HOW ARE CERTAIN TERMS TO BE USED?
A MINIGLOSSARY

© 2000, 2001, 2004 by Orchid Land Publications

[updated 20040416]

     Various terms are often ignorantly (and sometimes harmfully) misused; there follow some examples.   Failure to use important terms acribologically can result in avoidable and fruitless arguments; we should keep our terminology clean.  Using Western terminology for Orthodox concepts is not only misleading; it undermines the flavor and phronema of holy Orthodoxy.  The terms discussed below are not given in alphabetical order--for several reasons.  Use your find program to access a given term.

THE LITSAS DICTIONARY OF ORTHODOX TERMINOLOGY

SEE ALSO R297 for how terms can be MISused;  see also R149

McGRATH'S GLOSSARY

A FURTHER TERMINOLOGICAL SOURCE IS 
AN EXACT EXPOSITION OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH 
by ST. JOHN OF DAMASKOS 
Chh. II. 22-23 (and throughout
 this website, especially HERE )

CLICK HERE FOR PREVAILING MISTRANSLATIONS OF ORTHODOX TERMINOLOGY INTO ENGLISH AND FOR REASONS FOR NOT USING WESTERN TERMS

     For vema, iconostasion, various parts of a temple, etc., see Peter D. Day's The Liturgical dictionary of Eastern Orthodoxy (The Liturgical Press, 1993); Historical dictionary of the Orthodox Church, M. Prokurat, et al.; G. H. Demetrakopoulos's Dictionary of Orthodox theology (New York,  1964);  Ed. Fr. Nicon Patrinacos, A dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy (Hellenic Heritage Publications, 3d printing 1992); and the three-volume The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium (OUP, 1991).  A glossary of Greek theological terminology is found at the beginning (pp. 1-15) of C. N. Tsirpanlis' Introduction to Eastern Patristic thought and Orthodox theology (The Liturgical Press, 1991).

This page should be read in conjunction with  
NECESSARY DISTINCTIONS IN THEOLOGY.

  CLICK HERE FOR TERMINOLOGICAL MISUSES; and
HERE FOR GREEK PSYCHOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY
     Since English lacks various religious concepts of Greek Orthodoxy, one is faced with the choice of trying to calque or translate them with an ordinary English word or to "engineer" the Greek term into becoming part of English.  Words like logos "reason" and logoi "reasons," Logos (the Creator in John 1:1,3:  the Reason of God--also called the Wisdom [Sophia] of God by St. Paul), Theotokos "Birth-giver of God," theosis "Divinization" (not "Deification" = apothéosis), phronema "mind-set, attitude, outlook," and homophore or omophórion "oversight, jurisdiction" have come to be ordinary English in some Orthodox circles.  But what about neptic (neptikón [with Gk. eta], adj. to the n. nêpsis "sobriety, temperance, restraint"); Dr. Geo. Gabriel has pointed out that "The neptikoi patéres were sober in protecting the senses as entry points for temptation into the soul and body."  Neptic thus conveys connotations of diligence or vigilance--watchfulness--being on guard against sensuous temptations.  Noëtic (Gk. noëtikón, adj. to the n. noûs "transcendent understanding [or mind or intellect], understanding-beyond-reason")--as well as various epithets of Christ and His mother used in iconography?   When, as often, no English word fits the Greek term, it is best to add the English gloss in parenthesis and write, e.g. "neptic ('vigilant-toward-the-senses-and-their-temptations')" or something appropriate but less clumsy and "noëtic ('transrational, preterrational')"--or something better in either instance, if it can be found--until the terms become at home in English and embedded in our language as part of the its religious vocabulary--something that can take several years.  Dynamis "potential power" and  energy "energy/energization, actuation, actualization, realization" require an understanding of their contrasting relationship in New Testament and Patristic Greek in order to be understood; SEE ALSO HERE.  One should beware of silly mistranslations like "Symbol of Faith" for sýmvolon písteos "Standard of belief"--not to mention the gross errors of rendering ktisis "creation" as though it were ktísma "creature" and [h]omoíosis Theô[i] "Assimilation to God" as though the first word were [h]omoioma "likeness."  (Sometimes, aphomoíosis is used for "assimilation.")

ON HOW ORTHODOXY GETS PRESENTED IN ENGLISH

      Minister.   Originally, minister was one of two translations into Latin of the Greek word, diákonos "servant; deacon."  (Change the young in "youngster" to mini-, and you will discern the actual derivation of the term--mini- + -ster)  Today, minister is used by traditionalists as equivalent to ministrant, the one who administers or performs--or, as the Orthodox say, "serves"--an ecclesiastical function.   (The minister of the divine Liturgy can be a priest or hierarch.)  Those denominations in which a clergyperson is referred to as a preacher (or even pastor) show that his job is archetypally humanward rather than Godward.  Whereas a priest stands before God for the people, addressing God with the Worship of the faithful, the diaconal (deacon)  function of Christians is humanward, viz. to serve or minister to (to help and comfort) other humans in need.  The  priestly function of the members of Christ, to offer up a sacrifice--or more generally, any sort of Worship to God.   (Strictly, priesthood is a sacrificial office or function; sermons and prayers for one's own needs address human needs and are not Worship.)   In sum, though traditional deacons are, like the Hebrew levites that the disciples of the Apostles compared them to, part of the latreutic priesthood, they nevertheless are more human-oriented than God-oriented priests.  But priestly (sacerdotal) orders include the prior diaconate:  A priest is acting as the deacon he has previously been, and never ceased to be, when he preaches--something that even lay-women do--or when he comforts those in need.  A patriarch can and does refer to his diaconate.   See further below under pastor.  At various times, the Church has had deaconesses--who mainly ministered to the poor, but also, like abbesses, served the hours and devotional offices for nuns and other women, etc.

SEE THIS PAGE FOR CLERGY RANKS & TITLES
 CLICK HERE FOR RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, 
RELIGIOSITY, & SANCTIMONY
 CLICK HERE FOR CONSERVATIVE 
& RADICAL CHRISTIANITY

     Worship and veneration:   Worship (latreía or latry) is a God-directed action (hence, it is not preaching or praying for one's own needs).  Idolatry is rendering latreia to any creature.  For the rôle of Sacrifice in religion and the distinction between mactation or immolation and offering, anaphora, or oblation, CLICK HERE & HERE.  Orthodoxy does not spurn the material (mysteric or sacramental) side of religion or worshiping with the body (cf. Rom. 12:1)--with crossings, prostrations, kissing holy objects, etc.   (But CLICK HERE for more on this.)  Kissing holy objects is not a form of Worship but of Veneration (douleía or duly).  Veneration  falls short of being Worship but is a reverential attitude and reverential behavior toward a saintly member of Christ's Body or some holy object--a blessed icon, cross, or relic (cf. Acts 19:12) that the faithful kiss and use for healing, etc.   Wonder-working (miracle-working) relics that have healed the sick, for example, are highly venerated; icons that ooze fragrant myrrh are also venerated by the faithful.  The highest form of veneration is the hyperduly accorded to the most holy Theotókos or Birth-Giver of God, St. Mary the Virgin.    Some sort of minor veneration is accorded to some (called "Blessed . . .") who have not yet been "glorified" (by a primate in the divine Liturgy) as Saints of the Orthodox Church.   St. Olaf of Norway is the last Saint also recognized by the Latins to be acknowledged as an Orthodox Saint; but many English, Irish, Italian, Teutonic, Iberian, Gallic, and other Saints who lived prior to that time are also Orthodox Saints--with days in the ecclesiastical calendar especially devoted to recalling their lives--their sufferings (in the case of "Confessors") and deaths (in the case of "Martyrs").

