From The Orthodox Way, the chapter, “On God as Trinity” by Bishop Kallistos Ware (edited with a few omissions of examples pertaining to the discourse to make the writing more succinct for the purpose of an internet forum and my wrists.
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"Jesus Christ and the Father are One. Jesus Christ is “true God from. True God”, “one in essence” or “consubstantial with the Father. Jesus Christ is equal with the Father, He is God in the same sense that the Father is God, yet they are not two Gods but one. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is truly God, one in essence with the Father and the Son. Yet, although the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, each of Them is from all eternity a person, a distinct center of conscious selfhood. God the Trinity is thus to be described as “three Persons in one essence”. There is eternally in God true unity, combined with genuine personal differentiation: the terms “essence”, “substance” or “being” (ousia)indicates the unity, and the term “person” (hypostasis, prosopon) indicates the differentiation. In the case of the Trinity and how the three Persons of it act, there is distinction but never separation. Father, Son and Holy Spirit have only one will and not three, only one energy and not three. None of the three ever acts separately, apart fro the other two.
Yet, although the three persons never act apart from each other, there is in God genuine diversity as well as specific unity. In our experience of God at work within our life , while we find that the three are always acting together, we know that each is acting within us in a different manner. We experience God as “three-in-one” and believe that this threefold differentiation in God’s outward action reflects a threefold differentiation in His inner life. This distinction is to be regarded as a threefold distinction existing within the nature of God Himself, not applying merely to His exterior activity in the world. We affirm of the Son, “there never was a tie when He was not” and the same is said of the Spirit.
The Father is the “fountain” of the Godhead, the source, or cause or principle of origin of the other two persons. He is the bond of unity between the three: there is one God because there is one Father. “The union is the Father, from whom and to whom the order of the persons runs its course” (St Gregory the Theologian). The other two persons are defined in relationship to the Father: the Son is “Begotten”, the Spirit “proceeds”
The second person of the Trinity is the Son, the “Word” or Logos. It is in and through the Son that the Father is revealed to us. He was born of the Virgin Mary, yet as the Logos He is also at work before the Incarnation. He is the principle of order and purpose that permeates all things, draws them to unity with God, and so makes the universe into a “cosmos”, a harmonious and integrated whole. The Creator-Logos has imparted to each created thing ins own indwelling logos or inner principle, which makes that thing to be distinctively itself, and which at the same time draws and directs that thing towards God.
The Third Person is the Holy Spirit, the “Wind” or “Breath” of God. While appreciating the inadequacy of neat classifications we must say that the Spirit is God within us, The Son of God with us, and the Father, God, above or beyond us. Just as the Son shows us the Father, so the Spirit shows us the Son, making Him present to us. Yet the relation is utual. The Spirit makes the Son present to us, but it is the Son who sends the Spirit. (we note that there is a difference between the “eternal procession” of the Spirit and His “temporal ission”, the Spirit is sent into the world, within time, by the Son; but, as regards His eternal origin within the eternal life of the Trinity, the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.)"
