Imagine a life where you actually see people do what Jesus said we would?
How about going to care for widows and orphans? Or what about blessing the poor and not turning your face from them?
What about praying for those who hate you and they that spitefully use you?
What about loving your neighbor as yourself?
I see a whole lot of talking about RELIGION and a form of Godliness but denying the power of it. It makes me sick watching people think the word and power of God is a social setting with rituals and picking what they like... Wow have mercy God Almighty these people know not they're the blind leading the blind.
Tradition is beauty
instablaster
Austin - your comments re liturgical services SUCh as the mass being potentially empty ritual without constant engagement by parishioners or without explanations is highly offensive, as you can imagine for us long term Catholics. Your comments show a lack of understanding. Alll Catholics attending mass or other services know deep in their heart that they as a group are Jesus Christ. , but that said, Catholics do know what is going on. Catholics also understand that when they attend mass they do so for themselves and for others at the same time. This is a deep topic.
@@richardbenitez1282 you're not replying to anyone
Former lifelong protestant here. I was raised pentecostal, then went to a presbyterian church, baptist church, anglican church, and then a fundamentalist non-denominational church as the last stop before Orthodoxy. I've never ever ever found a home such as this.
Truly, I mean no disrespect, but I do believe that these confessions are man made and I simply cannot bring myself to say the same about the Orthodox Church. I love it. I believe that the liturgy is truly God-established and that nothing else can replicate or replace it. The Truth is in the Church and we believe that this and no other body is truly Christ's body. The Church is the ark of salvation. The Church is the bride of Christ. What we today call the Orthodox Church is truly and uniquely that one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church that the nicene creed talks about, for the creed was declared formally as dogma by that Church. Brother, you're on a beautiful journey. Pray that the Lord enlightens you! Be blessed!
Thank you so much for sharing some of your story!
@Bishop Angaelos Reported your fake account.
Dear friend im grateful to God you have found peace through our Prince of Peace.
The Holy Spirit is not confined to our Orthodox Church and it breaks my heart that we think this.
As the Head Christ desires His Body to be united and we shall be know by the love we have for one another.
My story is different yet i understand the desire converts have when they call Orthodixy home since they"ve been dissatisfied with other denominations they believe Orthodoxy is the true Church well i belived it wasn't because i was dissatisfied with it since it 'kept me out of the Kingdom of God'.
In 2000 when i heard the Good News of Jesus on Christian tv i was irate that i was
Born
Baptized
Married
Baprized our kids
Burried my patents
Had 40 Christmases &
40 Easters
B
U
T did not participate therefore 'Taste and see' 'HOW GOOD THE LORD IS'
Home is Heaven dear friend and our calling is to live the Good Samaritan as we are Fishers of the LOST.
Praying that the Light of Jesus shines brighter today than yesterday in our lives so that others may come to the realization that Christ lives and lives in us and can live in them too :)
@@anastasiadare9231 The Orthodox Church doesn't claim that "only we have the Holy Spirit" though. The Holy Spirit is God; He can go wherever He wills. He is the one that holds together all existence, after all, the Giver of Life.
@@thekingofsomewherehope so and Amen.
As an atheist convert to Orthodoxy, I've had to struggle through coming to terms with the exclusivity of the Orthodox Church.
One thing that I think makes Protestants and Catholics very offended at the claim that the Orthodox Church is exclusively the true church, is because lots of Catholics & Protestants have the idea that being outside of the Church means that you are guaranteed to go to hell.
As Orthodox, we do not claim to judge the state of anyone's soul. That is up for God to decide. It would be deeply arrogant for us to say that anyone outside or even inside of the Church is *definitely* saved, or *definitely* damned, except for the Saints, countless of whom have been reported as being personally escorted to heaven by angels. None of us have any certainty about our salvation, or anyone else's salvation while we're still alive. We put our complete trust in God & his judgement of us and others. That is why we pray for him to have mercy on us, and others, and why many of us have those outside of the Orthodox Church on our daily prayer rules, since we care for their salvation.
The only thing that we have to do, is follow our conscience, open our hearts up to the one true God, pray to be led into truth and accept Christ's *exclusive* truth, since Faith in God is not just a rational acceptance of a contract, but a sacramental and deeply personal trust in him as the bridegroom of our souls.
Christ did say that those who rejected Him would be grafted out, in Romans 11. To this day, there are those that follow in the tradition of the pharisees in their rejection of Christ, and in pretense convince themselves they're following the one true God, which they're not, because they have rejected the truth of who he is. Those who grow up in that tradition, unfortunately, inherit a rejection of truth himself, Christ.
There is a reason why the dogmas of the faith are affirmed in the ecumenical councils, and why you can't consider Arians to be Christians for example. The dogmas preserve the faith and fidelity of the Church, by refusing to compromise on accepting doctrines that make a spiritual life impossible. Arianism was anathematised because Arians don't believe that Christ is God. One who does not believe that Christ is actually God cannot have a true spiritual life in communion with Christ. Thus, they as a spiritually dead branch have been grafted out.
The faith is serious. It is actually a matter of eternal life, and eternal death. You cannot afford to play games with what the eternal truth of our Lord is.
Forgive me if I've spoken too harshly or forwardly, but I hope that as a truth-seeking Christian you can see that I'm coming from a place of deep care, and a desire for everyone to be united in in the spirit of truth.
Thanks for these thoughts!
Thank you for this explanation. Would be interested to hear about your journey from atheism to Orthodoxy. God bless and Christ be with you!
Very well said. And I also went from Atheist to Orthodox.
Kris - thanks for your comment. Was worth reading. Orthodoxy has always known the church must be vigilant in protecting and guarding the true word of Christ.
@Bishop Angaelos Stop spamming on these comments. You're not going to scam anyone like that.
By attending Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran divine services you are seeing something completely different than what American evangelicals have done to church services. It's not entertainment. You go to church to hear God's word and receive the Sacraments.
Is what you're not seeing that's important.
Correct to state that eternal life (or damnation) is not entertainment.
Well said but I would discount Lutheran in this case.
Thanks for sharing
@@Kitiwake You can discount the LINOs but not the Confessional Lutherans.
@@johnmarquardt1991 unless they are in communion with Rome they lack apostólic succession and while can perform eucharistic ritual it's not valid.
@@Kitiwake LOL. Can you point out where the Bible says that? I know that you'll mention Peter but Peter wasn't the only one spreading the Gospel. Are you saying that the churches that Paul and Timothy started were not Christian churches and could not properly administer the Sacraments?
I became Orthodox 5 years ago, and I thought the service was very strange at first since I had never even been to any liturgy. While I still have such fond memories of my Protestant upbringing, I have found such peace in Orthodox services. When I’m having a bad day at work, I imagine myself at church while I say a prayer. It calms me and gives me peace every time. Thanks for being so kind and curious about the churches you visit.
It's my pleasure! Thanks for sharing some of your story
Literally how I feel. It’s so strange to me yet so calming and I can’t leave it. It feels like home
The icons have roots in ancient Christianity, when the Church was still very underground. You have to remember that everyone being able to read is a very modern thing, for most of history the general population couldn't read or write. Icons are pictures to remind people and for them to visualize the Gospels, the life and actions of Our Lord, and the Saints. Bibles were very rare for the longest time, that combined with the people not being able to read, the icons were accessible for all people. They don't require anything to explain and understand what's going on in them. And no, we don't worship wood, we venerate the subject of the images, whether it's Christ, Mary, the saints, etc. Just to draw a genuine icon takes one to go through fasting and prayer to prepare yourself to paint one.
Thanks!
And vernacular languages continue to 'evolve' - change.
