One sees so many, and of such different variety! It must be understood first of all that names like Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, etc. are all names for one and the same Church with one and the same faith and practice. Of course within these churches there are cultural differences which do not touch the essence of the faith as such. Sometimes the Orthodox Church is also called the Eastern Orthodox Church, or the Oriental Church, or the Christian

In America it must be noticed that the new autocephalous (self-governing) Church which used to be the Russian Orthodox Church of America is now simply called the Orthodox Church in America.

4. "This leads one to think of Orthodoxy as a very loosely organized body. How is the Orthodox Church organized and how is it held together as one worldwide Church?"

The Orthodox Church as a whole is the unity of what are called local autocephalous or autonomous churches. These words mean simply that these churches govern themselves, electing their own bishops and organizing their own lives. Each of these churches has exactly the same doctrine, discipline and spiritual practices. They use the same Bible, follow the same canon laws, confess the authority of the same Church Councils and worship by what is essentially the same liturgy. It is nothing other than this communion in faith and practice which unites all Orthodox Churches together into one world-wide body. In this sense, there is no one dominating authority in the Orthodox Church, no particular bishop or see or document which has authority over the churches. In practice, the Church of Constantinople has functioned for centuries as the church responsible for guiding and preserving the worldwide unity of the family of self-governing Orthodox Churches. But it must be noticed that this responsibility is merely a practical and pastoral one. It carries no sacramental or juridical power with it and it is possible that in the future this function may pass to some other church.

5. "What about all of those titles then: Patriarch, Metropolitan, Archbishop, Bishop? What does all of this mean?"

In Orthodoxy, the bishop is the leading church officer, and all bishops have exactly the same sacramental position in guiding the people of God. A bishop of a large and important area of leadership (usually called a diocese) may be called archbishop or metropolitan, the latter meaning simply the bishop of a chief city, a metropolis.

The patriarch is the bishop of the most important city and diocese in a local church and is normally the leading bishop of a country (patria means country). This is especially the case when within the self-governing church of which the Patriarch is primate there are other bishops with metropolitan sees. For example, in Russia the bishop of Moscow is the patriarch; the bishops of Kiev and Leningrad are metropolitans; and there are other archbishops and bishops within the local church. However, once again, it cannot be over stressed that all bishops, regardless of their title or the size and importance of their diocese, are identically equal with regard to their sacramental position. None is higher or greater than the other; none rules over another.

6. "Speaking about the clergy, what are the clerical offices in the Orthodox Church and what is their significance?"

The Orthodox Church has the three classical Christian offices: bishop, priest (or presbyter) and deacon. The bishop is the highest office since the bishop is the one responsible to guide the life of the church, to guard the faith and to preserve the unity of the churchly body in truth and love. Bishops are traditionally taken from the monks, and by a regulation dating from the 6th century, must be unmarried. A widowed priest or any unmarried man can be elected to the office of bishop. The priests (or presbyters) carry on the normal pastoral functions in the Church and lead the local parish communities. They are usually married men. They must be married prior to their ordination and are not allowed to marry once in the priestly state. Single priests or widowers may marry but in this case, they are no longer allowed to function in the ministry. At the present time, the diaconate in the Church is usually a step to the priesthood, or else it exists solely as a liturgical ministry. The deacon may also be a married man, with the same conditions as those for the married priesthood.

7. "You mentioned monks. Does the Orthodox Church have monks and nuns?"

There are both monks and nuns in Orthodoxy, and monasticism has traditionally played a very important role in the life of the Orthodox Church. The monastic men and women in Orthodoxy are usually restricted to monasteries and do not normally participate in the active ministry of the Church. This is so since the monastic vocation of contemplation and prayer is considered to be a unique calling quite different from that of being a pastor, teacher, nurse, or social worker. Normally the monastic vocation is a lay vocation with each monastery having just one or two priests to care for the sacramental life of the community. In America there are few well-functioning monastic communities. In the old world, however, recent years have seen a renewal of monasticism particularly among the more educated members of the Church.

8. "Your explanation until now makes the Orthodox Church look like a highly clerical body with strong hierarchal control. What about the laymen in the Church? Do they have a role?"

First of all, it has to be understood that all members of the Church are full members, each with his own calling and responsibility. The clergy are those members who have a special service within the body, and not over it or apart from it. They are chosen from the people and are ordained within the community with the special sacramental function to lead and to care for the life of the faithful. The clergy, however, are in no way infallible. They also have no "personal" rights or powers. Their entire service is organically carried on in and for the Church. If they fail in their service and prove themselves unworthy, they may be challenged by the lay people and by procedures clearly indicated in church laws they may be removed from their ministry. There are many examples in Orthodox Church history when lay people have preserved the Christian Faith in opposition to unworthy hierarchs. Also it must be seen that there are conciliar bodies on every level of church life in which lay people participate. The majority of theologians and teachers in the Orthodox Church, as well as church administrators and workers of various sorts, are lay people and not clergymen. Thus, although the clergy have their own particular function of leadership, and that by sacramental grace and not merely by human choice or selection, the lay people have their functions as well. All, however, are responsible for the integrity of the Church. This traditional Orthodox position has the official confirmation of the famous Encyclical Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1848. In this letter it is clearly expressed that the entire body of the Church is the bearer of the Orthodox Faith and Life, with each member bearing full responsibility before God and men for Christian unity in the truth and Love of God. Thus if we can speak about any infallibility at all, or of any power or authority, it must belong to God who lives and acts in all of His People, led by the sacramental hierarchy.

9. "You talk about the Church as unity in the truth and love of God. What do you mean by this?"

