The Confession of Faith of the Eastern Orthodox Church

In Accordance with Holy Tradition, the Ecumenical Councils, and Holy Scripture

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I. Of the Holy Trinity

We proclaim and believe in one true and living God — eternal, incorporeal, of unlimited power, wisdom and goodness — the Creator and Sustainer of all things visible and invisible. In this divine unity there are three Persons of one essence, power and eternity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — three distinct Divine Persons who are one in essence, an undivided Trinity, equal in glory, power and eternity.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone (Jn 15:26), as the unalterable Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed bears witness, confirmed by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils in 325 and 381 AD. No party — whether council, episcopate, or individual — holds the right to alter this Creed unilaterally.

“Holy is the Lord our God.” (Psalm 99:9) “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim 1:17)

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II. Of the Son of God — True God and True Man

Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God (Mt 16:16), the Lord of Glory (1 Cor 2:8), the only-begotten Son of God, the Word of God — eternal, co-eternal with the Father, not created. He is true God and true Man, whose two natures — divine and human — are united inseparably, without confusion and without change, in one Person, as proclaimed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.

His incarnation came about through the operation of the Holy Spirit and through the miraculous virgin birth of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary is Theotokos — the God-bearer, the Mother of God — as confirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. This title does not exalt Mary in herself alone, but bears witness to the divine nature of Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ truly suffered, was crucified, died and was buried — and on the third day rose bodily from the dead. His resurrection is the foundation of our salvation and of new life (1 Cor 15:17). He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end (Dan 7:13–14).

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III. Of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity — true and eternal God, co-eternal with the Father and the Son. He is one in essence, majesty and glory with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (Jn 15:26) and rests upon the Son. The Church sends Him into the world to reveal Christ, to give new life, to sanctify believers through the sacraments, and to guide them along the path of theosis.

The Holy Spirit is not merely a power of God, but a complete Divine Person, who dwells in the Church from the day of Pentecost, bearing forward the apostolic tradition, confirming the teaching of the Church and sanctifying the faithful.

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IV. Of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition

The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that the complete revelation of God is given to us in two inseparable sources: Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. These two are not opposites, nor do they compete — they are two dimensions of one and the same revelation.

Holy Scripture (the canonical body of the Old and New Testaments, including the full canon of the Septuagint) is the God-inspired Word. Yet Scripture is not self-transparent to all, nor self-sufficient in isolation — it must be read and interpreted in the light of the Church’s Tradition, for Scripture was born within the Church, not outside of it.

Holy Tradition encompasses:

• The teachings and canons of the Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787 AD)
• The writings and theology of the Church Fathers
• The liturgical heritage of worship
• The apostolic order and rule of life

The principle of sola scriptura — “Scripture alone” — is, from the historical standpoint of the Orthodox tradition, foreign and questionable. The Church did not submit to Scripture as an external standard; rather, Scripture took shape within the experience of the Church, and it is the Church that interprets it.

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V. Of Ancestral Sin and the Fallen Nature of Man

The Orthodox Church believes that Adam and Eve fell — and that as a consequence, all of humanity came to share in a fallen nature: mortality, a tendency towards evil, and vulnerability to sin. This is called the inheritance of ancestral sin (ancestral sin).

Yet the Orthodox Church does not teach Augustine’s Western understanding of guilt-bearing original sin — as though all human beings bear individual legal guilt for Adam’s transgression. Man does not carry the moral and juridical responsibility of Adam’s guilt, but suffers under its consequences — death, weakness and the passions. Redemption, therefore, is not merely the erasure of an indictment, but healing and the renewal of nature.

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VI. Of Free Will and the Grace of God

The Orthodox Church believes that even after Adam’s fall, the image of God (imago Dei) remains dimly present in man — man retains the capacity to respond to God’s grace. Salvation is not a unilateral act of God received passively by man, but synergy — the cooperation of divine grace and the human free will.

