#greek orthodox church

[along-the-silkroad]

Nativity of Christ, Menologion of Basil II, Constantinople, c. 1000.

[gemsofgreece]

why do crete, north and south greece have differents Churches ?

I suppose you mean why Crete, the south islands and Northern Greece are under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, while central and south mainland Greece are under the Church of Greece.

The answer is because these regions gained independence from the Ottoman Empire at different time periods. The Independence War and the foundation of the Modern Greek state took place in central / south mainland Greece. Due to the war between the Greeks and the Ottoman Empire, the Patriarchate of Constantinople came into severe danger of being shut down as retaliation and because there were a lot of difficulties in managing the faith matters of those who are in a war with the country you are in. At some point there was even some discussion for the Patriarchate to be rescued by being tranferred from Constantinople to the Greek State. Eventually the Greek State however, in order to ensure that the Patriarchate will keep functioning undisturbed in its origin historical place of Constantinople, chose to form an autocephalous church, the Church of Greece.

Northern Greece, Crete and the Dodecanese islands united with Greece several decades later, at the same time the Ottoman Empire was falling, and they found ways to overcome this obstacle with the rising republic of Turkey. As a result, the later liberated lands remained under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate.

It should be noted that for practical reasons the Church of Greece runs the matters of northern Greece, Crete and the other southern islands as well, with the full agreement of the Patriarchate, despite nominally belonging to the jurisdiction of the latter.

In short the Church of Greece does not have any theological differences from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, neither does it have ambitions of its own and it would not have been formed, if not to rescue the Patriarchate. However, now it runs most of the matters because due to the still strained relations of the two countries it is preferred for the Greek religious matters to not be managed from Turkish land.

[lumeke]

[travelella]

Holy Trinity Church, Berat, Albania

Vladan Raznatovic

[ancientsstudies]

Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque by paandeli.

[soulrestinginstpetersburg]

[soldatenkoenig]

Meteora, Greece

[love-promethea]

and when the guilt consumes you, what will you hold onto

[mehilaiselokuva]

actually am i allowed to be angry about christian missionaries/general influence erasing so much finnish history and folklore. because i kinda am. i love learning about not just the finnish language but finland itself as a person with mainly nordic (finnish included) heritage looking to reconnect with their culture, and i felt like stumbling across a barren, black crater where rich history once stood

sorry if this is too off-topic/heavy for this blog i just saw that one ask you answered and saw red :p

Hi!

I am angry as well. There must have been so much culture and folklore lost during Christianization out here! I did a presentation about ancient Finnish traditions for my English class, and my (British) teacher wasn't even aware of what happened to the Finnish and other Uralic cultures in this area. Many of my Finnish classmates were unaware of ancient Finnish culture as well. (Unfortunately, that was expected, since people here aren't aware of cultural history that wasn't taught in school! Not many people know what Karelian culture is about. Not many know about the traditions of the Sámi or the Romani here. etc etc)

I feel like the study and preservation of culture, in general, is very important as it's so easy for the dominating population to kill the cultures of smaller populations. We could also put more effort into preserving languages and cultures and teaching languages to the young generations regardless of how "useful" the language is! While we cannot reverse time and stop our culture from being erased, we can still put time and resources into preserving languages and cultures of the world to possibly save them from this fate! Maybe with research and raising awareness lets us rediscover culture that was lost!

[along-the-silkroad]

Icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, by an Italian artist active in Cyprus, 1210. Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, Greece.

[gemsofgreece]

HONEStly I'm a polish catholic and still voted greek orthodox in the poll klfjsdfkjd IT'S THE DRIP.

Usbsjakoaksnskak it’s not like I am the representative of the Greek Orthodox Church but thank you on its behalf 🙏 I had a lot of fun with this poll although to be honest some Catholics took it to heart so bitterly, it was a slight mood killer at times.

Aesthetic wise, I really like Catholicism. The architecture, the statues are superb. They are like palaces. Orthodoxy is very beautiful too, in a different way. Orthodox style can either be extremely extravagant or extremely humble, there is no in between. Or a mix of these two, like going through a hole in a semi-wrecked wall and there are jewels of gold and emeralds casually hanging from a barely coping wooden icon from 700 AD in there. That kind of thing.

In terms of teachings honestly, the differences aren’t all that serious IMO. I barely understand the issue in most of them.

Again thanks for the voting and….. just mentioning we are competing against the Amish on Monday. For anyone who wouldn’t like to displease these dripping dudes 😂😂😂

JK much love 🇵🇱✝️🤍☦️🇬🇷

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

*bangs head on the table repeatedly* Why. Do. The. Brothers. And. Sisters. Of. Christ. Love. To. Hate. Each. Other. So. Much.

You're Christian. I'm Christian. They're Christian. We all believe Jesus is God. We all believe God is love. Why all the hate?? So what if they believe Mary was assumed into heaven and you don't? So what if you believe Mary was ever a virgin and you don't?

There are lots of things we disagree on. But you know what? We agree on so much more!

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us humans and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one, holy, universal and apostolic Church. We confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

We are all Christians for we are all anointed by the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God.

[religious-extremist]

Issues with the KJV; Part II - Veneration of Mary and Saints

Worship and Divine Service

In modern English, the term "worship" (like the term "prayer") has mainly come to mean "an act offered exclusively to God." However, the original and official meaning of this word used to be much broader - as was the case of the Greek word proskyneo (προσκυνέω), which is normally applied to God, but also to human beings.

The idea conveyed by proskyneo is that of "offering obeisance," "making a physical demonstration of veneration and respect," or "prostrating oneself." (To put it extremely casually, like a curtsy.) In contemporary Orthodox terminology, the equivalent of proskyneo is often "venerate."

In the EOB, proskyneo is translated as "to express adoration" while it is often translated in the KJV as "to worship."

On the other hand, the Greek word latreia is exclusively used in reference to God.

In the EOB, latreia (λατρεία) is translated as "offering divine service" while it is translated in the KJV also as "to worship."

The Problem

So there is this issue of the KJV as it is today - with its immeasurable influence upon modern theology, the English language, and the Sola Scriptura doctrine professed by Protestant Christianity (and therefore the world) - combining two different words, proskyneo and latreia, under one translation: "worship."

The point of dissension that now comes up is that when those of the Old Religions, which existed before the King James Version, venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, Protestants often denounce the Old Religions' disposition towards the Blessed Theotokos because their theology relies either wholly or partly on the KJV and the KJV tells them that proskyneo and latreia are the same thing, when historically - as attested to us by the oldest translations of the Bible - veneration and worship have never been the same thing.

To argue that veneration and worship are the same thing is like saying that criticism and insults are the same thing, or complimenting and confessing undying love is the same thing. They are markedly different.

The Old Religions -- the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Church of the East -- don't offer latreia (worship) to the saints but they offer proskyneo (veneration).

As a last exhibit, I will show to you Matthew 4:10 and Luke 4:8 where Christ quoted the Ten Commandments and said "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (KJV) / "You shall express adoration to the Lord your God, and to Him only shall you offer divine service." (EOB)

For the sake of understanding, I will adapt the KJV to this:

"Thou shalt proskyneisis the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou latreusis."

That said, proskyneia or veneration for humans, saints, was never forbidden, but it is clear to all of us that latreia or worship is offered only to God.

[orthodoxangelos]

Orthodox churches ☦︎

[fibredyke]

Ekklisia Agios Ioannis / St. John’s Church - Poros, Greece