The Orthodox Church is founded on the
mystery of God's Word. As the Father has sent me, I also send you (John
20: 21). It is a fundamental conviction of the Orthodox believer that the
Church has been sent into the world to live and bear witness to the loving
vocation, with which God enfolds humankind from the beginning of its existence,
through the presence within herself of God's Word,. "For God so loved the
word that he gave his only begotten Son... God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved"
(John 3: 16-17).
According to the Orthodox point of view,
the vocation and responsibility of the Church is to hold to the truths, which
are revealed by the historical appearance of Jesus Christ, and preserve them,
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as a living tradition within the
ecclesial body. The Church is described in the Bible as the pillar and
ground of the truth (I Tim. 3: 15). This means that every perfect gift and
every truth revealed in Christ is kept intact in the Church and transmitted as
a dynamic tradition and a life giving reality in every historic now» The very
being of the Church is understood as Orthodox communion.
The issue of tradition is of capital
importance for the understanding of the faith, work and life of the Orthodox
Church. Tradition is not simply the transmission of an abstract teaching, but
rather the maintenance of the eternal truth of the Gospel. Tradition is lived
in time and history. This means that the Church has received the faith of the
Apostles, maintains it and lives this faith as a divine heritage and dynamic
process. Thus, the Orthodox Faith, once delivered to the Apostles and the
Saints, is preserved as a living inheritance in specific situations; it has,
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a historic continuity and actuality.
Orthodox the Church of the Seven
Ecumenical Councils. The life of the Orthodox Church is marked by the teaching
of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. These Councils were formal gatherings of the
bishops of the whole Church in order to regulate doctrinal issues and define
the Orthodox teaching upon the basic themes of the Christian faith, mainly the
Trinity and the Incarnatlon.4 For the Orthodox, the content of the
Christian faith is expressed in the definitions and the regulation of the
Ecumenical Councils. The work of the Ecumenical Councils was not abstract
speculation. When the bishops of the Councils drew up definitions their
intention was to protect the people of God and exclude false teachings and
deviations leading to error and heresy, and consequently making salvation
impossible. It is for precisely this reason that the definitions of the
Ecumenical Councils are held to possess the highest authority which the
Orthodox Church can exercise. Thus, with a deep consciousness of the perfect
continuity with the preaching of the Apostles, the Orthodox Church acknowledges
the following as Ecumenical Councils:
·
The Ist Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea in
325, which formulated the First Part of the Creed defining the divinity of
Christ, the Son of God
·
The 2nd Ecumenical Council, held in
Constantinople in 381, which formulated the Second Part of the Creed defining
the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
·
The 3rd Ecumenical Council, held in Ephesus in
431, which defined Christ as the Incarnate Word of God and His Mother as
Theotokos.
·
The 4th Ecumenical Council, held in Chalcedon in
451, which defined Christ as perfect God and perfect Man in one Person. It
stressed that the two natures were united in the hypostasis of the Word
"without confusion, change, division or separation»
·
The 5th Ecumenical Council, held in
Constantinople in 553, which reconfirmed the doctrines concerning the Holy Trinity
and the Person of Christ.
·
The 6th Ecumenical Council held in
Constantinople in 681, which affirmed the true humanity of Jesus Christ, by
clarifying that Christ has two natures and consequently two wills and actions,
the divine and the human.
·
The 7th Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea in
787, which affirmed that Holy Icons are authentic expression of the Orthodox
faith.
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