I went to our local Greek festival awhile back, and took the informational tour inside the church. I quite liked it, ikons and all. Just wondering if anyone has gone from LDS to (Eastern) Orthodox Christian and how you got started on your path.

I am not Eastern Orthodox but I do have a lot of admiration for. Orthodoxy. It has a fascinating history, a beautiful artistic heritage, and a deep spirituality. If you get a chance attend a Liturgy, it is very different than an LDS service. Two books that are kind of a standard introduction to Orthodoxy for English speakers are The Orthodox Way and The Orthodox Church both by Timothy Ware.

I found the Orthodox church pretty entertaining, plus I got off from school for Christmas on Jan 7. How cool is that! And the local RO priest had the two best looking kids (1 of each) I have ever seen in my life. And the onion domes. It all ran circles around Mormonism.

Russian Orthodox Easter was amazing. Mormon Easter was, well, you know what it is. It gets cancelled if it falls on General Conference SUnday. Not that canceling it makes much difference. It's barely a ripple anyway.

The Orthodox churches are cool in a central Asian kind of way. Not my cup of tea on a regular basis, but I can appreciate the charm of it.

I've pretty much rejected christianity, but I'm interested in byzantine art so that's why I wanted to check out the service.

I say go once if you get a chance, just for the aesthetic experience, if nothing else.

After becoming atheist for quite a while after leaving the LDS faith I began to seriously analyze the philosophical arguments for both Atheism and Theism. I read the works of greats such as Nietzche, Russell, and Sartre; but in the end was compelled by the arguments of Christian philosophers such as Swinburne, Plantinga, Aquinas, and Feser. I highly recommend Feser's "The Last Superstition." I am not yet Eastern Orthodox, as I am still heavily researching the faith, and I am also considering Roman Catholicism, but I too have a deep admiration for the religion.

Ditto to all of the above. I had a friend in a northeastern US city who was I think Lebanese-American, who was bilingual Arabic and English.As he did not have a car, he asked me if I would drive him to church several times.

His favorite was Antiochian Orthodox, named for the city where Christians were first called Christians. I think their services were mostly in English, but the printed programs were bilingual English and Arabic. While I did not go up to receive communion, when the service was over, they encouraged all of us to go up and receive a large hunk of sweet bread, which was not communion but something else.

Once they had a potluck of Mideastern food after the service,and the priest got a big kick out of taking me around and introducing me to members, Americans, who had been born in various cities mentioned in the New Testament.

One time they showed a movie about a large group of American evangelicals, possibly of Campus Crusade for Christ or some such, who all converted at once, to Antiochian Orthodoxy.

We got to visit the priest and his wife in their home, were served strong sweet coffee, and I was fascinated to see his Apple computer with bilingual keyboard. Priests are married, archbishops or whatever the next level is, are not.

My friend assured me that it was absolutely OK for him to visit *any* Orthodox church, so we once went to an Old Russian, where everybody stood like forever (I was allowed to sit, with the pregnant women :). And once to a very wealthy modern Greek Orthodox parish where the choir sang "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring". My friend joked that it was Byzantine Bach.

That bread is called antidoron, by the way :)

My husband and I are Roman Catholic and we've discussed moving over to Eastern Orthodox, partly because we think it's a whole lot more realistic that their clergy are allowed to get married.

is a good middle ground between Orthodox and Roman Catholic. Priests are married, higher ups are not.

My father is from Eastern Europe. I was born Eastern Orthodox and baptized into it. He is a militant humanist, but I had gone to church several times while in the Old World with family. I know my prayers in Slavonic, etc. I wear an Ethiopian Orthodox cross that I got at a monastery in Lake Tana, blessed by a monk there.

Would I consider myself faithful in that church, though? Nope. I'm just glad to have my Sundays back after Mormonism. With a good 18-20 of them already consumed with watching the Ravens, I could use the other 32 :)

I prefer Kosher meat when I do eat meat.

*smiles

I converted to Orthodoxy 20 years ago. (A nevermo, raised fundamentalist Christian.) It works for me, but I know it is not for everyone.

My advice would be to just go to a divine liturgy on a Sunday morning, preferably at a church that uses mostly English. Don't try to follow along in the prayer book. Just enjoy the music and the prayers. (If the church has orthros beforehand, I would recommend that as well. It is a very quiet and peaceful hour-long service, the lights dimmed, quite a bit of incense, not a lot of people.)

If the contemplative style of service resonates with you, then keep going. No one will ask you to join. In fact, there is no official greeting in the service. If the service is too long or off-putting, just leave!

If you have questions, by all means call or email the priest. Nearly every priest I have had has been pastoral and understanding of the individual spiritual journey.

At the end of the service, they will dismiss by row and walk to the front to venerate the cross, exchange a greeting with the priest, and receive a piece of the leftover blessed bread (antidoron). Don't feel you have to venerate the cross. You can just go up, greet the priest, take the bread, and leave. Or just leave without going up to the front. Whatever you do, no one will be offended.

After the dismissal, there is usually coffee hour in the social hall, where you can mix and mingle, have some coffee. If you're lucky, there will be homemade ethnic breads or desserts.

On Sunday the dress is mostly casual. However, be sure to wear comfortable shoes. You might be standing for a bit. Don't worry about doing the right thing (crossing yourself, knowing when to stand, reciting the creed, etc.) Parishioners are used to having visitors from different traditions. They do not expect you to know the service.

Oh, and don't forget to take a couple bucks in case you want to light a candle or two.

Best of luck.

T&T

My best friend is Greek, which means she is Greek Orthodox, born and raised. I joke with her that her church is the "real" church. She is liberal and liberated, and struggles with the no women in the clergy thing, but can let it go.

When I was getting ready for my cancer surgery, it was very important for her that I go to church with her the Sunday before my surgery.

They tend to dress up for church, no pants, men in suits, most older women in black.

Everyone should visit an Orthodox church if they get a chance.

My only experience with a Russian Orthodox church was at a repatriation ceremony. Yep, makes no sense at all. The Smithsonian repatriated some Native American remains from a now extinct group of Alaska Natives. The remains were given to the descendents of the tribe that conquered them. The conquering tribe had no cultural memory of their own burial beliefs because their culture had been lost to the influence of the Russian Orthodox missionaries.

So there I was scratching my head watching these remains being blessed by the priest in his tall hat and fancy robes, speaking Russian while incense things were swung around. If there was an afterlife, I figured that the repatriated people were either laughing or thinking "WTF?"

An Orthodox historian can prove that the rituals, prayers and liturgy were never changed in their church; therefore there was no apostacy.

Why yes, I'm currently an orthodox agnostic.

Any religion that puts a bar inside their house of worship can not be all bad.

Do they used Ouzo in the sacrament?

I've only attended one Orthodox service; it was the group that is American-based. However, my city also has a beautiful Greek Orthodox church which I once toured. But the crown jewel is our Coptic Orthodox, which is the most beautiful religious building I've ever been in. (Okay, I admit I haven't been to Notre Dame yet.) Egyptian artisans were brought here to do much of the work, and it was just stunning. I talked to the priest briefly, and he emphasized the importance of apostolic succession.