Differences of Russian Orthodox and Catholic church

Factual Questions
21

As far as I remember wearing your wedding ring on your right hand is tied to the Orthodox Church.

I seem to recall my mother telling me that the Catholic Church used to cross from right to left but changed c.C16th. I can’t remember the reason as it was so long ago that she told me and only then as my brother and I were giggling and crossing ourselves the wrong way. I assume the Serbian Orthodox Church has similar services to the Russian Orthodox Church, ie, lasting for hours, you can’t sit down, mad priests flinging the incense ball thingy about.

22

Olentzero, the Iconoclast emperors were a phenomenon in the Eastern church (specifically, the Patriarchate of Constantinople), and were pretty much universally opposed by Rome and the other patriarchs. See The Catholic Encyclopedia for a synopsis.

23

By bells I mean church bells-in bell towers. Bells are considering sacred.

24

Um, no. Papal infallibility-what you are thinking of is ex cathedra and it means that DOCTRINE is infallible. It didn’t come about until the 19th century and has only been used twice, when making a statement about the basic fundamentals of Catholicism.

What the Orthodox objected to was that the Bishop of Rome was the head of ALL Christianity. They said he was important, but not more important than the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, or Antioch.
The icon thing-Iconoclasm came about, but it was dropped shortly afterwards. However, some of the split came from whether to use ikons or statues, believe it or not.

25

got a copy of hapgood’s here.

bells:

the bells are used to call faithful to worship. how the bells are rung, which bell, chiming and pealing are according to the rubics (the book that tells you what to do when.) bells are rung at certain parts of the service so if you are sick at home you can follow along with the service and know what is going on.

the sign of the cross:

blessing one’s self is made with the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand joined at the tips, as a symbol of the trinity. the other two fingers are closed on the palm. you touch brow (mind) mid chest (heart) right sholder (soul) and left shoulder (strength). dedicating all of the above to god.

rings:

rubrics prescribes a gold ring for men silver for women. they are worn on the right hand the hand of pledge and strength. most do not have diffrent colour rings anymore. the rings are exchanged three times before groom and bride slide their ring on.

pews:

they are frowned on. the orthodox church is big on moving around during the serivices. one person mentioned that you must have feet of stones to stand through out the services. we may stand throughout the services but we rarely stand still! in the us there are churches with pews usually because the orthodox parish purchased an existing church of another demonination. my mother’s church was swedish luthern before a group of russians bought it in 1918, they took out the pews, and have moveable chairs. my cousin’s church was purchased in 1917 from german lutherns they retained the pews. my church was built by orthodox, no pews, some chairs around the perimeter. don’t get me started on the churches that kept the organs that came with them.

ikons:

ikons are allowed in the orthodox church due to christ coming down to earth to live among us. he could be seen and pictures drawn. ikons are venerated rather like a picture of a dead loved is venerated. i have seen people kiss the photo of someone they love. basicly the same thing. ikons are considered a window to the person depicted. ikons are written and read, not painted and looked at. statues are a no-no

incense:

if you remember nothing else of the services in an orthodox church you will remember the smell of it! incense signifies the desire of the prayer to be bourne up to the throne of god, as the incense is wafted upward. during many services the words,“let my prayer arise in thy sight as incense.” the burning of incense is also concidered a burnt offering.

the split:

the official split was over the words “and the son” added to the creed. the orthodox church considered it heresy. there were cracks in the relations between the 5 patriarchs before 1054. the pope of rome was one of five. after 1054 there were 4 until moscow was given a patriarchate. now there are 5 again. there have been many doctrine changes that would hamper the catholic and orthodox church becoming one again.

singing:

all the “flavours” of orthodox have chants. greek, arabic, bulgarian, kieven, etc. the russian church was very lucky to have major composers write for them. rather like beethoven and bach writing for the german catholic and luthern church.

olentzero, is church slavonic one of your multitude of languages?

26

No, but I did get a grammar as a birthday gift from one of my Russian buddies when I was in St. Petersburg. Haven’t studied it yet. Got some exposure to written OC Slavonic as well when I took a paleography course at SPbGU the same year.

27

a grammer! cool! i have a dictionary that they use in seminaries in the states, but i haven’t seen a grammer. the dictionary helps me find the russian words i should know but don’t.

i tend to mix russian and slavonic when speaking russian. for example i know the word close in russian, open in slavonic. mom never yelled at me to open a door.

28

In researching a post in another thread,
How many cathedrals are in the US?

I came across mention of a mitred archpriest. What’s that all about? How many levels are there between a mitred archpriest and a bishop, and would it seem unusual for the residence of a mitred archpriest to be named a pro-cathedral? Granted, this example is not Orthodox, but Byzantine Catholic.

Any other heirarchical differences? How is the patriarch chosen? Are there big bureaucracies designated to establish who shall be considered a saint, etc?

29

if the mitred archpriest is a monk he is an archimandrite. generally the head of the monestary and usually just below a bishop.

if the mitred archpriest is married and living in a parish he is highly regarded and is considered very highly amoung his peers.

if the mitred archpriest is married and in an enviorment that has more than one priest, ie a seminary, he is called a protopresbyter.

the patriarchs are selected by the synod of bishops. the orthodox church in america has recently elected a new metropolitan. www.oca.org

to become a saint you have to have miracles attributed to you. recently st john of shanghai has been named. http://SaintJohnWonderWorker.org/

usually the rank of clergy is:

sub deacon, reader, deacon (a few levels), priest (quite a few levels), bishop/archbishop, metropolitan, patriach.

for monastics:

brother/sister, mother, abbess, hieromonk, archimandrite

30

Although the OP appears primarily concerned with Russian Orthodoxy, it should be pointed out that there are some minute differences between the Russian Orthodox Church, that of Greece, the patriarchate of Antioch, and so on… especially with regard to pews. I’ve been in newly constructed Antiochian churches, for instance, where there ARE pews.

Fundamentally though, they all pretty much use some sort of Nicene Creed, and I don’t think any of them (even the tiny Orthodox Church of Finland) recognize the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. BUT, churches such as the Greek Orthodox Church or the Russian Orthodox Church should be understood to be essentially independent churches… there is no single unifying personnage (except maybe the Patriarch of Jerusalem? I forget… it’s been awhile since I’ve looked at this stuff) that binds the whole group into an “Orthodox Church” the same way that there is a “Catholic Church”.

31

yep, each flavour of orthodoxy (greek, russian, albanian, syrian, etc) is autocephalous.

when the churches get together in a pan-orthodox synod, the patriach of constantinople is considered the “ceo.” it is rather democratic. each person representing a parish, diocese, monestary, patriarchate, has a vote. the rome-constantinople power struggle way back when, was one of the rips that preceded the “great split.”