This does not mean that man saves himself. Without God’s grace, salvation is impossible. But God does not impose salvation by force — He calls, and man responds. As Saint John Chrysostom says: “God desires all to be saved, but He saves no one against their will.”

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VII. Of the Justification of Man and Theosis

The Eastern Orthodox doctrine of salvation is in its essence more comprehensive than the legal model of justification found in Western theology. Salvation is theosis — deification, the process by which man becomes a partaker of the divine life and nature (2 Pet 1:4).

Theosis does not mean becoming God in essence, but participating in the divine energies — in His love, light and holiness. As Saint Athanasius of Alexandria declared: “The Son of God became man, that we might become god.”

Salvation is therefore not a one-time event, but a lifelong journey: from baptism, through the sacraments, repentance and spiritual growth, unto the resurrection. It is not a declaration or an act of belief alone that accounts us righteous, but living participation in the life of Christ through the Church’s Holy Mysteries.

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VIII. Of Good Works

Good works are not a condition of salvation, nor a means of earning it, but are the fruit of salvation and the expression of theosis. The person who truly lives in Christ naturally bears the fruits of love, mercy and virtue — just as a tree is known by its fruit.

The Orthodox Church does not reject asceticism, fasting, prayer and almsgiving — on the contrary, these are an indispensable part of the spiritual life, helping man to struggle against the passions and to open his heart to God’s grace. They do not serve salvation in a works-meritocratic sense, but actively draw man into sharing in the life of God.

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IX. Of the Church — One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic

The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ, which began at Pentecost (Acts 2) and continues to this day through an unbroken apostolic succession.

The Church is not merely a gathering of believers, nor an invisible spiritual entity — she is the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27), in whom Christ Himself is the Head and the Holy Spirit is the animating life. The boundaries of the Church cannot be exhaustively defined by human means, but the fullness of the Church is where the apostolic sacraments, right teaching and episcopal succession are present.

The Church has a hierarchical order: bishops, priests and deacons. Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, whose ordination takes place through the laying on of hands in apostolic succession. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is “first among equals” — he holds not papal supremacy, but a primacy of honour (prōteion) in the service of unity.

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X. Of the Seven Holy Mysteries (Sacraments)

The Eastern Orthodox Church recognises seven Holy Mysteries (mystērion), also referred to as sacraments. These are not mere external signs or symbols — they are God’s real action through visible means, through which the gift of the Holy Spirit and sacramental communion with grace are given to the believer:

1. Baptism — three-fold immersion in the name of the Trinity; union with the Church, the forgiveness of sin and the beginning of new life in Christ. The baptism of infants is an ancient, ecclesially recognised practice.
2. Chrismation (Myrrh-anointing) — the conferral of the gift of the Holy Spirit immediately after baptism; each baptised person’s “personal Pentecost.”
3. The Eucharist (The Divine Liturgy) — the “Mystery of Mysteries.” The bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ. The Church uses the term metabolē — a mystical change — without explaining this through the scholastic Latin language of transubstantiation. The Eucharist is the central nourishment on the path of theosis.
4. Confession (The Mystery of Repentance) — God grants forgiveness of sins through the witness of the priest. The priest is not a judge, but a spiritual physician and witness. Sin, in the Orthodox understanding, is first of all a disease, not a legal transgression; confession is healing, not the annulment of a penalty.
5. Marriage — the eternal union of a man and a woman in Christ, celebrated through the rite of crowning; a sacrament that points to the communion of Christ and the Church.
6. Holy Orders (Ordination) — the conferral of the diaconate, priesthood and episcopate through the laying on of hands, for the preservation of apostolic succession.
7. Holy Unction (Anointing of the Sick) — the sacrament of physical and spiritual healing, given in times of illness, weakness and the approach of death.

Unlike certain Western approaches, the Orthodox Church does not rigidly limit the number of sacraments to seven — the entire life of the Church is sacramental in character, for the Holy Spirit acts in all that takes place within the Church.