In the roman empire most people could read, but, as you claimed, bibles were very rare
@@andreasr2454 The upper classes, like the Patricians, yes, most could read and write. The lower classes on the other hand, like the Plebians, slaves, freedmen, etc, most could not. That's not to say that all of the lower class people couldn't read or write, for example, most tutors, good tutors at least, came from the Greeks, and in many cases, were slaves themselves, or freedmen. Also, you have to remember that the majority of Christians, after Our Lord gave the Great Commission to the Apostles, were from the lower classes of the Empire, they were the people that the Apostles evangelized the most, remember Matthew 19:24. That, plus the rarity of Bibles, was how the icons came about, to help the faithful that could not read, or, with there being only a handful of Bibles, was not in an area with a Deacon who had a Bible.
That one guy - very well said. In this discussion, my brain automatically goes to the reality of peasants, the most common, far out of the way area peoples. I read lots of Russian lit. The auto bio of Maxim Gorky shows life before the revolution. The literacy and the great deal of class distinction and abuse in Russia and eastern block regions is stunning. Plus, my own family extensions in mexico in far off god-forsaken outbacks in an area where families had 1 or two that were literate. And yes they had a bible but it was thought of an icon, so to speak.
Try very hard to go to an Orthodox church during Holy Week and the Paschal service at Midnight on Saturday.
Thanks! I'll see what I can do!
Highly recommend Holy Thursday evening.
Totally agree. Also a night service (αγρυπνία), maybe in a Monastery,
would be a wonderful experience for you!
@Read Father Seraphim Rose I cried too!
@Bishop Angaelos fake heretic coptic who sends the same message to everyone copy paste
I am a Deacon in the Greek Orthodox Church. Same faith, just a little different "flavor". It's not easy for a Protestant to step into an Orthodox church for the first time. I know because I did it myself 15 years ago. I stayed and now I've been a Deacon for 7 years. You made some excellent observations. Just as we have pictures of family members in our homes, we Orthodox have pictures of our Christian family in our churches. They are our heroes and we venerate them. We do not worship them, but we show them honor in a very Eastern way by bowing to them and kissing them. Orthodox churches, with their icons, give one a sense of being surrounded by a "cloud of witnesses". You will find that nearly the entire liturgy is scriptural (much of it comes directly from the Psalms) and yes, it is often described as one long song with the hymns being sung and the prayers and readings chanted. I look forward to your upcoming video taking a tour of the church. Χρονια πολλα! - May God grant you many years!
Thanks for sharing that and some of your story! God bless!
Best comment!
Question....
If the old testament is the word of god and for the new testament to be true, the old testament has to be true FIRST. And if the old testament is inaccurate then so is the new.
Isaiah 44:6..
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god
Isaiah 43:11
I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.
Deuteronomy 6:4
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Galatians 3:20
Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one
Now, almost all biblical scholars agree the old testament contains absolutely zero implication of a trinity...actually it says the complete opposite is true. If that is the case amd the old testament is the word of god, only 2 conclusions are possible. Either the new testament is a lie or the interpretation has been corrupted.
@@VoltedSoldier A response to your question from a faithful but not belonging to the clergy: It is rather simple, it's one God who's manifested in three inseparable and consubstantial entities. In Genesis 1:2 it is stated: And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face (or surface) of the waters
I look at the Icons all around us as the great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1).
St. Luke painted the first icon of the Mother of God!
I recently heard about that. Very interesting
That is really interesting. Are there historical references that I can look up that verify this as fact?
Wonder the same, blessings!
@@wonderingpilgrim It is a tradition very strong in the world of fine arts. They say it can be traced back to the Bizantine Empire, 8th century, during the iconoclast heresy crisis.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodegetria
PS: Iconoclasm was a political-religious movement aggressively opposed to the image veneration, which began in the early 8th century and lasted until the 9th century and was driven by the Byzantine emperors. Iconoclasts argued, as a matter of revealed faith and not even a theological opinion, that the sacred images of Christians were identified with idols ("eidolon"); in the tuning fork, their veneration was assimilated to what they advocated to be idolatrous cult. The “iconophiles”, on the other hand, understood that the icons represented figurations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, angels and saints, or even passages or episodes of faith, so that the honor devoted to them was equivalent to the honor given through the image. We know that the iconoclasm of the 8th and 9th centuries was propelled by the Byzantine emperors because, as the economy of Christian images was substantially foreign to Jews and repugnant to Islamic peoples - faithful to a religion that had recently been founded in Arabia in the 6th century and was already dominant in vast part of Byzantine territories - the removal of such elements from the iconographic economy would stimulate a closer relationship with Christians, tend to reduce the ghettoization of Jews and Muslims and, therefore, facilitate their homogeneous subordination to the emperor's powers.
On the iconoclast crisis, again (like it was with Arianism, Monophysism, Nestorianism, Monothelitism and many other seminal heresies) it was the Pope and the West that corrected the wrong doctrines of the East in defense of the true faith after a council with almost 400 Eastern bishops prevented the Bishop of Rome and the Westerners to participate in - it was the Council of Hiera. Today, the feast day of the Second Ecumenical Council of Nicea is also called “triumph of the Orthodoxy” in the East, so important the victory over iconoclasts is in the history of the Church.
The Catholic Church is very direct and emphatic here: _”The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first commandment”_ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2141).
@@masterchief8179 Wow! Thanks so much for this very thorough reply!
The divine liturgy is really the place where you can understand orthodoxy.
You will observe a tradition unchanged for 1500 years and feel the presence and love of God !
Thanks!
I think some of your lituriges are older than that too?
@@j.g.4942 Yes. It depends on the traditions. The oldest is from the 1st century.
@@dartagnan2861 It's a shame the western liturgies weren't preserved in the same way. Like the east and south Christians say, the west innovated and the north suffered
@@j.g.4942 There ARE Western Rite Orthodox Churches.
The icons follow precise guidelines and also essentially function as theological statements. And since our hymns do the same thing, you could think of an icon as a painted hymn.
Interesting!
@Bishop Angaelos You're getting a bit repetitive. You're not an algorithm, are you?
Elder Spyridon calls icons "visual gospels". Because the limitless and immeasurable God decided to be born as a human in a limited and measurable world some of the laws have been changed... You can not depict a limitless and immeasurable God, but Christ was born also for the sake of being able to depict Him.
Ikons were used many times as a way to teach about Christianity and how the Church began.
Saint Paisios of Mount Athos on holy icons:
"A mother whose child is fighting in a war, fears for his life, day and night. She is constantly in anguish and always anxious. Suddenly, she gets a letter from her child with his photograph inside. When she sees the photograph, what does she do? She takes it into her hands and she kisses it, and afterwards she brings it up to her chest so that it always touches her heart. Well, what do you think? Do you think that this mother with such burning desire for her child believes that she is kissing a photograph? She, of course, thinks that she is kissing her very own child! The situation is the same for the faithful people who have a burning respect and passion for the All Holy Theotokos and the Saints. We don’t venerate the icons but rather we venerate the holy persons they depict. And we venerate these holy persons not because they are the faces on the icons, but because they fought and many times they died for Christ. God is jealous, that is the truth, though He is not jealous of us venerating His own children (the saints). He is jealous when we venerate the devil and the devil’s children. The father isn’t jealous of his own children. Do not worry, the Lord is proud and happy when He sees you respecting and loving His Mother and the Saints."
Thanks for sharing the quote!
@@GospelSimplicity You are welcome! Greetings from Greece!
WONDERFUL! DEAR SAINT PAISIOS!
I absolutely love this Saint who has God's grace and along with another Saint firing his time on the Holy mountain, Saint Porphyrios, has taught me what divine humility and love for others truly means.