     Rite and Ceremony:  A ceremony is what a minister does; a rite is the form of words that he uses when he does it.  Rites also include rubrics--directions for how to do what one does.  One should not confuse ritual (having to do with words) and ceremonial (having to do with actions).

    Efcholoyion "Prayer book" (Slavic Trebnik  "Book of needs").  This volume offers the rituals for occasional services, especially the Mysteries (including Anointing and Communion of the sick, etc.; there are no fixed "last rites" for the dying in Orthodoxy, but Communion [from the reserved holy Gifts] is had where possible).

CLICK HERE FOR MYSTERY AND HERE FOR MYSTICAL

    Dogma and doctrine:    (Greek dógma has often been used for a doctrine as well as a dogma; paidevma is a more accurate word for "doctrine.")  A dogma is in some ways more like an essential question, while doctrines are ways of answering the question thus posed.    By "essential" question, one means a matter that has got to be dealt with in order to be Orthodox; failure to be involved in it is otherdox (heterodox) or, more usually, heretical.  (CLICK HERE FOR MORE.)  That God is both three (in one sense) and one (in another sense) is a dogma, as is the teaching that Jesus Christ is both completely God and completely human.  Obviously, different groups can accept the same dogma while differing on doctrines intended to explain what the dogma means.  Of the many answers that have been given to dogmatic questions, most are heretical because they diminish one side of the matter in favor of the other--going to an extreme and failing to find the right balance.  

A DOGMA 

DOCTRINES about a dogma

is a given--a premise--and  stands between a fact and a definition:  Less cognitive than accepted (by the will on the basis of testimonies and other evidence) as true

are interpretive:  Cognitive, not willed, and hence true or false--though only one such is true with respect to a given aspect of whatever dogma is being interpreted
      One can think of the relation of dogma to doctrine the way a potential (dýnamis) is related to its actualization --energy (SEE HERE).  While dogmas are essential in a way that doctrines are not  (though an energy defines its essence), it is not surprising that a (true or false) doctrine makes clear what a dogma means in a given framework (note that dýnamis also means "meaning") and thus gives life (or death, in the case of a faulty doctrine) as well as meaning to the dogma in question.  A doctrine can be a merely permitted theolog(o)umenon, or it can be neces- sary--de fide in Latin terminology--to maintain the integrity of the dogma it interprets.

     Through the centuries, the holy Patristic tradition has mooted and sifted through every possible answer to each dogma(tic question) and finally accepted only THE answer that preserves the right balance; the answer meeting this description is the Orthodox doctrine or teaching concerning the  dogma in question.  Some doctrines do not appear to be either heretical or essential to Orthodoxy; e.g. the Orthodox allow belief in the assumption of the most holy Theotókos but do not require it as an essential dogma to be embraced in order to be Orthodox.  What is definitely Orthodox is the celebration of the Festival of her falling asleep (Dormition, which is preceded by a minor "lent" or fast).  Terminological propriety distinguishes being dogmatic (which is a good thing, seeing as it means not being wishy-washy or relativistic) from being doctrinaire (which is bad, since it indicates intolerance toward permissible and inconsequential differences).   A theologoumenon is a mooted point--neither forbidden nor accepted as an integral part of the Orthodox tradition; it may be accepted by a few; or it may be widely accepted (like the Assumption of the Theotokos). 

    Heresy and schism (pronounced "sizzum"):  Though these have been defined in different ways, the simplest, most useful, and indeed most common usage is:     A schism is a split in the Church over matters that do not involve dogma, right Worship, or perhaps even right moral behavior.  Schisms usually involve different ways of doing things--and a failure on both sides to allow some tolerance in minor or extra-ecclesiastic matters.   Heresy involves false doctrines or, alternatively, the rejection of an Orthodox dogma.   Apostasy is falling away from a Faith formerly embraced.  It may be added that fideism is willed "belief" (e.g. "I believe it because it is absurd") coupled with a rejection of reasoned belief (lógos-based belief).   

     The apophatic or negative approach to mysteries discerns what is not or cannot be so.  The cataphatic or affirmative is not possible for infinite mysteries, since the human mind is finite.   It may however sometimes infer the inverse of an apophatic conclusion; and, of course, it can accept positive affirmations delivered through revelation, especially statements of OLGS Jesus Christ and His immediate companions--the holy Apostles.   The delusion that one has sufficient intelligence and wisdom to explicate the unknowable is at the opposite extreme from fideism--the approach of simply willing to believe what one is present with--or what one wants to believe (as if wishing for something to be true made it true).  In this connection, it should be remembered that Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, re-defined faith (Latin fides) as fiducia, a subjective and volitional-intentional trusting in Christ and loyalty to him.  Fidelitas or loyalty follows from being persuaded on acceptable grounds.  SEE ALSO HERE.   Those who believe that will is superior to reality accept virtual (imputational) reality.  

     The Orthodox claim that  ecumenism/ecumenicity is heretical when, as is usual, it accepts and even promotes a relativistic view of dogma or accepts a "branch" view of the true Church--the idea that the true Church does not yet exist--or else does exist in all or most of the conflicting forms of Christianity with their incompatible paradigms and their incompatible tenets.  Aside from John 16:13, which has been operative to guide the one true Church in every century till the present time, Orthodox accepts a different view of religious reality from those espoused in either of the two paradigms of Western Christianity, both ultimate derived from Latin translations of Islamic Aristotelians resident in Cordova after the Mediæval Latins had lost contact with the Greek-language roots of Christianity as the result of about seven and a half centuries of barbaric and illiterate Dark Ages--a time when culture was thriving in Orthodox Byzantion and Islamic Cordova (with 700 mosques)--the two largest cities west of China at a time when Paris had twenty to forty thousand inhabitants and Rome was a small town.   

     The terms cult and sect should be distinguished.  Both have human founders, normally individuals; a cult venerates a particular saint within the Church or the founder of a sect.  Not all sects are cults.  Christian sects are groups "cut off" from contact--lineal or cognitive--with the historic Church.   Today, one often speaks of a sect as a group that has not yet reached the status of what some sociologists speak of as a "mainline" form, or, in areas where an established religion prevails, a "non-established" form, of the religion it professes.  

     Heresiarch.  Heresiarch.  The initiator or founder of a heresy.     

