Explain Orthodox

[MJE]

An acquaintance told me she is ‘Orthodox’. She follows a fasting schedule which includes days of no meat, or no wine or oil.So specifically, what does she mean by ‘Orthodox’? Greek? or?

 

[Ghosty]

An acquaintance told me she is ‘Orthodox’. She follows a fasting schedule which includes days of no meat, or no wine or oil.So specifically, what does she mean by ‘Orthodox’? Greek? or?

Honestly it could mean a number of things, but most likely Eastern Orthodox because of the “no oil” aspect. Eastern Orthodox includes Greek, Russian, Antiochian, and many other nationalities and groups typically (but not always) related to these major “groupings”. Eastern Orthodox are viewed by the Catholic Church as truly Apostolic, and as being very, very close to Catholic. In fact, most of the Eastern Catholic Churches are directly related to the Eastern Orthodox, and share the same traditions including the fasting.

The Melkite Church, to which I belong (really, if not yet Canonically) is the counterpart of the Antiochian Orthodox.

Hope this brief explaination helps!

Peace and God bless!

 

[Aramis]

An acquaintance told me she is ‘Orthodox’. She follows a fasting schedule which includes days of no meat, or no wine or oil.So specifically, what does she mean by ‘Orthodox’? Greek? or?

Generally, it means she’s a member of one of the various Churches that grew out of the Great Schism in the mid-11th C.

The most common in the US are the Antiochian Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, and the OCA (Who are now Autocephalous from their Russian Orthodox parent church), tho’ several other groups exist, such as the ACROD (American Carpetho-Rusyn Orthodox Diocese), Romanian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc…

And then there are the various schisms: Old Believers, who split off from those churches over changes they didn’t agree with; Old Calendarist Synods in Resistance, who split off recently over making the church calendar match the civil calendar; the Russian fragments (ROCA/ROCOR) who went autonomous during the Soviet era, and are slowly rejoining the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox share 95+% of Catholic Dogma… they get hung up on the sticking points of the Filioque and Papal Authority.

Orthodox literally means “having the right belief”… certain catholics describe themselves as Orthodox in Union with Rome. (Mostly Melkites, but also some Ukrainians.)

Many Eastern Catholics share the Orthodox Traditions; the Byzantine Churches in Union (with one exception: Italo-albanian) are portions of the Orthodox churches that came back into Union with Rome as Corporate Bodies, Churches, and while autonomous from the Latin Church, are still part of the Catholic Church.

And the fasting rules differ by which particular ritual church one is a member of. Russian Orthodox often give up all flesh of critters with a spine for all of lent, just as some Roman Catholics give up red meat throughout all of lent.