(russian, greek, etc) orthodox christians of ish?

[RainierBeachPoet]

i got a tour of st demetrious' greek orthodox church in seattle last night and was in awe of the iconography which is so much a part of the orthodox faith. their theology really flows from their prayer/liturgy

are there any orthodox christians out there in the otc?

anyone had any experience with the orthodox church?

[How Come?]

Yeah I'm Greek orthodox. Hardly go to church though only around Easter

[Sharas]

my father is from an orthodox family, but he's an atheist just like me.

however, i've got a decent knowledge on the topic, so if you want to know something, fire on.

[bada bing]

what does the orthodox church believe will happen at end of times? Do they believe the same thing the evangelicals believe in? The whole israel thing?

[Thorpesaurous]

I lived in Europe for a few years after college. Prague mostly. But when we first got there we landed in Spain, and railed to southern France, northern Italy (I swear I'm the only guy in the world who's ever been to Italy and not to Rome). Spent a little time on the northwestern coast of Greece, again, not exactly a tourist spot, then headed north toward the former Czech Republic. We saw a ton of churches. We stopped at almost everything, and even left Prague once we were there to see some in Germany. Belief stirs up incredible art, and even as an athiest myself, visiting the churches was among my favorite things about my time there.

[Sharas]

what does the orthodox church believe will happen at end of times? Do they believe the same thing the evangelicals believe in? The whole israel thing?

well, i aren't familiar with what the evangelicals believe in:lol

but i think orthodox view on the apocalypse and the end of times is mostly "traditional", just like in catholicism.

[RainierBeachPoet]

however, i've got a decent knowledge on the topic, so if you want to know something, fire on.

do people see membership in the church as being part of being greek? how much is culturally/socially influenced?

[Sharas]

well, for most part they do.

greeks are generally a nation extremely proud of their past and cultural heritage, often even to the point of nationalism and xenophobia. and church is a very significant part of that heritage.
also, there are very few non-greeks living in greece, cultural and religious minorities are really very few numbered in comparison to most european countries.

so yeah, you can say church is very important to them, and it is interwoven with culture greatly.

[Horde of Temujin]

nai emai greek orthodox, the majority of worshippers are greek but the church welcomes anyone,

[Horde of Temujin]

i used to live in seattle area and i went to that church a couple of times, very nice, dont they have a festival around this time of year?

[Horde of Temujin]

what does the orthodox church believe will happen at end of times? Do they believe the same thing the evangelicals believe in? The whole israel thing?

yeah they do, its kind of creepy though if you think about the recreation of israel coninciding with globalization, the emergence of china and russia

[ALBballer]

well, for most part they do.

greeks are generally a nation extremely proud of their past and cultural heritage, often even to the point of nationalism and xenophobia. and church is a very significant part of that heritage.
also, there are very few non-greeks living in greece, cultural and religious minorities are really very few numbered in comparison to most european countries.

so yeah, you can say church is very important to them, and it is interwoven with culture greatly.

That's because Greece fails to recognize any of their minorities and claim to be completely homogeneous. But I won't turn this into a political thread.


do people see membership in the church as being part of being greek? how much is culturally/socially influenced?

From my experience, modern Greek culture has great attachment with Orthodoxy (is that even a word?) Basically you can't be Greek without being Orthodox. And all one has to do is look at their flag to see how religion plays a role in Greece (their cross represents Greek orthodoxy).

I would even go as far as saying they value their religion as much as they do their ethnicity (maybe even more for some.) Meaning someone of Orthodox faith would be well accepted in Greek society, yet they could have little culture resemblance to the Greek culture (besides religion.) But a Muslim Turk or Muslim from South Albania could be more culturally similar to Greek , but would have a harder time fitting into Greek society.

[gigantes]

side note: a little something for the hardcore, perhaps.


http://img.izismile.com/img/img7/20140627/640/daily_picdump_1567_640_36.jpg

[BasedTom]

Orthodox and Catholics all built the most beautiful cathedrals and cities.

Nobody else even comes close.

[KevinNYC]

Orthodoxy (is that even a word?)

Yes. It's a word that doesn't even necessarily apply to religion. You can speak of punk rock as na orthodoxy.

[BasedTom]

Im Serbian Orthodox.

Orthodoxy and Catholicism are very similar. Theyre the two oldest Chrisitian Churches in the world in fact. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Romans moved their capital from Rome to Constantinople (Modern day Istanbul) in the face of growing Germanic Pagan attack. They consolidated power through Christianity and slowly Constantinople became as powerful as Rome once was.

