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The liturgical rites of all the Eastern Orthodox Churches can be traced back to the original rite in use in Jerusalem prior to the Apostolic missionary activities to the Gentiles, and the subsequent persecutions that moved the Christian Church out of Judea and across the Mediterranean basin and beyond. The Apostles took with them the liturgical rite, developed as it was at the time. This became the basis of the Eucharistic service for the Church. The early Christian Church was not characterized by written rites that were carefully adhered to, but followed a highly regarded oral tradition of Eucharistic prayers.

Today, in a country that was officially atheist about two decades ago, there are again hundreds of newspapers, magazines and newsletters covering the world's largest Orthodox church. There are about 3,500 Russian Orthodox Web sites, and some priests are even blogging.

The purpose of life is not to resist it or to indulge in it, but to live. As St. Ireneaus in the early second century observed, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive" as we see in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Marriage as a spiritual path moves along the "narrow path that leads to life" between these two extremes where the Divine Energies and the vital sap of daily life in the world converge. The Orthodox Church holds marriage in honor as a Mystery of the Church-a means of Grace uniting heaven and earth-where the word and action of the Lord turn ordinary water into the wine of the Spirit creating an effervescence in the soul of the partakers

Fr. Michael Pleckon\nMichael Plekon is a priest of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), is the associate priest at St. Gregory the Theologian Church, Wappingers Falls NY and is professor in the department of Sociology/Anthropology and the Program in Religion and Culture at Baruch College of the City University of New York, where he has taught since 1977.

A Good Article to Review: especially with the political power plays of Metropolitan PHILLIP/ ANTIOCH, REDUCING ALL American Antiochian Bishops to auxiliary bishops... AND the war of words/ "PAPAL OVERTURES" OF THE EP, with claims of authority over all "diaspora" churches, included all those in America; AND Metropolitan JONAH defending the years of work by Orthodox here in America to solve the multiple jurisdictional problems and strive for unity and a canonical American Autocephalous Church

The First European Catholic-Orthodox Forum`s statement on the family

Christian resources bible church tools - Early Church Fathers Collection

Man was created with free will. Its power was compromised by the fall. It is further dimished by delusion and the passions. We escape them through true faith, worship and fasting. Our freedom increases as these negative forces decrease.

On the language of the liturgy: the language of the Bible\nFr. Alexander Schmemann in The prayer of the church is always biblical - i.e., expressed in the language, images, and symbols of the Holy Scripture. If the Bible contains the Divine Revelation to man, it is also man's inspired response to that Revelation and thus the pattern and the content of man's prayer, praise, and adoration.

Orthodox Christians must not confuse this realization of the effect of the ancestral sin with the sectarian teaching about "Original Sin". There is no doctrine of "Original Sin"In the Holy Church, for it is not possible to inherit Adam's guilt. Nowhere do the Fathers mention "Original Sin,"but they refer to the ancestral sin, which caused, as Metropolitan Philaret shows here, not a guilt, but a hereditary disease, namely, the inclination to sin: man's state of separation from God, etc.

Forgiveness is one of the exclusive human qualities or attitudes, crucial to the basic make-up of the human person, especially when we speak in terms of the spiritual tradition of Christianity. Recent formulations define forgiveness as the opposite of resentfulness, rancor and hatred, entailing the relinquishment for justification and punishment. These issues, initially belonging to the ground of philosophical, theological or sociological speculation, appeared recently on the scene of psychological research and applications.

St Innocent (Veniaminov)....While in Spanish California, Veniaminov visited the Franciscan missions along the coast, conversing with the Spanish monks in Latin. In a rare gesture of ecumenical goodwill for the time, Veniaminov even built small pipe organs for at least two of the Catholic missions.