Questions & Answers
Short, clear answers to the questions people most often ask about the Orthodox Church, each with a fuller page to read.
When is Orthodox Pascha (Easter)?
Orthodox Pascha moves each year: it is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, reckoned on the older Julian calendar and always after the Jewish Passover. Its date is shared by New- and Old-Calendar Orthodox alike.
PASCHA DATES, 2026–2050 ›Why is Orthodox Easter different from Western Easter?
Both East and West set Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, but the Orthodox Church reckons that equinox and full moon on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian, and holds that Pascha must fall after Passover. So the two usually differ, though some years they coincide.
WHY THE DATES DIFFER ›How is the date of Orthodox Pascha calculated?
It is set by the paschalion, the Church's ancient rule: the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon following the spring equinox, computed on the Julian reckoning. Every other movable feast of the year, Great Lent, Palm Sunday, Ascension, Pentecost, is counted from it.
THE MOVEABLE CYCLE ›Is today a fast day in the Orthodox Church?
It depends on the day: the Church fasts on most Wednesdays and Fridays and in four seasons, while feasts lift the fast and some days permit wine and oil, or fish. You can check today's verdict, New Calendar and Old.
IS TODAY A FAST DAY? ›How do Orthodox Christians fast?
On the strictest days the fast sets aside meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil; other days relax it to permit wine and oil, or fish. Fasting is prayer offered with the body, joined always to prayer and almsgiving, and its exact measure is received from one's priest.
FASTING, EXPLAINED ›What is Great Lent?
Great Lent is the forty-day fast of repentance, prayer, and almsgiving that prepares Orthodox Christians for Holy Week and Pascha. It begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha, and moves with it each year.
ABOUT GREAT LENT ›What is the Jesus Prayer?
The Jesus Prayer is the short, ancient prayer at the heart of the Orthodox spiritual tradition: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” In a few words it confesses the whole Gospel and asks for mercy, and it is often prayed on a knotted prayer rope.
THE JESUS PRAYER ›What is a komboskini or prayer rope?
The komboskini is a knotted cord of wool used to pray the Jesus Prayer, one prayer per knot. Each knot is tied of many small crosses, so the whole rope is woven of the Cross; it frees the mind to rest on the words rather than on counting.
THE KOMBOSKINI ›What is theosis (deification)?
Theosis is the Orthodox understanding that salvation is more than forgiveness, it is the human person, by grace, coming to share in the very life of God. We do not become God in essence, which is impossible, but are filled with His uncreated grace and light.
ABOUT THEOSIS ›What is the Nicene Creed?
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is the Orthodox Symbol of Faith, confessed at every Divine Liturgy. Set forth by the first two Ecumenical Councils (325 and 381), it confesses one God in three Persons, the Incarnation, the one Church, one baptism, and the resurrection of the dead.
THE CREED ›What do Orthodox Christians believe about the Holy Trinity?
Orthodox Christians confess one God in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in Essence and undivided. Not three gods, and not one God in three masks, but a unity so complete that it is itself a communion of love.
THE HOLY TRINITY ›Why do Orthodox Christians venerate icons?
Icons are venerated, not worshipped: the honour given to the image passes to the one it depicts. Their veneration rests on the Incarnation, because the invisible God became visible in Christ, He can be depicted, and was affirmed at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787.
ABOUT ICONS ›What are the Seven Ecumenical Councils?
The Seven Ecumenical Councils are the great gatherings, between the fourth and eighth centuries, at which the whole Church confessed the apostolic faith against error, from Nicaea (325), which confessed the Son as of one essence with the Father, to Nicaea II (787), which confessed the holy icons.
THE SEVEN COUNCILS ›What is the Orthodox Church?
The Orthodox Church is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church confessed in the Creed, not first an institution but the Body of Christ, holding the faith of the apostles unbroken. To be Orthodox is to live within that Body, gathered around the bishop and the Eucharist.
ABOUT THE CHURCH ›What are the Holy Mysteries (sacraments)?
The Holy Mysteries are the appointed ways grace is given through visible means, water, oil, bread, wine, the laying-on of hands. The Church counts seven chief among them: Baptism, Chrismation, the Eucharist, Confession, Ordination, Marriage, and Holy Unction.
THE HOLY MYSTERIES ›What is Theophany (Epiphany)?
Theophany keeps the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, when the Holy Trinity was revealed openly for the first time, the Son in the water, the Father's voice, the Spirit as a dove. It falls on January 6 and is the day of the Great Blessing of Waters.
ABOUT THEOPHANY ›What is the Dormition of the Theotokos?
The Dormition, the word means falling asleep, keeps the end of the earthly life of the Virgin Mary, whom the Church holds was received by her Son and raised to be with Him. It falls on August 15 and is preceded by a two-week fast.
ABOUT THE DORMITION ›What is Pascha?
Pascha is the Orthodox celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, the Feast of Feasts, on which the Church proclaims that death itself has been trampled down. It is the feast the whole liturgical year is measured from.
ABOUT PASCHA ›What is the difference between the Old and New Calendar?
New-Calendar Orthodox keep the fixed feasts on civil (Gregorian) dates, while Old-Calendar Orthodox keep them on the Julian reckoning, thirteen days later. Pascha and the whole movable cycle are shared by both, only the fixed feasts differ.
THE LITURGICAL YEAR ›What are the Twelve Great Feasts?
The Twelve Great Feasts are the chief feasts of the Orthodox year, the Nativity and Theophany, the Meeting and Annunciation, the Transfiguration and Dormition, and the rest, with Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, above them all.
THE TWELVE GREAT FEASTS ›Every answer ends where the faith is learned, at the parish. Browse everything ›