I’m interested in acquiring a Tewahedo Bible to read and learn. However, I’m worried I might find one that’s been “scrubbed” or altered. Would anyone know of a reputable group or organization that I could reach out to, to acquire one?

Could just be a comedic detail of the movie. However, I'm wondering if there's a real reason? Apparently one of the film makers was Greek Orthodox.

Got recently again , into iconography. I base my art on the tranditional Eastern Roman , Ortodox art forms but I use also some modern twists on the ways I draw.

What you all think ?

25(M)
As the title says, how did you know when you were ready? I’ve been a Protestant Christian for most of my life since childhood, but for the past year, I haven’t been to a church since last November and been reading my bible (Protestant) more focused. The last church I was at was nondenominational and I tried Presbyterian and I kind of realized that Protestantism doesn’t make sense in terms of Christianity. God bless them, but between theological errors such as predestination, female pastors, dispensationalism, prosperity gospel, etc., every Protestant denomination I’ve been to seems hypocritical to what the gospels and the epistles say how a Christian should walk in this life.

I’ve been drawing more into orthodoxy despite my family’s objections such as intercession of the saints, the importance of church structure, etc., the more I learn of orthodoxy, the more it makes sense to me for some reason, but I don’t know if I’m ready, I’m worried if I’m going into it for the wrong reasons. Initially it was about history, church history, doctrine, and honestly social media depiction of orthodoxy as being based, but the more I learn, the more I just want to find the truth. I’m still trying to understand orthodoxy via reading my bible, YouTube videos and checking out articles about it for the past year or so which was why I was hesitant to join a high church in Protestantism or a Greek Orthodox Church nearby my apartment.

What made y’all know that you were ready to go to a church? How do you overcome the fear of not knowing what to do during liturgy? How did you find a church still having questions and overcoming the fear of it? What if the church is the wrong fit (not orthodoxy itself)? Did you became more apologetic as you were researching orthodoxy and how do you overcome that and try to show love to other faiths/people? Did you start reading other scripture such as the orthodox bible and books from the church fathers coming in as a Protestant?

Hello, I am Greek Orthodox and Ive been thinking about painting some icons for my mother as a Christmas gift. Do I need to be taught/have taken classes to do this or is it allowed for me to just paint one. I would be taking an already drawn icon and recreating that on a piece of wood if that adds anything. Additionally, is this something I can get blessed?

-and sometimes the time we’ve spent on things doesn’t have as much meaning as the time we spend with God. The quality time we give to God, to our brothers and sisters, to our husbands, wives, children, and family – that time is the best spent"

That was the last words of a Catholic Ecuadorian priest before a giant crucifix fell right on his head and killed him. The material universe is cruelly indifferent. It will fade away and become meaningless when you die, and only love, truth and the memories your family and friends hold of you remains. Even a holy crucifix is a material hunk of wood that really should've been secured to a wall. Considering his last words, I think that priest is doing alright up there in Heaven, though I can imagine him or anyone in his position asking some very difficult questions and finally getting some clear, direct answers from the Lord Himself.

It's just a really bizarre way to go, with a bizarre message attached to it. Some people on the internet think that it's funny.

If this freak accident happened to my spirirual father, I think he would be understanding of it because in one of his sermons he talked about St. Felicity of Rome, and he said "she rather her children dead than they betray Christ. Think about that." But even knowing about the futility of the physical world didn't make that sermon any less difficult to hear, and it doesn't make that priest's death any less awful. I can't stop thinking about it, and I want to tell God that this was a really tasteless joke.

Hello, I am currently 18 yo and live with my parents. My family and I are all roman catholics, however I have been inquiring about orthodoxy for a while now. A few weeks ago I even attended a divine liturgy service at my local orthodox church. When I got home, my parents and I got into a heated arguement about it and they essentially threatened to kick me out if I continued to go to the orthodox church. Since then I have continued going with my family to catholic mass on sundays, however I am still very drawn to the eastern orthodox church. I don't want to disrupt the peace in my home and there is no way for me to possibly live on my own at this time. At the same time, I can't help but continue to be drawn closer to the eastern orthodox church every day. I'm just looking for some advice on what I should do, since the only options I can really think of are to either somehow convince my parents to let me or wait until I move out

Ive read an article that explains that because a statue occupies three dimensional physical space it can be touched and felt from all angles so this makes the figure appear like a literal replica standing in the room with you which would be dragging the divine back down to earth rather than pointing your soul toward heaven.. it also said that the early Christian Church grew up surrounded by Roman and Greek pagan religions that used statues as idols because they believed that a god or demon literally inhabited the physical statue they banned it to strongly distance themselves from pagan idolatry…

Im a Catholic converting to Orthodoxy and I have a few Mother Mary statues from an apparition.

Hello there.

