Our Faith

All that the Orthodox Church prays and does is centered on the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah spoken of by the prophets and that He is the Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages. He was born in our midst of the holy Virgin Mary, whom we venerate as Theotokos, the Mother of God and human icon (image) of the Church. He became fully man, and in a Passover of His own free will, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose again on the third day, and ascended into heaven. We are born again into His Body by the Holy Spirit through the waters of baptism, and we remember his Passover continually. In so doing we confess one God in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the Trinity, one in essence and undivided.

The Orthodox Church gathers in the form of local churches around a bishop. In their charge “rightly to divide the word of Truth,” bishops stand in the midst of the faithful, bearing witness to Christ. This gathering is an image of the family gathered for Passover (the Eucharist).

The Orthodox Church is sacramental. Its sacramental life begins with Baptism and is centered on Holy Communion, the Eucharist: our present participation in bread and wine offered to the Father by the Son, as commemorated by the gathered faithful, and becoming the living Body and Blood of Jesus Christ by the descent of the Holy Spirit