     Fideism is believing not on the basis of any cognitive conviction, but as an act of obedience to some authority.  This  would better be termed fiducialism.  The Reformation framework diverged from the holy tradition not only in its conceptualization of faith, but also in conceptualizing Grace and Justification non-ontologically--that is, volitionally--as divine imputation (virtual or as-if reality).  The West generally has changed the original significance of the Creator     

     The Reformation framework diverged from the holy tradition not only in its conceptualization of faith, but also in conceptualizing Grace and Justification non-ontologically--that is, volitionally--as divine imputation (virtual or as-if reality).  The West generally has changed the original significance of the Creator LOGOS ("Rational Principle of Order") to "Word"--originally a Gnostic view as well as the word-magic (hocus-pocus) of many cultures investigated by anthropologists.   "Word" is incompatible with the usage of Philo, the Jewish middle Platonist, whose life overlapped that of Jesus; it also is incompatible with the idea that creation of  the cosmos by "Reason" (John 1:1,3) is why it is orderly and intelligible (loyikós, rather than being "wordy"); and the Biblical and Patristic view of Jesus as both the LOGOS (theoretical Reason) and Wisdom (practical--(H)ayía Sophía) of God makes no sense when Word is correlated with Wisdom.  If Logos with an upper-case"L" refers to the Creator as the rational Principle giving order and consistency to all that has created by Him  (John 1:1,3, etc.), the logoses (Greek lóyoi)  with lower-case "l" are the principles in things that, along with their energies, make them what they, members of a class of things, allow them to fit into a rational and orderly cosmos. 

     The correlation of Greek eikón ("Image [of God]") and [h]omoíosis Theô ("Assimilation to God" or "Cognation with God"--not "Likeness," which would be the passive or resultive [h]omoíoma in Greek).  The Icon is a dýnamis; the Assimilation is an enérgeia (SEE HERE).  The Icon of God is part of human nature (not even the holy Angels have it) and was of course not lost at the Fall the way the Cognation was; this latter assimilation to God enables the potential of the Icon--reason and freewill--to serve the divine Will:  It is the Energy of Grace, the Life of Christ, whose members partake of the divine Nature (2 Pet. 1:4) or Energies through the joining of divine and human natures in the Person of their Head; no creature can partake of the divine Essence.  See below for théosis ("Divinization"--also theopoíesis--a matter of Energies) and apothéosis ("Deification," a matter of Essence).  The moral of all of this is that improper translations that obscure Greek distinctions can only lead to befuddlement in theological thinking.

     Ontology and psychology often get confused in discussions of the Trinity, Grace. Salvation, etc.  Ontology has to do with being--i.e. with what is--while psychology is cognitive.  Some separate from our mental faculties the will and emotions or "passions."   (The last word is a highly inadequate translation of the ancient  word referring to our cravings, hankerings, or yearnings.)  While it is more often recognized that the will cannot be truly free if the willer does not understand what is being willed, there is a framework in will is prior to all else and independent of being and reason; this is theletism or voluntarism.   In this framework, will creates virtual realities which are viewed as more real than reality.   In the theletist framework of the Reformers, faith was redefined volitionally as willed to assent (to some tenet); and virtual reality is seen in Luther's simul justus, simul peccator "at the same time both [virtually] righteous and [(f)actually] a sinner," as well as in Calvin's virtual presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Protestant Lord's Supper.  

    Triadology or terminology relating to teachings about the all-holy Trinity.  Ousía is the Essence (Substance in the West), and Hypóstasis refers to each of the three Persons.  For Phýsis "nature," CLICK HERE; for Enéryeia, SEE HERE.  The techncal difference between essence and nature--for those who make a difference, mainly philosophers--is not all that difference from an  everyday statement like "It's Cecil's nature to cut corners, but his essence is just to be human."  In brief, a nature is a function of an essence--just the way energies are.  Schésis is used for the relation of one Hypostasis to another--an active or agentive relation from the Father's side, a passive one from the side of the Son and the Holy Spirit.  For ekpórefsis or procession and ékpempsis or mission (ad extra; see John 15:26), CLICK HERE.   (A procession is Each Hypostasis has its identififying or distinguishing hypostatic property or idiótes:   The Father's peculiar property is inoriginateness or anarchía (for the Trinity's single origin, one uses the term monarchía); the Son's peculiar property is yennesía or being generated; and the Spirit's peculiar property is pnefstía   (The terms yennesía and pnefstía are not found in most Greek dictionaries, as the property of the Son's yénnesis or generateness from the Father and the pneufsis or spiration of the Pnevma or Spirit from the Father are not often discussed in terms of abstract properties by Orthodox theologians.)   The study of Christ is Christology; of the all-holy Paraclete, Pneumatology.  Other terms sometimes occur; e.g. axiómata "dignities."  One term that is very important is períchoresis (or enýparxis), the interpenetration (Latin circuminsession or circumincession) or commonalty of what the three Hypostases of the Trinity are and do (except their distinctive properties), despite the idiopoíesis or appropriation of creation and Incarnation to the Son, the Reason and Wisdom of God, and the appropriation of inspiration and the consecration of the eucharistic Gifts to the Spirit (in the West, He is the Will and Love of God).   (See Ps. 32:6 in Greek; it is Ps. 33 in the English versions.)  St. Gregory (of Nazianzos) the Theologian spoke, in Oration 34.8, of the "three" (jobs?--he doesn't use the word ergasía, pragmateía, or epimeíleia) of the Persons of the Trinity as causer, creator, and perfector.  He also special object of the Son as human nature, while that of the all-holy Spirit is the individual.  Períchoresis is also used for the synergy or coöperation of the two natures, divine and human, in the single Person of Jesus Christ.

     Compounds in -dox:

orthodox "of right belief, right praise [worship]"
otherdox, heterodox  "believing otherwise [being schismatic or
     heretical]"
schedorthodox "almost orthodox"
cacodox "of ill or harmful belief or worship"
exoticodox "of really far out belief or worship"; describes pantheism--see 
     also pantodox below)
holodox "accepting the entire Faith, not cutting corners"
planodox, (apoplaneticodox,) excentricodox "of straying belief or worship"
catharodox "of pure belief or worship"
polydox "of many beliefs/faiths/worships" [e.g. North America]
neodox "modernist," "innovating with respect to belief or worship"
ultradox; the proper Greek formation is hyperdox [the term is used by some
     who are called or miscalled"modernists" to describe those who call them that]
microdox, hypodox "having an exiguous number of beliefs or too few beliefs"
mega(lo)dox,macrodox, polyplocodox/periplocodox, p(o)ecilodox
     "scholastic; holding many and/or very complicated doctrines
     about given dogmas; of great complexity" (e.g. Orthodox fasting rules)
platydox, pan(to)dox,  "broad-minded towards faith or
     worship, tolerant of all beliefs or modes/concepts of worship"
mixodox "syncretistic"
scheticodox "relativist toward belief or worship--treating all as equal"
autodox, authorodox "adhering to self-invented or self-defined
     belief or worship"
pseudodox "of imaginary or incoherent belief or worship" (used to
     indicate that a feeling or act is a "belief"; calling preaching or
     praying for one's own needs"worship" is pseudodox)
cenodox, celodox (coelodox) "empty of all beliefs or worship," "holding hollow
    beliefs or beliefs void of all content," "performing hollow worship
    or worship having no real or valid latreutic content"
stereodox "of stubborn belief" "of right belief, right praise [worship]"
otherdox, heterodox  "believing otherwise [being schismatic or
     heretical]"
schedorthodox "almost orthodox"
cacodox "of ill or harmful belief or worship"
exoticodox "of really far out belief or worship"; describes pantheism)
planodox, (apoplaneticodox,) excentricodox "of straying belief or worship"
catharodox "of pure belief or worship"
polydox "of many beliefs/faiths/worships" [e.g. North America]
neodox "modernist," "innovating with respect to belief or worship"
ultradox; the proper Greek formation is hyperdox [the term is used by some
     who are called or miscalled"modernists" to describe those who call them that]
microdox, hypodox "having an exiguous number of beliefs or too few beliefs"
mega(lo)dox,macrodox, polyplocodox/periplocodox, p(o)ecilodox
     "scholastic; holding many and/or very complicated doctrines
     about given dogmas; of great complexity" (e.g. Orthodox fasting rules)
platydox, pan(to)dox,  "broad-minded towards faith or
     worship, tolerant of all beliefs or modes/concepts of worship"
mixodox "syncretistic"
scheticodox "relativist toward belief or worship--treating all as equal"
autodox, authorodox "adhering to self-invented or self-defined
     belief or worship"
pseudodox "of imaginary or incoherent belief or worship" (used to
     indicate that a feeling or act is a "belief"; calling preaching or
     praying for one's own needs"worship" is pseudodox)
cenodox, celodox (coelodox) "empty of all beliefs or worship," "holding hollow
    beliefs or beliefs void of all content," "performing hollow worship
    or worship having no real or valid latreutic content"
stereodox "of stubborn belief"
sclerodox "hardened or close-minded belief"

It has proved hard to find a word for "sloppy" belief (alogodox is not really on the button); so I propose the hybrid--fuzzydox.  One can, however, use thampodoxical.

     Theology and Economy:  Theology has two senses, one of which is the usual sense for the study of doctrine.  (CLICK HERE FOR THE BRANCHES OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES.)  Economy also has an everyday sense pretty much like dispensation in Latin usage.  (See the next entry.)  But St. Gregory (of Nazianzos) the Theologian distinguished theology from economy, both in broader senses than the foregoing:  Theology has to do with activities aimed at thinking about the divine Trinity more clearly; since God's Essence is unknowable, such thinking is chiefly limited to concluding what the divine Essence is not (apophatic theology).   But the operations of God's Energies in creation and Salvation, and specificially in the Incarnation of God the Son, reveal a great deal about His relationship to humanity; and studies in this realm belong to Economy in the larger sense.

     Acrivia (akríbeia) "strict exactitude" and Economy (oikonomía) "dispensation":   Acrivia refers to the exact application of canon law, while economy refers to an exemption or dispensation from some aspect of a canon by the bishop or some other clergyman (depending on the matter at hand) for promoting the Salvation of one or many persons.   Economy is very circumscribed and should not be used or applied in any way that would harm anything essential to the Orthodox religion.  Validity is not the same as authenticity: 

     Where the Latins and Anglicans speak of validity, the main distinction in Orthodoxy is canonicity, though it is based on so many different considerations that it is losing its value.    .  Formal validity (kyros or íschys, often vevaiótes) vs. ontological authenticity (exousía, sometimes the more modern afthentikótes ("genuineness, actuality"); the adjectives are gnésion, afthentikón, alethinón).  (The terms are infelicitously called lesser validity and greater validity, respectively, by some authors.)  Validity is to authenticity as dýnamis is to enéryeia.  Gnesiótes is licitness--usually called canonicity in the Orthodox world--is the juridical aspect of the matter.  (For canonicity, see what follows below.)   In summary, validity  refers to what is correctly done from a formal or factual perspective.  (Thus, the apostolic succession of a Western body can be valid without the Orthodox recognizing it as authentic (Greek afthentikón) "actual, genuine")--i.e. as being part of the Church in which the pleroma or fulness of Grace exists.  What is done in the Orthodox Church is authentic when valid; uncanonical acts can be authenticated by economy.  Mere validity does not confer authenticity--the Life of the divine Energies--Grace. 
     The terms canonical and canonicity are often used in North America in ways whose connection with validity or authenticity is unclear; the terms are of course  juridical but in North America have strong jurisdictional overtones.  Except perhaps the direct descendents of the first Orthodox in America (originally Russian Alaska), who gave North America its first Orthodox martyrs (one, an Aleut Indian) as well as other Saints who bore the most distressing hardships, all jurisdictions in America exist--strictly (kat' akríbeian) speaking--in violation of the canons that forbid more than one bishopric in a given place.  Besides violating that ecumenical prohibition, jurisdictions based on ethnicity are doubly uncanonical in that they stand in violation of phyletism--i.e. deciding ecclesiastical matters on the basis of  ethnicity-- condemned by a pan-Orthodox synod in the last century (see Rom. 10:12, Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11).   The use of canonicity in any sense other than that of being consonant with canon law--either strictly or else economically (with reference to allowable deviations)--will hardly hold water. 

It is a cause for wonder to reflect that, although several small countries in eastern Europe (Albania,  Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania) and even an island in the Ægean Sea (Kypros) are autocephalous (self-governing) or autonomous (e.g. Sinai, Finland, Japan), some North American and other jurisdictions are under the omophorions (jurisdicitons) of foreign hierarchs that they have no say in the selection of (in at least one instance, the selection is made by an Islamic government).

     Omophorion:  This is a vestment worn by hierarchs.  But the phrase, "being under the omophorion of [hierarch]" is equivalent to "being under the jurisdiction of [hierarch]."   A stavropegial institute, monastery, or temple is directly under the omophorion of a primate rather than the local bishop.

     Power (dýnamis) and energy (enéryeia):   Energy is a basic concept of Orthodox thinking (SEE HERE FOR A LONGER DISCUSSION); it stands to dýnamis as actualization stands to potential.

     Altar vs. Pulpit.  An Altar is an instrument for offering a piece of the material creation TO THE CREATOR, whereas a Pulpit is an instrument for offering sermons TO HUMAN AUDITORS.  Note that Sacrifice is the return of a good part of creation (this is impossible for Gnostics, who regard matter as evil) to God as a token of His ownership of and sovreignty over the whole cosmos.   The only perfect Offering is of course OLGS Jesus Christ.     Altar vs. Pulpit.  An Altar is an instrument for offering a piece of the material creation TO THE CREATOR, whereas a Pulpit is an instrument for offering sermons TO HUMAN AUDITORS.  Note that Sacrifice is the return of a good part of creation (this is impossible for Gnostics, who regard matter as evil) to God as a token of His ownership of and sovreignty over the whole cosmos.   The only perfect Offering is of course OLGS Jesus Christ.