We Orthodox believe that the life of the Church is life in communion with God Himself, in the Truth and Love of Christ, by the Holy Spirit. We believe that Christ is the Son of God. We believe that He reveals the truth about God and man. We believe that we can know this truth by the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, that He gives to us. The greatest truth shown to us by Christ is that God is Love, and that the only true way of living is by following Christ who called Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Christ gave the great commandment and the great example of perfect love. Thus the greatest truth is love. This is our conclusion. And life in this truth which is love, is the life of faith, the life of the Orthodox Church. Of course there are deviations and betrayals and sins all around. Clergy and laymen alike are guilty. But the Church itself, despite the sins of its members, is still the union with the Truth and Love of God given to men in Jesus Christ,  made present and accessible in the Holy Spirit, who lives in those who believe.

10. "You will have to be more specific than. You called Christ the Son of God. This is a common phrase. What do you actually mean by it?"

The faith of the Orthodox Church is that Jesus Christ is fully human, that He is a real man. But we believe as well that Jesus is not a "mere man," but that He is the eternal, divine Son of God. By this we mean that from all eternity, before the creation of everything that exists, God Himself existed without beginning, in a manner incomprehensible to men, completely outside the bounds of time and space. In this perfection of divine existence, God the Father always had with Himself His divine Son and His Holy Spirit. Both the Son and the Spirit are exactly what God the Father is, namely perfect, unchanging, every-existing, timeless, spaceless, beyond human comprehension, etc. In a word, whatever can be said or understood about God the Father can be said and understood about the Son (also called the Word, Logos, Wisdom, and Image of God) and the Holy Spirit. Thus there are Three who are divine, each being what the other is and each being in perfect union and unity with the other. These are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: the Holy Trinity. Now we believe that it is the eternally divine and perfect Son of God who was born as a man from the Virgin Mary and lived on the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (Christ) of Israel and the Savior of the world.

Thus it is the Orthodox faith that Jesus is fully human and fully divine; the Son of God and the Son of Man, one and the same Son. As the unique divine-human person, Jesus saves the world by teaching the absolute truth of God; by forgiving the evils of  all men and the whole world; by suffering and dying in innocence, voluntarily and unjustly on the cross in order to be with all who suffer and die; by rising from the dead in a new and glorified form; by taking our humanity to God in order to make it divine forever; and by sending the Holy Spirit of God to men who believe so that they could teach and do the very things which Jesus Himself both taught and did...that they could, in a word, be sons of God in Him.

11. "You talk as if only the Orthodox who believe these things can be saved. What about other Christians and all other men in the world?"

In the first place it must be made clear that it is not enough for anyone merely to believe these things, or merely to be a formal member of the Church. In order to be saved one must live by the truth and love of God. It is the common teaching of the Orthodox Christian tradition that the Church has no monopoly on grace and truth and love. The Church teaches on the contrary that God is the Sovereign Lord who saves those whom He wills. The Church believes as well that salvation depends upon the actual life of the person, and God alone is capable of judging since He alone knows the secrets of each mind and heart. Only God is capable of judging how well a man lives according to the measure of grace, faith, understanding, and strength given to him.

The Orthodox would insist, nevertheless, that an honest seeker of truth and love will see these things perfectly realized and expressed in Jesus Christ and will recognize God, the end of their seeking, in Him. We all know, however, that our image of Christ is deformed both by the lives and the doctrines of those who claim him, and thus His truth and love and His very person remain obscure and hidden to those who might follow Him if they could see Him clearly. But once again, let it be clear that every man is judged by God alone according to the actual truth and love in his life. This goes for Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. And although the Orthodox confess that the fulness of truth and love is found in the life of the church, nominal church membership or formal assent to some doctrines does not at all guarantee salvation.

12. "You have mentioned Christ, the Holy Spirit and God the Father. Can you say something more about the Trinity?"

According to the Orthodox teaching, God is always and forever unknowable and incomprehensible to creatures. Even in the eternal life of the Kingdom of God -- heaven , as we say -- men will never know the essence of God, that is, what God really is in Himself. But we believe and confess that God the "ineffable, inconceivable, incomprehensible, ever-existing God," to use the words of the Orthodox liturgy, has made Himself known to creatures. He has revealed Himself in the creation of man and the world, in the Old Testament Law and the Prophets, and fully and perfectly in Christ through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church. In every way that God reveals Himself, He does so through His Son (or Word-Logos) and through the Holy Spirit. It is the same Son and Spirit through whom God made the world, through whom God revealed Himself in the Old Testament, through whom God enlightens and makes alive every man in the world ... that come to us personally in the New Testament Church. The Son comes as a man in the person of Jesus Christ -- we have discussed this already. The Spirit comes to those who believe in Christ in order to make them sons of God in Him. Thus we have always and everywhere God the Father, the Son of God who comes as Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In the Orthodox Church we confess that these three are not three competitive gods, divided, and separated from each other. On the contrary we believe that the Father, who is the Source of all that exists, always has His Son and His Spirit who are not creatures, Who were not made like everything and everyone else, but Who exist eternally with Him; from, in and by His very own divine being. Thus what God the Father is, the Son and the Holy Spirit also are, namely: eternal, perfect, good, wise, holy, timeless, spaceless ... divine and worthy of the title GOD. We believe as well that each of the three divine persons is divine in his own unique way, yet always living and acting in the perfectly absolute unity of the divine truth and love. Thus the Three are one not only because what they are is one and the same, but because their divine union allows of no separation or duality or division whatsoever.

We must hasten to point out here that the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Trinity is not an "abstract dogma" thought up by some clever minds. It is the expression on the level of words -- which are always and of necessity inadequate to reality -- of the loving experience of God in the Church. The doctrine of the Trinity is the product of man's living communion with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Excerpted from the Orthodox Church in America, 2001.