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XI. Of Icons and the Veneration of the Saints

The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that icons — sacred images of Christ, the Theotokos and the saints — are theological testimonies to the Incarnation of Christ. Because God Himself became visible in human form, He is therefore depictable. The veneration of icons (proskynēsis) is not worship (latreia), which belongs to God alone, but an act of honour rendered through the image to the one whom it depicts.

The Second Council of Nicaea (787 AD) confirmed the rightness of venerating icons and condemned iconoclasm (iconoklasmos) as heresy.

The intercession of the saints — the Orthodox Church believes that the saints live in God and that their intercession is efficacious. Praying with the aid of the saints is not a manifestation of superstition, but an expression of the unity of the Church — both earthly and heavenly.

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XII. Of the Word of God in a Language Intelligible to the People

From the time of the Apostles, the Church has proclaimed the Gospel and celebrated the Holy Mysteries in the vernacular languages of the peoples. The missionaries Cyril and Methodius translated the liturgy into Slavic languages as early as the 9th century. The Orthodox Church believes that worship must be comprehensible to the congregation, while at the same time the liturgical language must bear a sense of the sacred and of holiness.

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XIII. Of the One Sacrifice of Christ

The death of Christ upon the Cross is a complete, finished and unrepeatable atoning sacrifice (Heb 10:10–14). The Eucharist is not a repetition of Christ’s sacrifice, but its mystical making present (anamnēsis) — the same Christ, the same sacrifice, offered once on Golgotha, is eucharistically present at every Divine Liturgy. According to the Church’s dogmas, this is one and the same sacrifice, not a new one.

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XIV. Of the Marriage and Celibacy of the Clergy

The Eastern Orthodox Church honours both ways of clerical life: priests and deacons may be married (marriage must be contracted before ordination); bishops are chosen from among monastic priests who have taken the vow of celibacy. The monastic life and celibacy are regarded as the highest expression of spiritual self-dedication, but this is not an obligation incumbent upon all clergy.

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XV. Of Repentance after Baptism

The Orthodox Church firmly believes that repentance is always possible. No sin — however grave — is unforgivable, if a person turns to God with genuine contrition. There is no boundary between sin and grace that the mercy of God cannot cross.

Sinning after baptism does not mean the final forfeiture of grace. The sacrament of confession is available in the Church as a continuing path of repentance and a means of spiritual healing. As Holy Isaac the Syrian says: “If you have fallen many times, rise many times — every time. God is waiting.”

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XVI. Of Prayer for the Departed

The Eastern Orthodox Church prays for the departed at every Divine Liturgy and especially on appointed days of commemoration (panikhida). This does not rest upon the Western teaching of purgatory (purgatorium), but upon the theology of the unity of the Church: the dead and the living are members of one Church, and our prayers reach them through God’s mercy.

The unity of the Church is not broken by death — it simply takes on a different form.

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XVII. Of the Rites of the Church and the Order of Worship

Liturgical diversity has always existed throughout the history of the Church — different traditions (Byzantine, Alexandrian, Antiochene) bear the same faith in different liturgical languages and forms. All these traditions must nonetheless follow the canons and dogmas confirmed by the Ecumenical Councils.

The Liturgy is not merely a service order — it is a mode of participation in the heavenly reality, in which the Church exists simultaneously on earth and in heaven, in time and in eternity.

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XVIII. Of the Property of Christians

The property and possessions of Christians belong to each person individually, but the spirit of love and community calls believers to share from their abundance with the poor, to support the Church and to bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2). The early Church lived in a spirit of sharing (Acts 2:44–45), which is an eternal pattern and not a passing ideal.

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Conclusion: The Foundation of This Confession

This confession rests upon:

• The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (325/381 AD)
• The decisions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787 AD)
• Holy Scripture interpreted in the light of the Church’s Tradition
• The theology of the Church Fathers — particularly the writings of Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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Compiled on the basis of the Holy Tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the theology of the Church Fathers and the teachings of the Ecumenical Councils.