On the topic of icons, Christ himself is a flawless icon of the Father, Christ is a perfect image of divinity itself in human form, the human form of all people is then an icon of divinity, but an imperfect one.
We are all icons.
Well said
Yes, "Icon" is just Greek for Image". As in "The image and likeness of God".
Yes, we are all imperfect images of God, but let's not forget what St. John of Damascus said is done to an icon when it loses it likeness to God (or to the saint): it is consigned to the flames!
As a bit of a curve ball, I would like to thank you for reading and responding to the comments to your videos. It shows you care for and respect your audience and their opinions and questions.
It's my pleasure!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and the Holy Spirit!
"I got out of bed on Sunday morning not just to do something I would do any other day of the week."
You hit the nail on the head
Thanks!
Former Protestant, been Orthodox for 12 years now. Wonderful video! Very much looking forward to your interview with the priest. Forgive the online Orthodox crusaders - none of them are good representative of the faith because we are not supposed to be arrogant or demeaning.
The one true Church claim is bold; but if true as we believe it to be, then we do say so humbly and out of love. We pray for everyone to have the fullness of the life in Christ in in the Orthodox Church. We're not saying you're damned or don't know Christ but we firmly believe that you will find Him more fully in the life of the Orthodox Church
Thanks for sharing! Hope you enjoy the interview with Fr. Josiah!
Imagine how much better our world would be if more people had this young man's insight and ability to explore and understand other religious traditions with an open mind?
In total agreement with you!!
Thanks!
Imagine if more people actually sought after an intimate heartfelt relationship with Jesus Christ and stop following the traditions and customs of this world. A relationship that goes to the giver and not the gift.
A power to see people set free of addictions and bondage to sin.
Imagine a real authority in Christ demonstrated and not watching a powerless ceremony.
Imagine a Church that's all symbols and examples and nothing real.
Or Imagine a life where you actually see people do what Jesus said we would?
How about going to care for widows and orphans? Or what about blessing the poor and not turning your face from them?
What about praying for those who hate you and they that spitefully use you?
What about loving your neighbor as yourself?
I see a whole lot of talking about RELIGION and a form of Godliness but denying the power of it. It makes me sick watching people think the word and power of God is a social setting with rituals and picking what they like... Wow have mercy God Almighty these people know not they're the blind leading the blind.
@@hardcorebarbell are you a member of a Christian Church? If so, which one?
It's great as long as he manages to maintain his sense that evil does exist in the world, and that religions are not immune. I hope that if he found himself in some Christain cult or a Scientology service his open mind would know to close.
I can't believe you are just 21. Thank you for this amazing video. Love from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
It's my pleasure!
I’m looking forward to this! I understand that the orthodox liturgy is beautiful.
It is!
It's not just beautiful! It is the True one! Except a few seats for old or sick people who cannot stand, in the Orthodox Church you don't seat, like in a theater or cinema! The Liturgy is not a show! You stand! It's part of your sacrifice!
@@eu3145 I’m was also a convert to Orthodoxy and this helped me with the History explained. First it speaks about the first 1000 years and goes into the Protestant reformation around the 15th minute. I suggest anyone looking as to why Orthodox are the Church mentioned in the Bible and the one Jesus’s Apostles established to listen to this ... I guess you are Orthodox though
ruclips.net/video/hZNtaFzIqJc/видео.html
@@peterconverttoorthodoxy2788 yes, i am! I am very happy to hear about your convert! I hope you baptized exactly as Christ said in the Scripture to be done in order to be valid. I say this because i heard about people converting but dont do, or some priests dont do the entire job done, they exclude the part of the 3 sinking in the holy water, considering it's not necessary, especially for the ones that convert from the Chatolic Church! Well... it is very very important, otherwise God cannot send the Holy Spirit, you wont have the guardian angel and ofcourse you cannot get the Salvation in the End! Also when you are baptized like this in the Orthodox Church, ofcourse after you repent, God erase all of your sins, including the one of our ancestors Adam and Eve. This is are not foolish words, it is the Truth! Now that you are baptized in the right and the True Church of Christ i strongly recommend to read, to knowledge the Teachings and Learnings of the Elders, the Saints of the Orthodoxy! They speak 100% the Truth, the Wisdom, the discernment, etc.... the Holy Spirit speacks through them. As an advice, keep away and do not share and be agree with this Ecumenical movement, which try to reunite all the Religions in One, even if there are priests, bishops or even Patriarchs who are agree with it. This is the new Religion of Satan they want to establish! They will succed one day, and this day is not to far, the Orthodox Church will also fall, God will take the 7 mysteries out of it, it will remanin just buildings and walls, beautiful raised buildings, museums! All the churches will lost their mainly role, the salvation of the christians through the 7 mysteries. Practicaly it will be the same situation in which the Chatolics were in 1054 after Schism. Stay very very close to the learnings, teachings and wisdoms of the Saints and the true Elders. Start search, find and read also their prophecies. God Bless You! And yes i am born orthodox in the Romanian Orthodox Church. There only 7 Canonical Churches, all orthodox.. anyother ones except this 7 are missing the grace of God, they are not saving.
yes it is 😊
Glad to see you enjoyed the Divine Liturgy! I’ll be chrismated into the Greek Orthodox Church in a few days myself, coming from a former Methodist background.
God bless you in that journey!
@@GospelSimplicity thank you! May God bless you with many years!
Coming from a Protestant background, I appreciate how Orthodoxy engages you on every level. Not just in the Divine Liturgy but through the prayer routines prescribed and fasting throughout the week and year. Theologically it is very deep and there is no shortage of writings from the early Church fathers to read and study. Not judging or saying one Church is better than that other, just my take on something fairly new for me.
Thanks for sharing!
Awesome, I'm stoked you went to the Liturgy. I'm a Protestant convert to Orthodoxy. The Liturgy, for me, is an unparalleled experience. The story of Russia's conversion to Orthodox nails it in my opinion. In the 10th century, Prince Vladimir of Kiev sent out a bunch of emissaries to various countries to check out their religions in an attempt to find a unifying faith for the Russian people. After experiencing the Divine Liturgy, the emissaries that went to Byzantium reported back:
"We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget the beauty."
What a quote. That’s great
If u really wanna learn more about us orthodox u should go in Mount Athos
I'd love to! It's a little out of the budget currently though
@@GospelSimplicity hello gospel from greece..i suggest you to go in mount athos.you can"t imagine how will love this place and you will learn the truth
6:43 please note Orthodox christians also wear jeans in churches and also have cup of coffee after the Liturgy all to gether as continuation of Liturgy this is called Agape...
Thanks!
I personally don't see what the big deal is with putting on some dress slacks and a button-up shirt; it's the only time of the week I personally do it, and it makes me feel like it's the most important thing I do all week, which usually it is. It's not like you couldn't wear jeans to my OCA church, and indeed some do wear nice-looking ones, but most respect the church enough to just not look like a slob. But it's not like a dress code or anything - a few times due to exigent circumstances I have shown up looking like a slob, and the love I felt from my fellow partitioners did not diminish. And yes, not only during non-plague times is their fellowship, there is fellowship + amazing donate-what-you-can food, like seriously usually one of the best meals I have all week!
@@danieljclark5922 Indeed Daniel, we are also thought especially for Sunday Liturgy since it is Resurection every Sunday, to kind of " dress up" since it is a special day, and we are going to receive a special " Guest" in our heart therefore we prepare inside out and want to show some respect... I just tried to tell Austin that it is not a must to be in a skirt since in Orthodox church it is not a uniform and people do as they feel.. I have friends who go to services almost every day, so they would for example go to the morning service and after that go to their job and therefore they would wear whatever they wear at work...it does not matter in that sence.. I think and feel communication is abs not complete through messages and people can often misunderstand each other.. in any case wish you all well! Have a good week!