Eventually the Germans adapted Christianity aswell, and took control of Rome and created "The Holy Roman Empire" while the old Romans who had moved to Constantinople called their Empire the "Byznantine Empire". The only real difference between the two at the time was that Greek was the language of the East, and Latin was the language of the West. Slowly a power struggle began with the Western Empire trying to relive the old glory days of Rome by claiming their city was the spiritual home of Christianity because thats where the Pope resided. The Eastern Empire didnt respect the pope and claimed that he had no jurisdiction because their was no representative of God on Earth besides Jesus. And that the reason why the Empire split in half and became what is now considered the Orthodox East and the Catholic West. The Orthodox dont believe in the Pope.

Anyways Orthodoxy is very important to the Orthodox countries because most of us where under enslavement by the Turkish Muslim Empire for 600 years. Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Egyption Coptics, Armenians etc were unable to practice their religion in peace for centuries after the Ottomon Turks took control of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We were heavily taxed, and our countries where further destabilised by members of society adapting the Muslim faith so they wouldnt be (eg. Bosnian-Muslims). Alot of the Orthodox hate the Catholic Church with a passion because they believe they let down the whole Christian world by not fighting till the end to protect the Byzantine Empire during the Crusades.

Alot of us look towards Russia as our savior because after Constantinople fell to the Muslims, the newly chosen capital for Christianity became Moscow. Essentially the only country who were regularly fighting against the Muslims non-stop for 500 years was the Russian Empire. This is why Russia is considered the "Third Roman Empire" (After Ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire) and the ruler was called the Tsar (The Slavic way of saying Caeser).


PS. Interesting note about the Ottamon Muslim-Turkish Empire. Every five years they would travel throughout their dominions and take away the oldest son from each Christian Serb, Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian family (If they were under the age of 15). These kids would be sent to Istanbul and trained to become the elite fighting force of the Sultan and the Empire ; called the Jannisaries. They would be converted to Islam, educated, and taught how to fight. This means when ever their was an uprising or discontent throughout the Empire, the Turks would send their Jannisaries to fight against their own families, knowing full well the local Christians did not want to fight and kill their own stolen children. Some of these Jannasaries would go on to become leading figures in the Ottamon Empire, including two who would become Grand Viziers (Second in command after the Sultan).
As I understand it, the Byzantine people always considered themselves Romans, and viewed their nation as the same one as the one that had Julius Caesar, Augustus, etc. We use the term "Byzantine Empire" to make a distinction- and it is clear that the Eastern Roman Empire had developed a much different culture. After a certain time, the culture was much, much more Greek than Latin.

Catholics couldn't save the Byzantines because
1. The Catholic were anything but united. There were frequent disputes between the Pope and in between the rulers of certain kingdoms/duchies, etc.
2. The Catholics were much more interested in Jerusalem and the Levant, and they couldn't even hold on to that.
3. The Byzantines and Catholics didn't care about each other at best. The Byzantines didn't make any efforts to help out the Catholics when the Muslims pushed through Iberia until they were stopped by Martel at Tours. They didn't help when the Nordics raided Ireland, the British Isles, Normandy- if anything, they were in league with the Pagans from the Norse (see: The Varangian Guard)

a part of why the orthodox didn't do anything for the catholics is the same reason why the catholics didn't save the orthodox. They had their own troubles and disputes.

4. The Byzantines didn't even appeal for help until it was far too late. The Battle of Manzikert was a decisive victory for the Turks. It wasn't until Alexios Komnemos had the wisdom to see that there was no chance to win alone without aid from the West. This triggered the Crusades, which had mixed results.

The Fourth Crusade, in which Constantinople was sacked by the Crusaders, was backed and organized heavily by the Venetians, but because the Latins could not meet the financial burden, the Venetians demanded that they carry out raids on Orthodox Port cities owned by the Byzantines (economic rivals of the Venetians). This culminated with the sack of Constantinople- it was the actions of French crusaders under the Venetians. The Pope did not authorize these attacks, in fact, he issued a ban on any raids on Christian lands. The Venetians obviously did not care for this. The intended target by the Pope was never Constantinople, but actually Egypt.

[Josh]

Orthodox and Catholics all built the most beautiful cathedrals and cities.

Nobody else even comes close.

The collection of churches in Italy by far exceed any other area in the world by comparison; even excluding Vatican City.