Christianity in Credo: Eastern Orthodoxy

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Apocrypha [Gr.,=hidden things], a term signifying a collection of early Jewish writings excluded from the canon of the Hebrew scriptures. The Apocrypha include the following books and parts of books: First and Second Esdras; Tobit; Judith; the Additions to Esther; Wisdom of Solomon; Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus); Baruch; the Letter of Jeremiah (in Baruch); parts of Daniel (the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men; see also Bel and the Dragon and Susanna 1); First and Second Maccabees; the Prayer of Manasses (see Manasseh). All are included in the Septuagint, with the exception of 2 Esdras. In 1566 the collection was deemed “deutero-canonical” by the Roman Catholic Church, meaning that their canonicity was recognized only after a period of time. Protestants follow Jewish tradition in regarding all these books as non-canonical.

Chief Christian sacrament, in which bread is eaten and wine drunk in memory of the death of Jesus.

Single image created as a focal point of religious veneration, especially a painted or carved portable object of the Orthodox Eastern faith.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Form of public worship, particularly the form of rite or services prescribed by the various Christian churches. In the Western Church the principal service centered upon the Eucharistic sacrifice.

The creed recited as part of the Eucharistic liturgies of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, and many Protestant Churches. One of the fundamental creeds of Christianity, drawn up by the Council of Nicaea, a meeting of bishops in AD 325. The Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical (worldwide) council. The church leaders met to discuss teachings about Jesus.

Oldest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made by Hellenistic Jews, possibly from Alexandria, c.250 B.C. Legend, according to the fictional letter of Aristeas, records that it was done in 72 days by 72 translators for Ptolemy Philadelphus, which accounts for the name.

In Christianity, the union of three persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost - in one Godhead. The precise meaning of the doctrine has been the cause of unending dispute, and was the chief cause of the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Autonomous Christian church, sometimes also called the Gregorian Church. Its head, a primate of honor only, is the catholicos of Yejmiadzin, Armenia.

From The Macmillan Encyclopedia
Strictly, the Orthodox Church in Greece.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Christian church of Syria, Iraq, and India, recognizing the Syrian Orthodox patriarch of Antioch as its spiritual head, regarded by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox as heretical.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Christian community of Iraq, Iran, and Malabar, India. It represents the ancient church of Persia and is sometimes called the Assyrian (or East Syrian) Church.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Federation of national and regional self-governing Christian churches, mainly found in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The final schism between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church occurred in 1054.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History
A Church originating in missionary activity on the part of the see of Constantinople and in political interest on the part of Kiev Rus in the 10c.