@@biljanamiljkovic4646 well I wouldn't say it doesn't matter ,in general long skirts and a headscarf is a sign of respect toward the icons and the Church and God,also NO make up ,and trying to be as modest (covered)as possible
We are called to dress modest, yes we can wear jeans if it is cold outside and you don't show off with your clothes, but it is preferred long skirts for women .
I'm a Protestant convert. Orthodox Christianity is not just about the Sunday liturgy. To compare a liturgy to a Protestant Sunday service would be missing the point entirely. Orthodox Christianity is about working out one's own salvation. We don't believe in once saved always safed like most Protestants. Instead we seek to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Through the sacraments we confess our sins worship God and partake in the communion. We understand God became man so man can become like God.
Thanks
@@GospelSimplicity thank you for the video, God bless you brother
Wow you twisted one verse to prove a false doctrine
Salvation by works will send anyone straight to hell
You just rejected Christ Sacrifice
Faith alone for salvation Not works
@@heavenlycorzo of course it's Christ who ultimately saves us. Without his help it's not possible for anyone to repent, however you know faith without works is dead.
I reread my last comment and I did kind of leave out God's help in causing sinner to repent.
don't forget at the judgment Christ himself said many will come to me on that day and say Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out many demons? and I will tell them plainly , away from me you will doers I never knew you. Are you telling me those guys did not have faith in Christ? They did, why isn't their faith enough to save them on the last day?
I'll also throwing there as a Protestant you guys are completely illegitimate. You have no real connection to the real Christ. All you have is a charismatic speaker who interprets the bible like a pack of tarot cards and some nice rock music before and after, That's not a church. Christ didn't bring a book, The Bible , he brought a church.
I pray you research Orthodox Christianity. We confess our sins receive forgiveness and partake in the body and blood of Christ. Confession and communion that's what it's all about.
Look at John 20:23. You will never hear a Protestant pastor preach on that scripture. This is where the sacrament of confession begin. Jesus gave the apostles authority to remit or retain men's sins. The apostles passed that authority down to their own disciples and them to their own through the ages to the present day. It's called apostolic succession. Every Orthodox Christian priest and Bishop can be traced back directly to Christ and the apostles. You won't find Benny hinn anywhere in that lineup.
@@radvlad1431 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful WORKS?
Boom! There it is, about 4:49 in, "liturgical churches do a much better job of engaging all of our senses". You hit the nail on the head there, my brother in Christ. I never thought of it that way, but it is so true! Thanks again for your ministry.
Glad that was helpful!
"When we can't be distinguished from the world we lose our ability to speak to the world." 🙌🏼
I truly enjoy your perspectives!!! You have a quiet wisdom that is definitely a gift from God. May He bless your steps!
Thank you so much!
I just know that you are a blessing to your parents. If I had a son I wished he would be just like you. May God always put a hedge around you and keep you safe in these days.
Wow, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. My parents have certainly been a blessing to me.
As an Orthodox Christian I would like to explain why Orthodoxy practices closed communion. I also ask your forgiveness if it made you feel uncomfortable. In Orthodoxy we believe that Holy Communion is literally the incorruptible body and blood of Christ and is a sacrament. Because it is so holy Orthodox Christians need to properly prepare themselves to partake in Holy Communion. This preparation includes a midnight to communion fast (if able), confession, and saying the pre-communion prayers. Confession in the Orthodox Church is also a sacrament that is only open to Orthodox Christians. So reverence is need when approaching Holy Communion because it is the true presence of Christ amongst us. Also, by partaking in Holy Communion one is saying that they agree that Holy Communion is the body and blood of Christ and that they agree with the teachings of the Orthodox Church. I want to mention that not all Orthodox Christians take Holy Communion every Sunday. I myself take Holy Communion about 2-3 times per month usually because I didn't have the time to go to Saturday night vespers for confession. The reality is that Holy Communion is only open to those who have properly prepared themselves for Holy Communion. Note: proper preparation varies depending on cultural traditions within Orthodoxy. I hope this helps.
Thanks for sharing! I definitely understand, and I’m not against the practice. It’s just always interesting being on the outside
That is exactly the way it was in catholicism pre Vatican II.. Today the fasting requirementv is the only thing that has changed... It's now one hour. We can still fast from midnight of course
@@Kitiwake “fasting” for an hour? Seems like almost a joke. So basically just don’t eat in church? Post Vatican II Catholicism is so watered down.
Another well stated comment. Thanks. The church as the body of christ (believers) always seeks to protect the sanctity and authenticity of Holy Communion. In past centuries, the church got to realize that reverence needed to be added to liturgical services.
@@Kitiwake not the same at all, in the Orthodox church you must confess every time you are going to receive communion. I believe Roman Catholic require confession once a year.
Orthodox Divine Liturgy is the best gift you can give to yourself in a week. Think about visiting Agion Oros in Mount Athos here in Greece.
I would love to! A little out of the budget right now, but perhaps one day
This was fantastic first take on Orthodoxy. Your open heart is refreshing.
Thanks!
As an Orthodox Christian, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your video and your deeply thoughtful comments. God bless and keep up the good work!
Thanks!
When I first experienced the full divine Orthodox worship (St. James Liturgy in the West Syriac rite), I felt like I was in Heaven! It was an experience I would never forget!
That’s great!
I feel that every time I m in His orthodox Temple. That is the feelings of Paradise. For someone who do not know "orthodox" in greek means " the right doctrine" with the meaning of the right worship.
I’m actually glad you’re doing these series on Catholism and Orthodox churches because I didn’t know much about them. I also share this with my bible study because often times these denominations are seen as “not christian”
Glad you're finding them helpful!
They would not consider themselves denominations.
😢 What a pity we are not considered Christians while Christianity has been born as Orthodoxy/Catholicism
The etymology of the word denomination meant to separate from the whole. Since Catholics and Orthodox believe that together this is the Church established by Jesus on the foundation of the apostles we call ourselves the Church and do not consider either to be a denomination. We are the whole and the communities that separated from us are denominations. Officially neither church recognizes "Protestant Church" we use the term communities. This is not meant to be disparaging in any way.
@@Motomack1042 i know, but it’s an easy word to use
I was Nondenominational for years, my friend showed me the Coptic Orthodox Church and I instantly fell in love. Im reading books on orthodoxy. There’s a really good book called The Orthodox Prayer life
Thanks!
Keep in mind that Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox (Coptics are this) are not in communion.
Oh my goodness, your humility and respectful thoughts of your experience are refreshing. God bless you!!!
The reason we as Orthodox when being compared to other confessions are very serious of making a distinction is not because of personal aversion, or something petty, trivial, or superficial but because we believe that the Holy tradition and the purity and fullness of the faith that has been handed down to us by the holy Fathers (even some at the cost of their suffering and shedding of their blood) is imperative to the quality of one's spiritual healing, and it is important for those who are seeking reconciliation with God and complete healing from their sins to understand the difference, so they would not be deceived or led astray, experiencing spiritual harm and trauma, receiving poison instead of medicines. Nevertheless, this is not to say that we do not reverence God's providence in other people receiving a start in a religion of their culture or different traditions in their life, and the Holy Spirit and the angels, etc. working in everyone's life through their consciences to bring each person as far along the path of truth in their lifetime as their strengths and weaknesses allow. But the fullness of the truth of Jesus Christ, His body and revelation we without fail confess is preserved in the Orthodox Church, because this is not only what we believe, but what continues to be confirmed in a living, sacramental, experiential and resurrectional way when we participate in Her life, and all His promises which God unfailingly fulfills through Her.