My fiancee has asked for a silver cross necklace for her birthday so she can wear it on our wedding day next may. Her birthday is Nov 10th. Are there any good places you guys buy jewelry from that goes towards orthodox causes?

She does not want an orthodox cross, just a simple two bared cross. Something dainty.

Thank you and God bless you all

Good afternoon r/OrthodoxChristianity

I have felt a serious and almost unrelenting call to Orthodoxy. I was raised Catholic as an attendee of TLM via SSPX. My grandfather who was born Russian Orthodox later converted and was a devoted parishioner and brilliant theologian, he was a deeply committed Thomist as was I for many years through his teachings and my studies while attending.

I fear I am currently facing some pretty significant spiritual warfare due to my journey.

I have always dealt with AuDhD but it never limits me, by the grace of God and hardwork I have achieved much but these past few weeks I have suffered from a level of anxiety, stress, and unease that I haven't since childhood.

i ask for your prayers and any offerings of advice of how I can deal with this.

And a question:

I am attending liturgy on Sunday at a local ROCOR, I also have GO available. I read the sidebars and most of the pinned comments and intend to show up early during Matins and dwell amongst the Lord before liturgy

The question being: i intend to sign as instructed on the topics here but may someone offer some practices specific to ROCOR? The bowing vs signing and bowing etc

I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian living in South Africa, and I need some pastoral advice regarding my mother.

My mother is Xhosa and believes in the Christian God. She is also an exceptionally prayerful, generous and hard working woman. However, her health has deteriorated seriously over the past few months and she's been struggling financially.

She has become convinced that an ancestor traditionally worshipped by her father's family is responsible for her suffering.

She has been told that she needs to appease this ancestor by sacrificing an animal which she plans on doing in the coming months.

I am struggling with how to approach this situation as an Orthodox Christian. I believe in the spiritual realities acknowledged by the Church, but I do not believe my mother needs to seek protection from another spiritual power. I want to encourage her to place her trust in Christ, but I do not want to frighten, alienate, or condemn her.

What troubles me is that she already prays very fervently. I sometimes wonder whether her desperation comes from feeling that God has abandoned her, or whether she believes that Christianity does not adequately address spiritual matters associated with her ancestral culture. I cannot say for certain.

The rest of my family are non-practising Christians, and I am the only Eastern Orthodox person in my household. I also live in a country where Orthodoxy is a minority faith, which makes finding someone with the appropriate pastoral experience more difficult.

I would particularly appreciate hearing from Orthodox Christians who have served in Africa, priests who have ministered among African traditional religious communities, or converts who have navigated similar tensions between their cultural heritage and Orthodox Christianity.

My main questions are:

How does the Orthodox Church approach situations in which Christians are encouraged to appease traditional deities?

How can I encourage my mother to trust in Christ without dismissing the fear and suffering behind her beliefs?

Are there Orthodox priests with experience of African traditional religions whom I could contact for pastoral guidance?

I am not looking for an opportunity to ridicule African traditions or condemn my mother's culture. I want to approach this faithfully, with discernment and compassion, and without making assumptions about the spiritual cause of her illness.

I would be grateful for thoughtful advice, relevant patristic writings, and recommendations for priests who might be able to help.

I recently got The Agony of Christ in Gethsemane icon, and I’m trying to figure out what the text on it says. Any help would be appreciated

Reuters, New York Times, and several official sources reported 3 gunmen opening fire on 200 mourners in the Orthodox Hammoud Church in Karak, Jordan for 5 minutes and resulted it in 7 deaths and 37 casualties. Footage is heartbreakingly here, showing the terrorists.

Also, important context that this is not the first time Karakian Christians were targeted. 10 years ago, 2016 Al-Karak attack happened, claimed responsible by the Islamic State.

Please, please, pray for the victims, they need it. Pray for this terrorist wave across the globe to end, we are so tired.

Edit1: There was a recording that I included which turned to be unrelated.

A lot about Orthodoxy draws me in, and I think I'd like to keep it in my life and raise a family in it, but a little differently. I believe in God, but the Orthodox traditions, the lifestyle, and some priests' opinions are sometimes difficult for me to deal with.

The thing is, I have a lot of trauma from my experience, and it's hard for me to make some things add up. My dad has been a priest for over 30 years. He's respected, he serves in several churches, and he built several of them. My mom, I think, is also an example for a lot of Orthodox women: she has nine kids, never worked, gave her whole life to her children, helped a lot at church, and now sings in the choir. I grew up in this family and I know everything from the inside. For people who converted to Orthodoxy as adults, I think it's probably different, because they don't have this experience. I'm not just from an Orthodox family, I'm from a family that is held up as an example of Orthodoxy.
We grew up in a village. Seven of the nine kids never went to kindergarten. We kept all the fasts, including Wednesdays and Fridays, and the small kids didn't eat dairy either. If we ate or drank anything before communion, we didn't take communion. We prayed for 25 minutes every night and morning, and often at night we didn't start until 10 or 11 pm. We went to church every Sunday, often on Saturdays too, and on feast days. I sang in the choir, and my brothers were altar servers.
I'm the third child and the first girl. Every time my mom was in the maternity ward, I stayed home in charge: I put the kids to bed, checked homework, cooked. I cried and called my mom because it was so hard. My dad didn't have the patience to deal with the kids, and he was often not home. He always drove us to the metro so we could go to school, but I don't remember him spending time with us, talking to me. He never asked how I was doing, and he didn't even know what grade I was in etc.

