The Orthodox Faith

We recognize seven sacraments:

1) Baptism is the door through which one enters into the Church.

2) Confirmation is the completion of Baptism.

3) In the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, with the bread and wine, we partake of the very Body and the very Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for remission of sins and eternal life. Both the New Testament and Sacred Tradition bear witness to the real Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

4) In the sacrament of Confession Jesus Christ, the founder of the sacrament, through the confessor, forgives the sins committed after Baptism by the person who confessed his sins and sincerely repents of them.

5) In the sacrament of Ordination through prayer and the laying–on of hands by a Bishop, divine grace comes down on the ordained enabling him to be a worth minister of the Church. Apostolic succession is fundamental to the Church. Without it there can be no continuity of the Church.

6) In the sacrament of Marriage, divine grace sanctifies the union of husband and wife.

7) In the sacrament of Holy Unction the sick person is anointed with sanctified oil and divine grace heals his bodily and spiritual ills.

At death, man’s body goes to the earth from which it was taken, and the soul, being immortal, goes to God, who gave it. The souls of men, being conscious and exercising all their faculties immediately after death, are judged by God. This judgment following man’s death we call the Particular Judgment. The final reward of men, however, we believe will take place at the time of the General Judgment. During the time between the Particular and the General Judgment, which is called the Intermediate State, the souls of men have foretaste of their blessing or punishment. Further, we venerate and honor the saints and we ask their intercession with God, but we adore and worship God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Of all saints, we honor exceedingly the Mother of our Lord because of the supreme grace and the call which she received from God. Though she was not exempt from original sin, from which she was cleansed at the time of the Annunciation, we believe that by the grace of God she did not commit any actual sin. We venerate the sacred icons and relics. Yet this veneration, according to the decisions and canons of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, related not to the sacred images as such, but to their prototypes, or to the persons whom they represent.

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Antiochian Archdiocese of North America/Diocese of Los Angeles and the West

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