Thanks for sharing this perspective!
Hey great video! I'm going to stick around and see what you think after your tour and your interview. My family converted to Orthodoxy from evangelical Protestantism and we absolutely love it. Thanks for coming in with and presenting your thoughts with an open mind, not just to criticize ♥️
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy the tour and interview!
Setting reminder for this! Always been interested in the Orthodox Church and your videos are fantastic.
Thanks! Hope you enjoy it
You'll be really excited about hearing from the talk with ft Trenham.
I don't need to have seen it to know it will be great, having seen how both the interviewer and interviewee operate.
I highly recommend book: Eastern Orthodoxy illuminated by the Gospel to everyone who wants to understand Orthodoxy from protestant view.
When I lived in Geelong, Victoria I was able to attend a small Ukrainian Catholic church that offered the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostem and it was a really nice change from the constant back and forth between "Ordinary form and Extraordinary form" with the roman liturgy.
I also found it very exotic, the emphasis on icons and rituals within the sanctuary with the chanting all helped pull it together into something beautiful that I haven't experienced before as a recent Catholic (received Feb 29th this year).
I feel like the fight for the church will be fought in the Latin church and for that reason I feel that I should stick around to help fix it at least in some small way.
Thanks for sharing!
Dang. That’s not a real church fam. Find a canonical one. Ukrainian churches are all is disrepute at the moment
Can’t wait for this and the interview with Fr. Josiah Trenham!
Hope you enjoy!
I can’t imagine that anyone could stay Protestant after interviewing Father Josiah! Come home to The Orthodox Church brother!
@@nathanmelton827 Why would he do that when he can cross the Tiber instead?
I LOVE Father Trenham!
I'm pretty sure the whole cross/ dont cross the tiber exchange is a pretty clear illustration of the attitudes Austin was concerned regarding triumphalistic stances that might lack humility. I think we can all do better, don't you?
I can genuinely attest to the fact that the Eastern Orthodox Church is the fullness of Christ church on earth. That do any mean that Christ doesn't act on the hearts of all men or that he is simply absent from places where other Christians gather in His name. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church contains the fullness of His teaching, His true presence and the full wonder working power of the Holy Trinity. May our Lord Bless you all in your walk with Him and in His leading you on the path of Righteousness!
Thanks for sharing!
As a Catholic who recently studied Orthodox chant with a professional cantor I found my interpretation of Gregorian chant radically changed knowing it’s actually heritage. If you interested in this or general early liturgical music please let me know. 😊 Glad you had a positive experience !
Just found your channel as this video came up in my recommended and i love it!! I even let the ads play and didn't skip haha
Wow, thanks!!
God bless you dear brother. May the light of Christ shine in all those around you.
Please dont ever change yr heart about the simplicity of our Lord's Gospel.
Thanks!
Food is usually served after the liturgy so people don't pass out from hunger. We fast from midnight until after the liturgy.
You know, I hadn't thought about all that standing on an empty stomach. That's even more intense!
Gospel Simplicity Hello! Oh no, it’s actually easier to pray standing through the liturgy on an empty stomach, your senses are more “awake”. I started going to church when I was a teenager: at first it was hard to stand through the whole liturgy, I was irritated, but then I listened and observed what was going on, did some research at home and “fell in love”. The vespers is the first part of the service btw, so it’s essential to go on Saturday evening too. The liturgy is the climax, but I like the vespers sooo much, there’s a good bunch of psalms read when all the candles are extinguished , it reminds us of the Last Judgment, then all the candles are lit again and it’s sooo beautiful)) These things are made to help us
OCA and the Antiochian Churches are both very largely non ethno centric, most of the lay people are converts.
Doesn’t matter which. Most of us make due with what is readily available. For some, that means ROCOR, for others, that means GOA. Orthodoxy is such a minority in USA that one cannot be picky.
Thanks for sharing!
@@777Justin true, was just putting it out their so if some people that are put off by the more ethno centric Churches and maybe have multiple Churches nearby could make a decision. My Church is Antiochian, I first went because it was closest, and it's an hour away lol.
@@kenny187ful No biggie, I understand, brother man. For Gospel Simplicity sake, it sounds like OCA would be most likely parish. Are you ready for nativity? I am....not yet. Must consume more steaks...
@@777Justin haha! I’m OCA.
And yes....we actually had steak today. Nativity is coming up fast! (Pun intended).
Glory to God! Very good talk. Added this to my "Orthodox" playlist and am going to listen to your interview with Father Josiah (whom I love) next. I have added you to my prayers, Austin. I hope you continue to find the fullness of Christ which is His Church. ❤️☦️🙏
If you'd ever like to email me you may do so at innocent [at] noelgreen [dot] com
I don't post on RUclips, nor am I on any other "social media". I'm just a layman but I love being available to those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it
I'm roman catholic, but I really appreciate the Eastern liturgy (Catholic and Orthodox) and all its tradition.
In almost all of Brazil it is difficult to find churches of oriental rite. In my entire state there is only one, a Greek Orthodox church (www.ecclesia.org.br/igrejasaonicolau.com/?p=11573 pictures at the end), in which I sometimes participate of the divine liturgy - as a spectator, I am not Orthodox, but the beautiful is beautiful (i don't no if "beautiful" is the right word in english), even if it is not in communion with Rome, they have apostolic succession, so valid sacraments. Very excited about this video!
Hi, my friend. A fellow Brazilian and (Roman) Catholic here!
The Eastern Orthodox are estimated in something between 135.000 - 200.000 people in our country.
So I understand it may be easier to find here churches from Eastern rites that are from “sui iuris” status in full communion with the See of St Peter. For example, both the Maronite Eparchy and the Greek Melkite Eparchy in Brazil (due to the relevant amount of Lebanese and Syrian migrants that came specially to São Paulo) are estimated in more than 400.000 people each, having Eastern rites and being both in full communion with the Apostolic See.
Notice that the Ukranian Catholic (who are estimated in more the 10.000.000 worldwide if I am not mistaken) also have an Archeparchy here, but in Curitiba, Paraná, not São Paulo (the largest city of our country) due to Ukranians having migrated to that region. But they are not as relevant as the Polish, Italian and German migrants who were Roman Catholics in their large majority. That being said, still the Ukranian Catholic Church has a Bishop/Archeparch/Metropolite governing from Curitiba in full communion with the See of Peter. They use the Bizantine rite (the same the Bizantine Orthodox Church uses) but they are not that numerous here to my understandings.
You can see some churches on the Internet:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melkite_Greek_Catholic_Eparchy_of_Nossa_Senhora_do_Para%C3%ADso_em_São_Paulo
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maronite_Catholic_Eparchy_of_Our_Lady_of_Lebanon_of_São_Paulo
pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquieparquia_de_São_João_Batista_em_Curitiba_dos_Ucranianos
Considering specifically the Eastern Orthodox Church that is not in communion with the Holy See, by far the most relevant church is the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of São Paulo and All Brazil, specially because of the Syrian and Lebanese migrants as I previously stated. It is governed by an Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop and they alone are estimated in around 130.000 faithful, almost the entirety of Eastern Orthodox of our country.
pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquidiocese_Ortodoxa_Antioquina_de_São_Paulo_e_Todo_o_Brasil
The largest Eastern Orthodox building in Brazil is the beautiful neo-bizantine Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral in São Paulo (I have visited it once and it is for sure worth visiting. It was inspired in the monumental Hagia Sofia, pride of the East):
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_Metropolitana_Ortodoxa
Greetings, my brother!
Sim, eu acho que beautiful é a palavra que se usa para falar disto
Icons in orthodoxy have practical meaning: unlike frescos, icons should help to concentrate one’s prayer
Thanks!
