Greek Orthodox Church

Hey folks,

This is a new one to me so I am going in blind. I only know a few things about it:
1)  It is an Eastern Orthodox church and as such it...
2) Ties with the Catholic church as the oldest and longest running Christian church in the world
3) They don't have a single leader like the Catholics (Pope)

The thing about the Eastern orthodox church is that is is essentially one church consisting of several national churches. The main difference amongst them is the language in which the worship is conducted. Tomorrow, much of the service will e conducted in Greek, therefore I will have to rely on my friend Chad to walk me through the ceremony and rituals as he has rudimentary knowledge of the language and is more familiar with the customs and procedures. He will be my very thin lifeline keeping me out of an embarrassing situation!you can view his blog here.

I expect that this will be very similar to the catholic mass I attended a couple of seeks ago but with slight differences, the first of which being that they require you to dress in your Sunday best. The catholic mass was a but more lenient on attire, tomorrow will not be the case, that won't e too much of a problem however my dress clothes as of late have either gotten smaller or i have gotten larger so I will have to do my best to keep from "crack flashing" the people kneeling in the pew behind me during worship. There will be a communion, it will be very highly ritualized and I will not be able to partake of it. However, as an extension of good will, they offer what remains after to any non-members that may visit, this too will be ritualized, whether or not I will participate I will decide when the time comes. Part of it entails kissing the hand or a the cross in the hand of the man offering the bread. Take the read with the right hand and this is very important because in the times and areas where the three Arahamic religions arose and even in many cultures today the left hand is considered unclean, so here it would mostly be tradition.

Outside of these few things I am going in blind, making it all new to me. I am looking forward to learning more about this old, mysterious Church the likes of which I have never heard of before I started my journey. So join me in the next installment, as I continue to walk these 52 paths of truth.