     Church and Temple:  The Church is an institution more spiritual than material, but with an inalienable material or mysteric (sacramental) existence and continuity; a temple is a material place of Worship containing an Altar.  An oratory is a house of prayer which has icons, etc., but no altar; it is often part of a hermitage.   A temple that houses the chair (Greek:  throne) of a bishop is a cathedral.    (The term comes from Latin cathedra "chair," just as see, the domain or jurisdiction of a bishop, derives from Latin sedes "seat." )  There is at a given time, therefore, only one functional Orthodox cathedral in any diocese (in America one has unfortunately got to add:  of any given jurisdiction).   A city like Moscow may have disused cathedrals in addition to its active Orthodox cathedral.  Like the Hebrew Holy of Holies ("The holiest" in the New Testament, written in Greek), the Sanctuary (or vema or even "Altar") in an Orthodox Church an enclosed area at the East end of a temple; it is where the Holy Table or Altar stands, separated from the nave.    (The Denominationist use of sanctuary seems degraded to the Orthodox, but stems from the Protestant idea that the members of the congregation are--functional, but non-sacrificial?--"priests."  Orthodoxy accepts that every Orthodox person in the congregation joins the priest--all being members of Christ--in HIS offering  [in us His members] up the holy Sacrifice; but priests are priests, and laypeople are laypeople.)  The iconostasi(on) or icon screen that separates the Sanctuary from the nave--where stands the congregation--has three doors (with St. Gabriel the Archangel naturally on the side of the Theotokos and St. Michaël the Archangel on the side of the Savior).  Just outside of the vema, on the nave side of the iconostasion, is a platform, raised above the floor of the nave, called the solea(s).   (Formerly, an ambo stood in the midst of the nave; it was a raised platform where chanters stood, the Gospel was read, and sermons were preached.)   Today, the chanters stand at the side of the soleas; a Deacon stands on the soleas much of the time, singing litanies with the people.     The celebrant of the Liturgy or Hour Office uses the "royal doors" in the middle (normally fitted with a curtain), while the deacon and subdeacons or acolytes use the right-hand and left-hand doors.  Various icons have traditional places (on the icon screen; in the curved apse; and on the parts of the dome supported by pillars); the icon of OLGS Jesus Christ is on the right side of the royal doors, and that of the Mother of God is on their left side.  Small icons adjoining these large protrayals are kissed by the celebrant when  entering the Sanctuary at various times during a service.) 

     Parish vs. Congregation.  A Parish is an administrative unit within a larger administrative unit--a diocese.  Stravropegial institutes, monasteries, and occasionally parishes are directly under the oversight of a primate--the chief hierarch of an ecclesiastical jurisidction.  A Congregation is an assemblage of people in a temple or other meeting place.

      Monastery, skete, oratory, hermitage.   A monastery for men or women (the term convent is seldom used for the latter in Orthodoxy) consists of buildings with a cell for each monk, a trapeza or refectory, and of course a temple.  (SEE HERE.)  A skete typically consists of huts clustered around a temple; each hut houses three or four monastics and an elder or eldress (see below).  (Idiorrhythmic sketes--not considered authentically monastic by some--allow monastics to have some private possessions; such monastics worship in the catholicon or communal temple only on festivals and Lordsdays.  There is a more communal [coenobitic] kind of skete where services and meals are communal, just as in the usual lavra monastery--where monastic cells are in the same building.)  Hermits live in hermitages or huts for solitary monastics; they may have an oratory or house of prayer attached to the hut they live in, but more often have simply an icon shelf or the like, and in any case are expected to attend  nearby temple on Lordsdays and other holy days.  After postulants have become novice monastics, they wear a simple cassock as rasophore monastics; they are  archarioi ("beginners") and wear a loose-sleeved rason --the "forehabit"--over the cassock.   Stavrophore (cross-wearing) monastics are fully established proschema monastics who have taken the four vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stablity.  Men have to be at least twenty-five years old; women, at least forty.  This grade is called the little schema (microschema).  Stavrophore monastics wear the "little habit."  The highest grade or degree of Orthodox monasticism is the great schema (megaloschema); monastics of this grade wear the "great or Angelic habit."  The schema grades or degrees are increasingly austere and secluded; the great schema takes many years to attain to.  Elders are normally monks; they are persons who have attained to great ascetic advancement and knowledge, persons resorted to by others for spiritual guidance.  They even hear confessions and, even when not priests, beseech God to forgive the sins of those who resort to them.

      The rooms and furniture (tables, pulpit, episcopal throne or seat) of a temple have their various names (see HERE).  Larger temples have a building with a pool for Baptisms; it is called a phiále (fiali) and may be attached to the temple or unattached like a gazebo.

      Essence, nature, energies, and existence:  It is the second of these terms, nature, that is used ambiguously.  Essence is the inalienable core of being; in the case of God, It is unknowable and unapproachable by humans:  It is being beyond being, as the Fathers maintained; when God became man, Being beyond Being became being.  Nature should be used in the sense of a function of an essence; that means that it is not a synonym for essence (as many use it), but something between essence and an individuated hypostasis (or person, in the case of humans and beings superior to humans).  (The "oriental" or pre-Chalcedonian Christians often use nature [SEE HERE] more or less equivalently to hypostasis.)  Formerly, one often spoke of the accidents of nature--things like color, height, weight, shape, etc. that vary individually without changing the nature of the individual existents in question to something else.  Some accidents have been called essential in the sense that the nature in question never exists apart from them, though they are not necessary to the nature's being the nature it is.   The term existence has as checkered a history as has had nature; but that will be left to philosophical dictionaries and not be gone into here--beyond mentioning that it is used of individual beings, not of natures or essences.  The chief distinction in Orthodox thinking is that between ESSENCE and ENERGY.  (Energy is a function of essence and therefore technically natural rather than essential.  Energy stands to power [dýnamis] as actualization stands to potential.)    Each being has the energies of its nature, and these are knowable even in the case of God's uncreated Energies.  The operations or energizations of God in the created "economy" (the created cosmos)   information we could not otherwise come by; this is above all true of the Incarnation of God the Son.  Grace--without which there can be no Salvation (Rom. 3:24,27-28, 4:4,16, 11:5-6, , Gal. 3:11-12, Eph. 2:8, Titus 3:7)--is (for the Orthodox) an uncreated but operative divine Energy that unites us with Christ, give His members His Life and the energy to perform good works necessary to reach final Divinization (2 Pet. 1:4) in accord with Mt. 7:21 (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9); for good works performed by Christ's members are good works performed by Christ Himself (Gal. 2:20-21).  Note that in the three phases of Salvation-- Catharsis or Purification, Illumination, and Union (hénosis) or Divinization--hénosis and théosis refer to the same thing.  The divinizing Light of God in the vision of the blessed is God's Energy, His Nature--but the faithful do not partake of the divine Essence (see hórasis below).   Where the Latins distinguish created supernatural from both natural and uncreated, the Orthodox have no such intermediate supernatural category.  Both kinds of Christian thinking distinguish preternatural (sometimes called supranatural in the West) from natural.