Besides we do not venerate the icons as a piece of wood as I noticed in Latin tradition, but we venerate a Saint or Christ or His Mother depicted in it.. the icon is a window to Heaven. That's why the reverted perspective is used to paint them..
Hey, I love your channel! While I am a roman catholic, if there's any other religion I'd consider converting to first it would be the Orthodox! There really is something special about their churches and about their liturgy. Make church beautiful again! =)
Fellow Roman Catholic here! If you love the Orthodox liturgy my friend, do not forget that we have Eastern Catholic Churches that do it as well!
It is beautiful
@@johnvictorroderos8842 yea I'm from India..I once visited in Kerala a Syrian malabar rite...a church build by st Thomas himself...using Aramaic language .....which is in full communion with rome..
@@hriata5384 Awesome! I would love to attend a mass/liturgy there one day! (R.C)
@@davidodoherty8494 sure do..
The icons are forever blessed. They serve as a window to the unseen realm, and help us to guide our prayers in the right direction. ☦️
Thanks!
@Bishop Angaelos fake account
"People aren't just looking for a Sunday morning experience, but for a community to be a part of." YES, YES, YES. I'm still Protestant like you and feel the same way about everything you said especially this point. And I want a community that really cares for people including the poor and marginalized. Many Protestant churches with young families these days are strong on the intellectual word, but it's hard to see their love for outsiders. It seems to me a lot of "outsiders" have found a home in the EO church, and I'm very thankful for that.
Amen. The church must care for its community and the community at large
As an orthodox Christian it made me so happy seeing your video and your good intentions(καλή προαίρεση, in Greek) and openness to learn!🤗 Sorry for my bad English. Because of that I cant express exactly what I wanted to, but anyway I'll pray to God for you to show you His will! Greetings from a friend in Greece! You just got a new subscriber 🌞💙
If you're interested you should search for father Efraim of Arizona! He was a graceful man! He was spiritual child of the elder Joseph of Hesychast, for whom a film has recently been made. Hope I helped! 😊
Thanks so much for the kind words and recommendation!
I am really so very appreciative of this work and all the effort you put into it despite being a full-time student. I am learning so much from your exploration. I do not know that there is any Orthodox church in the entire Caribbean region where I live, so I am really happy to learn of it here. Thanks again!
Glad you're enjoying the videos! God bless!
I appreciate your understanding of communion of saints on earth and in heaven. Its simply like missing a loved ones like a wife or a parent who may have passed away. We sometimes missed them so much that we actually have a picture of them in our wallets or on the wall of our room. We looked at them, maybe talk to them, coz we missed them, and even asked for their intercession. We believe they are with God already and are continuously offerring our prayers to Him as told in Revelation.. We asked our brethren on earth to pray for us, how much more we can asked the saints in heaven. And its a great way of telling our children about them. Ain't that woderful! God bless.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts!
@Phillip Hickman A false gospel?? Not just with errors but an actual false gospel?
A very harsh judgement to make who are you and who do you represent?
@Phillip Hickman I now know you represent a smaller sect of american/anglo saxon christians who do not even acknowledge that roman catholics or orthodox christian but regards them as false religions.
Amidst the great persecution of christians in the world this rhetoric further divides us when the lord prayed for unity.
It's strange because in a country like Hungary there are both catholics, orthodox and protestants and while they consider each other to have errors they still acknowledge each other as brothers in Christ who doesn't have a complete "False gospel" but in the USA one christian is another ones enemy
It's fine you believe they have errors but this belief that they are false religions forces you to believe only a false gospel existed prior to the reformation.
I am a student of church history, and the countless types of newer protestant theologies and interpretations of scripture DIDNT exist prior to the reformation.
Everyone was either catholic or orthodox after the schism or exceptionally minor part was coptics, assyrian church of the east etc. In practice very similar to orthodoxy.
In the first four hundred years of christian history the bible wasn't canonized and formed into a single book.
God used the church to form the bible
Did God use an apostate church to assemble the bible?
Look at the church fathers and see the similarity between them, catholicism, orthodoxy or even tradicional lutheranism.
You can't ignore the people God used to assemble the bible - even if you disagree with them, they can't be complete heretics because that would mean God used heretics to assemble the holy bible.
Please stop this exagerated rhetoric. You can disagree with Rome and Constantinople without condemning them in this manner
@Phillip Hickman It seems to be really important to you that orthodox and catholics know that they are not elect. I'm curious why that is. Surely no matter what arguments you make, they can have no effect on whether a person is elect or damned. Even if they change their minds, go to your church and believe exactly as you do, that all makes no difference to whether or not a person is elect or damned. So what are you trying to achieve here? Why bait people for arguments on RUclips? It achieves nothing but sowing discord.
@Phillip Hickman I can tell that you are really concerned for these people and their souls. However, like I said previously, if as you say, God alone elects the elect and damns the damned, then nothing I or you or anyone can do can enable damned to become elect. Therefore if there are people in those churches who are elect, then likewise, neither the church they attend, nor anything we say or don't say can impair their election. Unfortunately, we can, by our words and approaches, to others cause offense, anger, hatred and disunity.
If I may expand upon the passage you quoted earlier.
"5But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
2 Peter 1.5-11
Serbian Orthodox here
Glad you're here!
@@GospelSimplicity Thanks 😍
CCCC🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
Pozdrav brate
Brother you’re on a journey! I love it! Praying for you brother
I am 66 and was Protestant until only 4 yrs ago. I was so confused. What of the liturgy is prayer and what is hymns. I finally decided, Forget it, it's all just liturgy. Just enjoy it and worship. Love my church!!!
Thanks for sharing!
You picked a fabulous priest and parish to visit! Fr John is incredible. I hope your time learning is blessed!
Thanks!
I went to an Orthodox Divine Liturgy last week as well.
Nice!
How was it, bud?
@@israelgirmay5110 It was definitely interesting. There were no pews, and I didn’t know what they were saying half the time. I’m glad I went though.
@@PockASqueeno Cheers! It would be awesome if you tried to attend an Ethiopian orthodox liturgy. I also recommend Copic. Stay safe, bud!
@Jack Clare Tf? Who are you to say they aren't Orthodox??
Thanks Austin,
While I am a Roman Catholic, I decided to go to a Byzantine Catholic Church Divine Liturgy. It truly was a pleasure to experience the different style of the service. I was constantly reminded of what my choir director said at SJC, “When we are adding music, we are enhancing the prayer.”
Thanks for sharing!
Being Roman and going to a Roman church.
That’s what you just said.
There's such a warmth to Orthodox service !🙏
I did sense that
I'm a former protestant who is now Orthodox. You have given an excellent overview of Orthodoxy from the protestant perspective.
Thank you for your honesty and insight. May God bless you as you continue to seek Him.
God Bless You, Sister!!!
Thanks for sharing!
I'm a romanian orthodox christian, and your video was very well put! Thank you and God bless 🙏
My pleasure!
Awsome to see man, I got Crismated about 2 months ago from evangelical protestantism. I hope to say "welcome home" soon!
Thanks for the encouragement
Godspeed brother!
Love it that you are so young and searching and questioning faiths. it gives me hope for our youth that there is meaning to our lives and there is hope for eternal salvation
Thanks!
You speak with clarity and a true sense of love and community in your heart. Thank you for this, and may we all pray for the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. God bless you all, from an Anglican brother in Christ from Canada. 🇨🇦✝️🕯️
Thank you so much!
Thank you for these videos. Keep it up.
My pleasure!
What a wonderful video! As others in the comments have mentioned, I too am a convert. Raised Catholic, spent nearly 20 years in various Protestant churches then my journey brought me to the Orthodox Faith.
