The Orthodox Church is the original Christian Church — the same Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles, preserved unchanged in faith and worship for two thousand years. Orthodox Christians believe what Christians believed in the first centuries, before the divisions that fractured Christendom: that there is one God in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — that the Son of God became man for our salvation, and that He rose from the dead, opening the way of life to all who follow Him.
What we believe
Our faith is summarized in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, formulated by the Holy Fathers at the first two Ecumenical Councils in the fourth century. We confess one God in three Persons — the Holy Trinity — and one Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man. We hold that salvation is not a single moment but a lifelong journey of becoming like God by grace (what the Fathers called theosis) — a transformation worked in us by the Holy Spirit through prayer, fasting, the sacraments, and a life of repentance.
How we worship
Orthodox worship is liturgical, sensory, and rooted in tradition that reaches back to the early Church. We sing the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom most Sundays — the same Liturgy prayed by the faithful in Constantinople in the fourth century. We venerate icons as windows into heaven, observe the cycle of fasts and feasts that has shaped Christian time for two millennia, and keep the ancient discipline of preparing for the Eucharist through confession, prayer, and fasting.
The saints
The Church is the communion of saints — the living and the departed together, united in Christ. We ask for the prayers of the saints just as we ask any fellow Christian for prayers, and we honor especially the Theotokos (the Mother of God) and the great saints of every age. Our patron is St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra (4th century), beloved across all Orthodox peoples for his swift help, his defense of the faith, and his quiet generosity.