     Logos (the name given to Jesus Christ at the beginning of the Gospel of St. John the Evangelist) meant "reason" or "rationale principle" in the philosophy of Jesus's time.   (SEE HERE.)  It was later correlated with "wisdom"--another name given to our Savior; that name is found in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament.  (The Great Temple in Constantinople is named for Jesus Christ, the holy Wisdom of God.)   Reason and wisdom stand to each other as (Hellenistic) cognition (or theory) and (Hebrew) practice.  This correlation is destroyed when Logos is mistranslated with the Gnostic rendering:  Word.  That God is a Word is nonsense to any but a Gnostic.  (CLICK HERE FOR WHAT TODAY'S CHRISTIAN NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT GNOSTICISM.) The Icon of God in which humans have been created is itself an iconization (as St. Gregory [of Nazianzen] the Theology said) of the most authentic IMAGE OF GOD, namely, our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This icon or image consists of rationality and freewill, in distinction from the nature of other animals.  True, using words is unique to humans, but to translate Logos as "Word" trivializes the whole discussion.  (In Greek, lógos means "word" infrequently and only with special connotations; lógos in fact has a huge number of senses in Classical Greek.)  But the sense that St. John the Theologian, the author of the fourth Gospel, had in mind was that of Philo the Jew, the leading middle Platonist--a teacher whose life overlapped that of Jesus.  That is where the sense intended by the Evangelist is to be looked for.  The difference between a list and a system is discussed HERE & HERE.

     The Incarnation is ensárkosis or enanthrópesis in Greek.  The method or result is sometimes called kénosis "emptying" (cf. ekénosen in Philp. 2:7).   St. Maximos the Confessor spoke of the Logopoiesis or "making [them] Logos" of the faithful.  The Fathers and Mothers of the Church are typically referred to as "God-bearing" while the lay faithful are "Christ-bearing."    Certain highly placed deacons in Constantinople are "Cross-bearing." 

     Natural, præternatural, supernatural, uncreated.  What is natural is what accords with and promotes the nature of something; it can be natural for something to be supernatural or uncreated.  Natural has nothing directly to do with what is normal--what is usual in "nature"--since it is possible for the unnatural to be statistically normal.   CLICK HERE.  Natural is a teleological concept--what fulfills something's nature; it has nothing to do with Mother Nature, natural science, nature-lovers, etc.  Præternatural refers to what is beyond natural expectation; hence, certain inexplicable events are so termed.  Supernatural events or things are those that are divinely caused in a specific, non-general, way and are miraculous in going beyond the ordinary possibilities of nature; but they nevertheless belong to the finite, created economy.  The Latin concept of Grace belongs here.  Uncreated things are truly divine and belong to the eternal realm; this term characterizes the divine Energies--uncreated Grace, the uncreated Light--of Orthodoxy.  There is a good deal of confusion between what is of nature (natural) and what is individual. Orthodoxy holds that sin, so far from being natural (of nature), is unnatural, and that guilt is always an individual matter.  (For the history of the idea that created nature is bad, CLICK HERE & HERE. Gnostic heretics accept  that human nature is "sinful"; and Western Christianity wrongly accepts the teaching that an individual can inherit the guilt (or merits) of one's ancestors.  The terrible Christological consequences entailed by the idea of a sinful nature--used to translate sárx "flesh" in one popular Denominationist translation of the Bible (see the entry on sin) are that IF HUMAN NATURE WERE SINFUL, THEN JESUS CHRIST DID NOT BECOME FULLY HUMAN--He was sinless--AND WE ARE LOST.   (CLICK HERE FOR WHAT TODAY'S CHRISTIAN NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT GNOSTICISM.)   (CLICK HERE for the difference between rightness or lawfulness and legality.)

     Grace is uncreated in Orthodoxy--divine Energies.  Among the Latins, (sanctifying) Grace is a created but supernatural form or quality of the soul.  For the Protestant Reformers, Grace is divine goodwill--God's imputing virtual righteousness to those who remain actually unrighteous.

    Icon (Image) of God and Likeness of God.  At the Fall, the Orthodox believe that humanity lost, not the Icon (Image) of God--reason and freewill, without human nature would not be human but robotic nature--but the Likeness of God (mentioned in the first chapter of the book of Genesis)--namely, the Grace or Energy to follow the divine will as a divinized creation.  We do not inherit the guilt of Eve and Adam, but death and decay.   The loss of the Likeness naturally affected the Icon too, since reason and freewill cannot, without the Grace of the Likeness of God.  This partaking of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and becoming a "new creation" (check your concordance for this!) is  ontological Salvation--only possible through Grace--the restoration of the Likeness; it enables the Icon of God--reason and freewill--to function according to the divine will in the individual believer who becomes a member of Christ--through the partaking of Baptism (see the Gospel of St. John the Evangelist), the most holy Body and Blood of Christ (see John 6:48-58), and the other holy Mysteries when these are received with true belief (or by sinless infants).  Salvation is thus the recovery of the Likeness of God through the Energy of Grace--the uncreated Life of the Son of God.   It is not instantaneous.  It ends in and is fully realized as Divinization (2 Pet. l:4)--at the resurrection of our bodies when we behold the Vision of the uncreated Light--which is God (see Light in your concordance, especially passages that identify Light with uncreated Life and with God).  Divininization is not participation in God's Essence but in His divine uncreated Energies; this is the Life that unites believers with Christ's resurrected Body.