I'm a new subscriber, I want to see more of your videos. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Grateful to have you as a part of the community here at Gospel Simplicity. God bless!
Glory to Jesus Christ! Thanks for your open mind and open heart. God bless you
My pleasure!
That was the first Orthodox church I went to and became cathecumen. Much love to fr John and everyone at CTS. I'm Orthodox now praize God!
That’s interesting, great timing as well since I’m leaving my Baptist church and considering Orthodoxy and Lutheranism.
Very interesting!
@@GospelSimplicity That was my experience just a few years. My first thought was also, "Where are the pews?"
Othodoxy is your soul's choice
Jesus is the church's head,no pope or anything.The fathers only speak His words.
Come to the truth !
Doamne ajuta!
@Bishop Angaelos Stop spamming your fake “prophecy”, you ain’t gonna fool no one.
I have been born in orthodox family, but when I was 17 I found Jesus when I went to Baptist church. Orthodox church puts traditions and church forefathers writings on first place and God and Bible on second. Orthodox Christian are focused on traditional beliefs that have origin in pagan beliefs. If you would take everything that comes from paganism in orthodox church, it wouldn't exist.
I respect that you have the love and openness to enjoy a different church from your own. 🙏🏼
Thanks!
In answer to your concern and apprehension over using the word "hymn": Yes, Hymn is a perfect and correct tern to use in Orthodox Christian worship. "ὕμνος/ Hymnos" is a Greek word meaning "songs of praise".
Thanks!
Beautiful video, Austin - thank you! I have both immediate family and close friends in Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches and appreciate your efforts to foster more unity, love, understanding, and dialogue. Each part of the body of Christ has been entrusted with priceless treasures to be shared with all. We all have much to learn. God bless you!
I very much enjoyed this. I have never attended an Orthodox Church liturgy before. I have seen short video pieces on them on the nightly news when the Orthodox celebrate Christmas, Good Friday which I believe they call Great Friday if, I recall correctly, and their Easter.I would love to experience the Orthodox liturgy myself, after watching this video of your first experience. And look forward to your upcoming videos on the Orthodox Church. Sung liturgies I believe help draw people into the divine takes ones mind off the promblems going on in the world, and promblems in ones own life and focus ones attention on the divine opening one up to encounter the Lord . We need a different experience in church then we experience in our daily life. Always look forward to your videos.
Try visiting your nearby Orthodox Church bro... You will want more and more... Experience is that matters as it is written:Come and see.. His bless you
Easter is pascha
God bless you. You come with an open mind and an open heart and the Spirit Who is Love spoke to you.
Thanks!
I appreciate your exploration of liturgical churches. We Catholics consider the Orthodox to be true churches with valid sacraments conferring grace unlike the protestants. There are also 23 other Catholic churches that use the eastern rite litirgies aside from the Roman or Latin rite. I have to admit, the easterners have more otherworldly liturgies than what we Latin Catholics have. Our Latin rite is more rigid. While the some Orthodox believe we Catholics left them, we Catholics believe it's more like it's was a mutual separation. No one left anyone, we just parted ways due to cultural and political reasons.
It's important not to gloss over the theological differences between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, especially the ones that developed before 1054 and the ones that aren't relevant to politics or culture. To reduce it to politics and culture is actually derogatory in some sense because what's being said is that the teachings, dogma, and ecclesiology that their Fathers, Mothers, saints, hierarchs, and forebears devoted their lives to defending - sometimes under persecution or even death in some cases - weren't actually that serious and were just a matter of cultural quirks like beards and funny hats or [petty] political disputes. I'm not saying this is what you mean at all, just drawing out the implication of that idea that I've seen repeated a lot.
Plus, when you consider the cultural and political diversity and tension of the Eastern Christian world, that doesn't really hold up. Then when you think about theology and praxis, the Eastern Orthodox is actually much closer to the Oriental Orthodox despite breaking schisming in centuries before the East-West Schism.
Plus, up until Vatican II, no Pope would have seen the East-West break as simply being over politics and culture
The main reason for the split was over authority. Pope vs Patriarchs.
Thanks!
@@geneparadiso6258 Similarly, this isn't untrue, but it's a simplification of the matter. The fall-out was more about what authority means for both sides and what this implies for the Church as well as what this means for unity and doctrine. Not coming down on one side or the other, but it definitely wasn't just old men fighting over who's in charge (well, there was a little bit of that lol)
Fascinating...more rigid? Theologically, you mean? Because in practice, the Orthodox Church lives their faith much more. Latin rite monastics don't fast with the same rigor as lay people in Orthodoxy...
Thanks so much Austin.👌 The interesting thing is the Catholic Church employs various Eastern liturgies through the Eastern Catholic churches.
My pleasure!
Malayali 🙋
Just wanted to recommended visiting the Shrine of Christ the King and meeting the Canons of the Institute of Christ the King. I think you will enjoy speaking with them.
Thanks!
The Orthodox cathedral in my town has pews. You are called to stand for liturgy, but the pews are there for spacing and those who need to sit.
Good to know!
The Orthodox Church really makes me feel that my soul is hungering for salvation and longs to commune with Jesus. I am curious about protestantism in a sense and always wonder why they seem to reject so much of the Church’s history? i love and respect my protestant brothers and was only asking out of curiosity. I do believe they are Christians who love and accept Jesus as their Lord amd Savior but I just can’t wrap my head around the countless denominations. I wonder why they branched off so many times after the Reformation?
Former protestant here. I love them as well, but the founders of their faith, the reformers unfortunately and sadly believed a demonic lie, that THEY could reform the Church. That's a lie. Nor Christ, nor the Holy Spirit departed from the Church, and it is an aberration to believe that you can create a Church according to your own interpretation of texts that were only meant to be properly interpreted and utilized by the Church to begin with! That is why there is a fracturing among them, because it testifies of the humanly-lead organizations that they lead. I love them, but I cannot affirm their practices or ways because ultimately I believe it works against the Church and ultimately against God.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I think the reason for a lot of the splintering is sola scriptura. While this wasn't it's intended purpose, it easily leads to division as it allows people to individually judge tradition
@@GospelSimplicity If they have the Holy Spirit, why does the Holy Spirit tell them each something different but to all the Orthodox only says the same unchanging thing regardless of time or place?
Former Protestant that converted to Orthodoxy. I did not know Christ when I was a Protestant. I didn’t began to learn about him how to worship him how to keep his commandments how to Glorify him how to pray to him how to seek him first until after I converted. May the Lord keep me for this journey.
I'm glad you found it meaningful. I came to the EOC after years of serving in music ministry in non-denom churches. Total burnout. I found the EOC to be like water to my thirsty soul. And while I don't wholly embrace everything about it, it's become my home. The Divine Liturgy, the icons, candles, incense, music, chant, etc. all point to the transcendence of a Holy God. But the death and resurrection of Jesus is paramount. Have you gone to a Saturday Vespers service? They are so beautiful, so calming.
Thanks for sharing some of your story! I haven't yet
I'm a catechumen in Greek Orthodoxy (I think. Baptized as a baby, but never chrismated). My priest and the whole congregation have been so welcoming, warm, and loving. And the Liturgy is mesmerizing. I really feel a stronger connection to Christ than I ever had before. This church feels alive.
Part of the reason we chant the readings is to keep the reader from adding their own inflection or emphasis to scripture. When the Church started, most of Her followers were illiterate, so they needed to have Scripture read to them. Reading it to them in chant allows the faithful to absorb Scripture as closely to reading it themselves as possible.
