Hi Soutane and Elizabeth! I am Greek Orthodox and you have asked some interesting questions. The Lord Jesus gave the apostles the ministry to forgive sins. This was confirmed after His resurrection with the words quoted in the first post and also at Pentecost. Apostles are bishops. Period! The original 12 are listed in the Gospels with Matthias replacing Judas in Book of Acts. The Orthodox Church owns a tradition where there is 70 other appointed apostles. These had not the authority of the 12 yet they had the office similar to the apostles. For instance to name a few we can mentioned St.Paul, St.Barnabas, St.Mark, St.Luke, St.Timothy, St.Titus and so on. So the original 12 had a lot of help with the other 70. Basically the Apostles were ordained to be Bishops. They in turn ordained other men as Bishops and later on deacons. I do not know when priests started so someone else can confirm that answer. I know for sure the Church started out with alot of Bishops and plenty more were ordained every year. Deacons were added to help with " waiting on tables ministry. " When the actual ordination occured one can see in your first post that answer and later on was confirmed at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit confirms this as He does whenever He comes. The Orthodox Church is a Church that regularly prays to the Holy Spirit. We always start with a prayer to the Holy Spirit and in fact if you attend one of our Divine Liturgies you can witness this experience of the presence of The Holy Spirit at many intervals of our Holy Communion service. We always invoke the Holy Spirit. At one point of the Liturgy the priest and the people pray together to invoke God the Father to send down the Holy Spirit upon us and the bread and wine. There is one prayer asking the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood or our Lord Jesus Christ. St.Seraphim of Russia said " the true aim of our christian life consists of the acquistion of the Holy Spirit of God. Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of the christian life, although they serve as the indispensible means of reaching this end. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God." The Holy Spirit is quite important! Without Him it is impossible to enter Heaven. St.Seraphim confirm this in his interpretation of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. I will let St.Seraphim explain." Our Lord Jesus compares our life with a market and the work of our life on earth He calls trading and says to all:“Trade till I come, redeeming the time because the days are evil"That is to say, make the most of your time for getting heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are good works done for Christ’s sake and conferring on us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones lacked oil, it was said: Go and buy in the market.But when they had bought, the door of the bride chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins mean a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct.Why should they be lacking in good deeds if they are called virgins, even though foolish ones? I think that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God.” What there were lacking says the Saint was the Holy Spirit Himself. Good deeds themselves will not guarentee anything unless they are done for Christ Jesus to receive God’s Holy Spirit. There is the difference says St.Seraphim. If good deeds do not confer the Grace of the Holy Spirit then that is what is lacking in the foolish virgins lamps. There is excellent teaching on the Holy Spirit by St.Seraphim of Russia. Please take some time and look him up. His Holiness John Paul II often quoted this great Orthodox saint. God Bless!