     Synergy.    In Orthodoxy, the conflict between Grace and works found in Western thinking is overcome--not by imputation and virtual reality but--by participated or shared energy--being.  (SEE ALSO HERE.)  Where Grace is imputation with the Reformers or a created form or quality of the soul with the Latins, there is a conflict between Grace and works.  (Imputational Grace is also instantaneous.)  Contrast these views with the biblical and Orthodox energetic view of uncreated Grace as the Life of God shared by--and hence uniting--Christ and the ontological members of His Body:   Here, what is Christ's becomes ontologically the believer's (without depending on imputation:   Imputation depends on the ontology!); and Christ's working (or "in-working," i.e. "en-ergizing") in us are ours as well as His, as we gradually receive back the lost Likeness of God--Divinization--in Worship and other acts of piety.  All depends on Grace in the Orthodox view; and anyone can see that there is no conflict between Grace and our good works in this Faith.  If divine will can decree that present reality is something else without having changed what is,  there is of course a conflict between Grace (divine goodwill) and works performed by Christ's virtual members.   But for Orthodoxy, where Christ's members participate in His uncreated Energies, John 1:16 got it right:  "For of His plenitude we have all received, and indeed Grace for Grace"; allowing the energy of Grace to work, we receive more Grace.  Grace is ontological here, not divine-volitional, as in Protestantism.  Hence, there is no conflict between Grace, Christ's uncreated Energies, and the works His members produce with those Energies of their Head.  I think that the much-used expression "synergy" (see below)can be easily misinterpreted by those setting out from Protestant premises about the way will can set aside what is in a "virtualist" reality.  The Orthodox view goes by the name of  "synergy" ("working together"), though the human side is more to let one's will accord with the divine will than to initiate divinely approved behavior.  Since, the term "synergy"is prone to grave misinterpretation in the Reformers anti-ontological--will-based and word-based--framework (a framework impossible to "impute" to Apostolic times)--where it is understoodd as some sort of independent human functioning alongside of Christ, the contrast between Grace and works is overcome with the biblical view of Energy in Orthodoxy in the same way that the Orthodox distinction between the Icon (Image) of God and the Likeness of God [see the foregoing account of the Icon and the Likeness] overcomes the idea that human nature lost the Icon (Image) of God at the Fall without failing to acknowledge and account for the tremendous loss (of the Likeness of God) that took place in that catastrophe.  For energy is a concept that averts any opposition between Icon of God and the Likeness of God as well as being one that bridges over the distinction between the unknowable divine Essence and the knowable Energies of God.  The distinction between essence and energies helps us distinguish the Icon or Image of God in humans (reason and freewill, of the essence of humanity, damaged but not lost at the Fall) from the uncreated divine Energy of the Likeness of God.  We are free of the noxious idea of inherited guilt in view the Fall as a loss of the Likeness and the incurring of death and decay.  Energy allows us to overcome the Western antinomy of Grace and good works by uniting them in divinely energized good works which believers synergistically perform as the Likeness is restored to them.  The Orthodox are thus fortunate that our "dynamic" biblical term, energy, has been preferred (by the Greek-speaking God-bearing Fathers and Mothers of the Church and their disciples of every language) to the "static" concepts of Western Christianity.  If the Latins call Grace an uncreated "accidental form or quality of the soul," and the heirs of the Reformation view Grace as God's imputative goodwill--an external, volitional, inoperative divine attitude that wills what is not to be virtually something else--not an ontological "new creation"  (SEE HERE)--we Orthodox escape all of that in our energetic framework.

     Natural and gnomic will.  While some authors use these terms in confusing ways, natural will has to do with natures; in human beings, it is the potential or ability to will.  (Christ has two natural wills--one for His divine and one for His human nature; they act together without conflict because the Willer is one Person; the divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have one will because they have one Essence.)  Gnomic will might be better termed gnomic choosing, as it has to do with the temporally occurrring free choice of (i.e. done by) a  hypostasis or person.   The distinction between natural and gnomic wills does not exist in God, Whose decisions are neither timeless nor limitable by any mere potency lacking energization (actualization).  In humans, natural will is a potential belonging to the Icon of God in which human nature has been created, while gnomic will actualizes that potential in time--and in believers is enabled by the uncreated Energies of Grace that constitute the Likeness of God (lost by Adam and restored and renewed in believers who accept and use that Energy to serve God) to act according to the divine will.  The gnomic will is so named because it presupposes freedom to choose among alternatives assessed by reason.  A gnomic will gone astray can harm or destroy the Likeness of God in an individual.

     Development:  CLICK HERE.

     Podvig:   Properly an exploit or famous deed--referring to the monastic "struggle," i.e. an ascetic and indeed "heroic" work that a monastic devotes oneself to in order to define and fulfill one's specific ascetic calling.  An ordinary job (cleaning a room, taking out the trash, weeding the gardens, etc.) assigned to a monastic is called an obedience.  Important in the monastic vocation are obedience, apátheia (freedom from the cravings or hankerings "of the flesh" that humans are heir to).  A main problem for monastics and non-monastics is akédeia (English ac[c]edia "listlessness, indifference, sloth," or "laziness in spiritual matters"--in the plural, "anguish, despondency"); cf. chliarós ("tepid, lukewarm") in Rev. 3:16.   Despondency is cured (according to St. Seraphim of Sarov) by obedience (in a larger sense than just doing a task around the skete) and apátheia.  Passion(s) is a traditional of the Greek word for "craving(s), hankering(s), emotion(s)"--of the sensual sort.  While the Latins (and some Orthodox) link love with the will, this does not make much sense; the Latins viewed the Son as the Intellect of God and the Spirit as the will or love of God (specifically of the Father for the Son, an error connected with the Latin error of the Filioque.)  Love is a passion or emotion--bad or good, depending on the object and manner of the loving. 

     Podvig:   Properly an exploit or famous deed--referring to the monastic "struggle," i.e. an ascetic and indeed "heroic" work that a monastic devotes oneself to in order to define and fulfill one's specific ascetic calling.  An ordinary job (cleaning a room, taking out the trash, weeding the gardens, etc.) assigned to a monastic is called an obedience.  Important in the monastic vocation are obedience, apátheia (freedom from the cravings or hankerings "of the flesh" that humans are heir to).  A main problem for monastics and non-monastics is akédeia (English ac[c]edia "listlessness, indifference, sloth," or "laziness in spiritual matters"--in the plural, "anguish, despondency"); cf. chliarós ("tepid, lukewarm") in Rev. 3:16.   Despondency is cured (according to St. Seraphim of Sarov) by obedience (in a larger sense than just doing a task around the skete) and apátheia.  Passion(s) is a traditional of the Greek word for "craving(s), hankering(s), emotion(s)"--of the sensual sort.  While the Latins (and some Orthodox) link love with the will, this does not make much sense; the Latins viewed the Son as the Intellect of God and the Spirit as the will or love of God (specifically of the Father for the Son, an error connected with the Latin error of the Filioque.)  Love is a passion or emotion--bad or good, depending on the object and manner of the loving. 

     Compunction

     Pastor, Priest, etc.:   The priesthood consists of ordained priests and bishops; it is sometimes used to include the other major order--deacons.  (A hieromonk in a priest who is also a monk; a hierodeacon is a deacon who is also a monk.)  The chief priest of a parish other than a cathedral is called its pastor.  (But the OCA calls this person a rector; and assistant priests are included in the term pastor.  The head priest of a parish is called proistámenos "[the] one stood up in front" in Greek.)   The pastor of a cathedral, who may be bishop or a protopriest (protopresbyter) is variously titled; some jurisdictions use the title vicar.  Assistant bishops are sometimes called suffragan bishops.

     Prelapsarian, postlapsarian.  These terms respectively refer to the time before and after the Fall resulting from the sinning of Eve and then Adam.   Western theologians think that human nature changed at the Fall, becoming "sinful" and "depraved"--though natures cannot sin and the idea is most untenable.  (The idea is associated with the heterodox idea of inherited guilt and merit.)  See Icon (Image) of God and Assimilation to God above. 