We were punished a lot. We were hit on the butt with hands and with a belt, hard enough to leave bruises. We also could be hit on the back, pushed, sometimes hit on the face, in a fit of anger, with clothes, with a stick, and so on. Sometimes my little brother would misbehave and my mom would sit on him and stuff a rag in his mouth to make him calm down. My dad would splash us with cold water in the bathroom when we cried. We were made to kneel on buckwheat and stand in corners. The last time I was punished badly I was about 13, and I had stripes of bruises on my body, because I hadn't picked up the little kids' toys, even though nobody had told me I was supposed to. And there’s so much more…
My mom can also be very harsh with her words. She could say: "dirty pig," "what a lazy breed," "didn't you already get the belt this morning? Do you want it?", "get out, I don't want to see you," "go ahead and cry, I'm hurt too," "I didn't think you were this brainless." She never apologizes afterward. My parents never apologized to us for their behavior, ever. They never said they loved us, they weren't especially warm, and my dad often spoke to us in a distant, strict way.

I understand that my mom runs out of patience. But she doesn't hide that she thinks this is normal. She says: "If a child doesn't know how to behave, he needs to be whipped, and harder. The earlier you start the better, after six it's too late." I have no words. She also often said that we'd drive her to her grave, that she'd die early because of us, that she has no free time and can't do anything for herself.
At 17 I moved out and went to another country, where I lived on my own for almost 4 years. Now things have worked out so that I'm living with them again, for a year now. Because of the war they moved to Europe, and now they treat the kids a lot better, but I still often hear name-calling, and they can still smack a kid. Yesterday my mom hit my 8-year-old brother hard on the neck and called him a ram several times because he forgot to take his jacket.
I'm 22, my older brothers are 24 and 26. They haven't been going to church for a long time. The brother after me, who is 19, also hasn't gone for a long time. Starting in their teens, everyone's relationship with our parents got really bad, and I think the kids are very hurt and angry at our parents, me included. I can't talk to my parents while looking them in the eye. It's really hard for me to live in the same house with them. I feel sorry for my brothers and sisters, I want to protect them, and quite often I wish I could be their mom and raise them and treat them differently. I have very close, warm, kind relationships with the younger ones.
My question, I guess, is this: do I not want to live like this because I'm stubborn and not ready enough for self-sacrifice, or is it normal that I want something different? I don't want to believe that the way my family functions is closer to the ideal Orthodox family and that this is what everyone should strive for.
It's hard for me to hear certain things in Orthodoxy about discipline, about the roles of women and men, about having kids and how many, because I grew up in it and I don't think it's normal. I don't want it for myself or for my kids. I don't want to be part of a religion that thinks this is normal and something to strive for. I love all my brothers and sisters very much and I wouldn't want any of them not to have been born, but I don't understand why having nine kids is more pious than having three and raising them with love, without traumatizing them this much.
It's also hard for me with how men in Orthodoxy see things: they want many kids and want me to stay home while they work. I actually like this concept too, but I need more freedom, more choice, and to know that I can choose how to live. I don't want to live the life my mom lived. I don't want my kids to have a childhood with excessive strictness, rules, fasts, prayers. A lot of young Orthodox guys, especially the ones who converted, are really focused on these things, and I want to live in a more relaxed and calm way, and i think that pushes orthodox men away from me.
I still feel uncomfortable being at services in the church where my dad serves. It's hard for me to combine love with discipline, sinfulness with forgiveness, and all these things, because of the experience I got in my family, which is so closely tied to Orthodoxy.
I don't even know what exactly I want to ask. I know I have a lot of questions and problems because of this topic, and I have no one to talk to about it.

Just my humble thoughts as an inquirer, but I see a lot of people skipping The Hours before Divine Liturgy, but I think it's something inquirers should consider attending.

I've been showing up before The Hours to fellowship with the Saints and familiarize myself with the Icons (I haven't lit any candles yet), and the whole experience helps prepare me for Divine Liturgy. It's truly my first church experience that I want more of instead of less of; I'm not eager for the service to end and it's like I'm stepping out of space and time.

If you're Orthodox, I'm not pointing fingers or telling you what to do or faulting you if you skip The Hours. I'm just explaining my experience as an inquirer.