Similarly, the icons have an entire convention on how to “read” them. Many icons are not just of one person, but of an entire scene. Different colors, where someone appears on the icon, how they appear, animals, domes, birds, angels - they all help tell a story on an icon, and looking at the icon could help illiterate faithful to remember a story or a lesson. Icons are almost their own little books - in fact, most people don’t say that icons are “painted” but that they are “written.”
Really excited that so many Protestants are beginning to look into the Ancient Faith (and that the Orthodox Churches in the US have become a LOT more welcoming and less ethnocentric).
Also, there are Eastern “particular” Catholic Churches (I actually grew up in a Byzantine Catholic Church before converting to Orthodoxy) that have basically the same theology, and even celebrate the same liturgies, and take the Sacrament the same way as the Orthodox Church
That's really interesting to know!
You pretty much nailed it in this great video. Enjoyed it immensely.
Thanks! I'm so glad to hear that!
@Gospel Simplicity, there is a practical reason why almost everything, including the readings, is either sung or chanted. Orthodox services very much predate the invention of microphones, so if you had a large Church building, chanting the Gospel reading meant that everyone would be able to actually hear it. And unlike what happened in the Western Church where eventually the Mass was all in Latin and the ordinary people didn't always understand it, the Orthodox always tried to have our services "in the language of the people", so Greek for Greek speakers, Church Slavonic for Slavs, etc.
And of course, since beautiful music developed around these things, they were kept even after microphones were invented. "Orthodox" doesn't just mean "right doctrine", but more properly in terms of the Orthodox Church means "right glory" or "right worship". When the missionaries to the Slavs had to translate the Greek word Orthodox, they chose to go with Pravoslavne "right glory".
Huh, never would have thought of that. Makes sense!
Because Divine Liturgy is the meeting of Heaven with earth, and the laity find themselves standing among the Seraphim and the Cherubim and the Thrones before God, and Angels do not merely speak, they sing and chant to the glory of God, "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord Sabaoth, Heaven and Earth are full of Thy Glory!" (Isaiah 6,1-7)
Moses was a hymnographer, and taught the people to chant in the Tabernacle:
"And Moses wrote this song in that day, and taught it to the children of Israel; and Moses went in and spoke all the words of this law in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Naue." (Deuteronomy 32,44 LXX)
Psalm is the Greek word for chant. If you are familiar with the Psalms, you will recognize that the Divine Liturgy is made up almost entirely of verses from the Psalms, with only a few later alternating hymns added in specific places.
Hi I am new here . I am orthodox and I would like to tell you that you seem to be a very honest person and I really liked your description of the hole thing . I really wish you all the best
Thank you so much! Glad to have you here
"Ethnocentric" churches are important for us who are out of our countries of origin. I went to OCA or Greek or Russian churches but always I long for Serbian language in service. That is why we started to use local languages long time ago in first place and not only greek, latin or hebrew. Because it feels closer to us. You want english because it is your native language and you see us who do not use it ethnocentric, but actually I can say the same thing for OCA english services. They just do not feel natural to me as greek, serbian, georgian, etc. do not feel natural to you. But anyway, nice video.
Thanks for sharing this perspective. I really appreciate that
@@GospelSimplicity Yes the ethnic churches in this country reflect the diversity of America. It's not factionalism. It can get that way, but that's always sinful and against Orthodoxy. Greeks are not superior to Russians, nor Russians to Serbs, nor Serbs to Americans. This is all one Church.
I go to an Orthodox church where I'm not of the predominant ethnicity (Russian), and I love it. The people aren't purposefully ethnocentric, it's just the history of the church. I get to find out about a new culture and food prep, and the food is fantastic. Compare this to the less ethnocentric Roman Catholic church nearby, awful kinda generic-American food, probably as a compromise due to the many ethnicities. Ditto on crafts. I don't care if my church goes from being 80% ethnic Russian to 0%, but I do really hope that we'd keep to the various Russian traditions that were established by our forebearers rather than descend into the generic American muck / Standard American Diet (SAD) that is causing so many people around the world serious health problems.
@@Ioannikios174 Well said. As a Serb from Serbia, I am amazed by the way people from other cultures become Orthodox, especially in USA where you have great variety of choices, thus probably being hard to even hear about Orthodoxy. We who are born in Orthodox "environment" often forget the gift we are given by our birth and often disregard it, mostly in terms of discipline in prayers, going to liturgy, fasting, ... I really do feel that Orthodox Christianity is the only path to God and once you experience it, things like nation don`t matter.
@@Lionzvezdara78 it matters ,we as Orthodox nations have a bit different role historically ,but of course individual converts also have a chance of Salvation 😊
I really enjoyed your video. I was raised in an African Baptist Church, which focuses on singing and dancing in a rhythmic fashion that's not much different from a club. And even the sermon was completely of the world. Nothing more than the pastor's interpretation of the scripture to popular culture. And it was of the world so much, that by the time I was old enough to make the decision that I no longer wanting to attend service, not going was a no brainer. Because even though my belief in Christ and GOD was firm, I didn't see the need of the church to further promote my faith. But I married a unbelievably beautiful and faithful Serbian woman who introduced me to the Orthodox faith and it completely change my prospective on both true faith and the purpose of the church. It's like you so elegantly put, when I go to church, I am able to leave the standards and behaviors of the world outside. Which has made Church an avenue that allows me to escape the functions of our day to day existence and search for who I am in my most faithful self! Sure, nothing that contains some element of human interaction is incorrupt. But the Orthodox Church is the closest to the PERFECTION of Christ
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your experience!
I would love to chat when you're available to do so. Let me know please. Thank You and GOD Bless
I appreciate your willingness to understand and experience other perspectives and theology. As an Orthodox Christian, I can understand how the statement that we're the original Church can appear arrogant or be difficult for people of other confessions to process. What keeps us humble as Orthodox, or what should, is that while yes, this is the original Church, we who have inherited the Church have done absolutely nothing to make it that way. It isn't through our personal actions or attributes that the Church is what it is. Additionally, we have the duty to be stewards of the Church and pass down the Church to other generations exactly as it has always been. Finally, we have the remembrance that simply because our Church is the original and does not need change, that does not at all apply to us simply because we are Orthodox Christians. We do not consider ourselves (or shouldn't) as being above everyone else. I think that may be part of what's meant by the statement that we humbly claim to be Christ's Church.
Regarding ethnocentrism, I can also see how that can seem to be a downfall or struggle within our Church. As a Greek Orthodox Christian and as a Greek American, I've grown up understanding how some cultures have become so irrevocably intertwined with Orthodoxy that to belong to a culture means to be Orthodox and vice versa. There are many predominantly Orthodox countries who have retained the faith despite centuries of violence and oppression. Countless holy martyrs have resulted from this. In addition to being persecuted for their faith for centuries, the persecution of Orthodox Christians has often extended to being forbidden to speak one's own native language. In such cases, the Church has helped people retain their language and has helped preserve some of the original languages in which holy texts were written. Simply because certain parishes have a majority of a certain ethnicity, maintain ethnic ties, or honor cultural traditions, or just because a parish uses more than one language, that does not mean that others aren't welcome or that we believe Orthodoxy is exclusive to us. Christ's Church and His teachings are more important than anything. It would simply be painful for many of us, me included, to forget where we came from and the sacrifices that were made so that current generations can continue to inherit the Church all over the world. This also serves as a reminder for me and for many others of what we should be willing to do, as well. This is long-winded, but thank you for your videos and your perspective. God bless you.
Wow, what a lovely comment! Thanks for taking the time to write all of this!
God bless you, Bog ti pomogao 😊
You as well!
ruclips.net/video/1O_7UlcU9FM/видео.html
take a look at this, orthodox liturgy in orthodox monastery "Tumane" Serbia, best regards 😊