     Sin.   A religious term not used in secular ethical systems.  It refers to violating a Law of God, profaning something holy, or doing despite to a Church rule (e.g. a fasting rule), as well as failing to obey Christ's will and fulfill duties of love and devotion; in some religions, sin also includes violating taboos.    Orthodox law is contained in the canons (CLICK HERE and go to Canon Law).  In contrast with the West, but in accord with Deut. 14:16, etc., Jer. 31:29-30, Ezek. 18:4,20, and Gal. 6:5, the Orthodox view sin as individual, not natural, and reject the notion of inherited guilt or merit.  All adults except the m. h. Theotokos have sinned (Rom 3:23), but children are innocent.  We share in Christ's merits not simply by imputation but by becoming a member of Christ's Body and sharing His Crucifixion and Resurrection (as St. Paul points out in Col. 2:12, 3:1; cf. Gal. 2:20-21 [and 24]) we share in His merits as our own--which is the basis of their imputed to us.  (See also Rom. 12:1-8  and chap 15 of 1 Corinthians.)

     Divinization (théosis) and deification (apothéosis) are often confused and misused.  But theosis was used by the Fathers to distinguish Christians' partaking in the divine Nature (see 2 Pet. 1:4) from the pagan concept of deification--which has to do with essence. Theosis has to do with Energies--not disjunct from essence, but nevertheless certainly not the same thing.  The English glosses of Greek théosis and apothéosis should be used the same way the Greek originals are used.  The Orthodox venerate the Crucifixion of Jesus's Body, and have icons of It everywhere; but we exalt the victorious Resurrection of His Body above all:  Being incorporated into that Body is Salvation.  The Orthodox do not have complex, juridically based doctrines of Salvation; Salvation is "simply" (in one sense of that word)  becoming a member of Christ through the Energies of the holy Mysteries and accordingly being divinized by the uncreated Engergies/Light of God--Who, according to the Bible, is Light, a Light in which no darkness is found.  (CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON LIGHT.)   St. Athanasios the Great said that God became human in order that humans might become divine.  Others may hold other--i.e. Gnostic or non-Incarnational--views of the Incarnation and Resurrection of God the Son; but our theologian, St. John of Damaskos, said that, while he didn't worship matter, he worshiped the One Who created matter and through matter saved him.  Salvation is not simply an instantaneous moment (excuse the redundancy!  it's intentional); Salvation is rather an on-going struggle. For the difference between eternal Life and everlasting Life, note that the latter has a beginning but no end, whereas eternal Life, the Life of God, has neither beginning nor end.
    
     Epéktasis or "extension, expansion."   This is the Apostle Paul's and St. Gregory of Nyssa's mystical notion of endless divine bliss in the vision of God's Kingdom.

     Clean week and Radiant week.   These are, respectively, the first week of holy Great Lent and the week following holy Radiant Pascha.

     Katányxis “contrite consciencious consideration”—whose negative side is a sustained awareness of one’s limitations as a creature and a pricking of the conscience with remorse for one’s failings; whose affirmative side is knowing that one is united with Christ as His member and making resolving to remain contrite and not sin.

     Agrypnía is the night part of the vigil of a Lordsday or major festival.  It follows the Artoklasía or Breaking of Bread--with wine, olive oil, and wheat, and (except among the Greeks) bread placed on the analóyion or lectern--which in turn often follows Vespers.

     Hórasis is "vision"--specifically the Vision of the uncreated Light.  It is a "noetic" vision apprehended by the noûs.

     Chiliasm is the belief (not accepted by the Orthodox) that a thousand-year reign on earth by Christ will precede the Day of Judgment, when the sheep are separated from the goats.

     Athonite refers to a monk on (or from) Mt. Athos, the Holy Mountain; the term Hagiorite (derived from the Greek for "Holy Mountain") has a like reference.

     The eucharistic Gifts.   These are, before the Epiclesis or Invocation of the all-holy Spirit, the bread and wine which are changed into the Body and Blood of OLGS Jesus Christ.  The main loaf is called the Lamb (as already in the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation.)  A prosphora is (in one sense) a biscuit that a parishioner obtains before the divine Liturgy and sends up with the names of living or dead persons or things to be prayed for at the Proskomidé; from each such prosphorá the celebrant cuts a portion to be mixed with other such portions, and these are consecrated, symbolically mixing the prayers of all in one Oblation.  (The rest is returned to the person who has offered the prosphorá; it can be taken home or on a trip and eaten as a reminder of what has been done.)  The Latins refer to the sacred species of bread and wine, while Denominationists speak of elements, emblems, tokens, or symbols in their (non-sacrificial) "ordinance" of the Lord's Supper.   At the end of the Liturgy, the Greeks extend bread (not blessed) to all attending.  This is not antídoron in the sense that the Russian prosphorá is--bread blessed at the Altar during the divine Liturgy.   Antídoron is said to be "properly" for those who haven't been excommunicated but for some proper reason (failure to fast, confess, pray, or the like) haven't received the holy Mysteries.  After communicating in a Russian parish, the faithful are offered plain bread and warm wine-and-water to break the fast and to ensure that the sacred Gifts are entirely consumed.  Vasil bread (vasilópetta) is provided on New Year's Day, the festival of St. Vasil the Great.  This resembles the Greek evloyía (eulogía), which is dipped in wine and give to the chanters, communicants, and others after the Liturgy.  Other breads are the Thomas bread blessed after the night services beginning Great Pascha; and the Panayía ("all-holy," a familiar name for the Theotokos), "cut in the shape of a pyramid and blessed after a certain monastic meal" and symbolizing the all-holy Trinity but blessed in honor of the Theotokos.

     Ecumenism, branch idea, syncretism (see also HERE & HERE):  Ecumenism has got many meanings and uses, all circling around the general idea of coöperation or unity among various groups calling themselves "Christian."   At one extreme, it envisions the world ecumenical organization as a super-church; from there on down the line, many other views are found.  A popular view is the branch theory of the Church or just of "catholicism."  The Orthodox of course reject the branch theory and any other idea of there being any true Church other than the Orthodox Church; her "branches," if you will, are all that are accepted as the true continuation of the Apostolic Church and Faith.  Syncretism involves a kind of ecumenism in which the "best" elements of each form of Christianity are mixed together in order to arrive at a united "faith"; but since many important differences among Christians are incompatible in themselves, one wonders how this route to unity could be expected to achieve very much.  The Orthodox view is that other should accept its ancient Faith, free of the innovations and distortions of the West--papal and Protestant alike; that this is the only route to true unity that we can accept as valid.  Great care is required to distinguish a consistent holism from syncretism--which is usually internally inconsistent--unlike extremes, which, truncated as they are, are internally consistent but externally inconsistent.  FOR RELATIVISM, CLICK HERE.  FOR FURTHER COMMENTS, CLICK HERE.)    

     Tropars, troparies are anthems sung in the services.  There are many different kinds of these anthems having specific names. 

    

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