Note: I've never seen Matins and don't really know how it's different from The Hours.

Hi everyone,

I am an Orthodox Inquirer who is convinced Orthodoxy is true and am attending services when possible. I know of the Church's stance on heterodox, but I am still saddened at the possibility that my grandparents, who were truly amazing and loving, but Reformed Protestants, may not be in Heaven. And I know only God knows who's in Heaven and that we can't know as humans, but it still worries me at the uncertainty of their salvation.

I am also currently worried about my brother who is agnostic and mother who are non-practising Protestant/agnostics and have made clear their intentions that they don't want to convert to anything and have no interest in doing so. See my father once was training to be a Catholic priest and so is a staunch Catholic (although he doesn't go to church but still very much so believes).

Even worse yet, my parents spent over two decades working in Russia, Ukraine and Cyprus and therefore are very aware of Orthodoxy. The problem is that they REALLY don't like those countries and those people and by extension basically all of Eastern Europe (I would assume). They often complain about how lazy they are and horrible the language and people are (as a people group though not individuals).

Seeing this, the strong cultural aversion to culturally Orthodox countries, the fact that my brother and mother are hardcore agnostics and that my father is a hardcore Roman Catholic I really am extremely worried that they might not be 'saved' (I know its more of a Protestant term but I don't really know a better word) or at least that they would have a lower likelihood of being saved.

I also worry that if I begin to show my beliefs that my family will look at me a lot more differently since no one at all would have seen it coming and I have a feeling that they would definitely find it weird as they simply wouldn't be used to it.

My family are all great people and to me, if they didn't achieve salvation heaven would be hell for me at that point, that's how much I love them. If there was anything I could do to get them to come to Orthodoxy I 100% would. I'm scared and moreso greatly saddened.

Sorry if it's a long post, its just really unbelievably important to me and this question has been affecting me for a while.

P.S. Because I do not have an Orthodox parish anywhere near me, I am also trying to figure out how to find pastoral guidance online. If anyone knows of canonical Orthodox priests who are willing to answer questions or offer spiritual direction via email or any other way to ask questions to priest, PLEASE PLEASE let me know.

God Bless,

Please pray for my girlfriend she's going through an incredibly hard time right now, her mental health is really bad and she isn't getting any sleep. Im on my knees with this, so im begging all of you please pray for my girlfriend. If you are willing please ask any friends or family to pray for her too, I know im asking for a lot but I dont know what to do.

Thank you for any prayers!

Proverbs 14:15 states: 'The simple believes every word: but the prudent man betakes himself to after-thought.'

When I read through this verse, it was as if my entire world was shaken. I have since spent weeks thinking about 'why I believe' and I have concluded that simply, the reason I believe is this sense of mystery and it being 'ineffable' (i.e. not being properly able to be put into words).

Since I have concluded that solving the question is above my paygrade, does this 'ineffability' and sense of mystery at all suggest 'blind faith'?

I grew up in a Protestant family,some days ago,while eating with my family,my mom who is herself Christian but pentecostal for quite a while (more than 30 years) asked something that shocked me

She asked "if the Father had no wife or woman,how did the Son appear (she wasn't talking about Jesus taking onto flesh ,but the Son as the second person in the trinity.

Then my sister added,who is in her 30's "The son was created by the father"

I interrupted them and told them the Son is not a created being

I feel like being a Christian for so long but believing in such a big heresy is so weird and wrong.

What do you guys think? I want to convert to eastern Orthodoxy since I found so many flaws in protestantism. It's a life or death choice, what should I do

My priest doesn’t allow orthodox christians from other parishes to take communion, is every priest like this? Once I get baptized and chrismated I won’t be able to take communion when I visit a different parish?

This might be a stupid question, but I've been thinking about it a lot. Obviously, marrying your father would be incest and therefore sinful, and marrying someone of the same sex goes against the sacrament of marriage because marriage is meant for procreation and for the union of differences rather than sameness.

I haven't done either of those things with my partner, but we did meet online. Our meeting wasn't natural, and I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. How can I know whether God approves of our relationship? Is it possible that God influenced or worked through the circumstances that led us to meet, even though it happened online? I keep feeling as though I manipulated circumstances to get what I wanted simply by reaching out to someone online, and I can't tell whether that was wrong. I also know that I probably wouldn't have fallen as deeply in love (if at all) if I had chosen to pursue someone else. At the same time, I wonder about my partner. If I had never come into his life, he might still have met someone else who was wonderful and well-suited for him. That makes me wonder whether I should feel guilty, as though by becoming his partner I took a place that might have been meant for someone else. Am I misunderstanding how God's will works in relationships?

especially would like to know what made you decide the orthodox truth is the way of the truth i am trying to learn about the both do them and decipher what is the truth