The Synodikon of Orthodoxy

 

(received from His Eminence Archbishop +Nathaniel - ROEA)



Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does Wonders (3x).

Let us Orthodox people, now celebrating this Day of Orthodoxy, especially glorify God, the Author of all goodness!

Blessed is He forever.

This is our God, who acquired and established His beloved heritage, the Holy Church, the foundations of which He laid even in Paradise, thereby comforting by His infallible Word, our forefathers who had fallen through disobedience.

This is our God, who directing us to His saving promise, left not Himself without a witness, but first foretold the future salvation through the forefathers and prophets, and by manifold means gave lively descriptions of it.

This is our God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in antiquity to the fathers by the prophets, and in these latter days spoke to us by His Son, with whom also He created the ages: who declared His goodwill toward us, disclosed the heavenly mysteries, assured us the truth of the Gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit; sent His apostles to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the world, and confirmed it by various powers and miracles.

Following this salutary revelation, and holding this Gospel, we believe:

The Symbol of Faith

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages: light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, through whom all things were made;

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man.

And he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.

And on the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

And He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

In One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Amen

This is the Apostolic Faith. This is the Faith of the Fathers. This is the Faith of the Orthodox. This is the Faith that hath established the universe.

Furthermore, we receive and confirm the Councils of the Holy Fathers and their Traditions and writings  which are agreeable to Divine revelation.

And though there be enemies of Orthodoxy, and adversaries to the providential and salutary revelation of the Lord toward us, yet the Lord considered the reproaches of His servants: for He has covered the blasphemers of His glory with shame, and shown the perverters and enemies of Orthodoxy as timorous and fugitives.

As, therefore, we bless and praise those who have submitted their reason to the obedience of Divine revelation, and have contended for it, so following the Sacred Scriptures, and holding the Traditions of the primitive Church, we reject and anathematize all those who oppose His truth, if while awaiting their conversion and repentance, they refuse to repent to the Lord. To those who deny the existence of God, and asset that the world is self-existing and that all things in it were made by chance, without the providence of God: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who say that God is not a Spirit, but flesh; or that He is not just, not merciful, not wise or omniscient, and utter such blasphemies: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who dare to say that the Son of God, and likewise the Holy Spirit, are not one in essence with the Father, and confess that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not one God: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who foolishly say that the coming of the Son of God into the world in the flesh and His voluntary passion, death and Resurrection were not necessary for our salvation and the expiation of sin: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who reject the grace of redemption preached by the Gospel as the only means of our justification before God: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who dare say that the all-pure Virgin Mary was not a Virgin before her child-birth, during her childbirth, and after her child-birth: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those that do not believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets and the apostles, and by them instructed us in the true way to eternal salvation, and confirmed the same by miracles, and now dwells in the hearts of all faithful and true Christians, and guides them in all truth: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who reject the immortality of the soul, the end of the world, the future judgment and eternal reward for virtues in heaven, and condemnation for sins: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who reject any of the Holy Sacraments held by the Church of Christ: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who renounce the Councils of the Holy Fathers, and their Traditions which are agreeable to Divine revelation, and piously preserved by the Orthodox Catholic Church: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

To those who insult and blaspheme the holy Icons which the Holy Church receives, in remembrance of the works of God and of those pleasing to Him, to inspire their beholders with piety, anti to incite them to imitate their examples, and to those who say that they are idols: ANATHEMA!

People: Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!

But, to all who have contended for Orthodoxy, by their words, by their writings, by their teaching, by their sufferings and religious life, as unto the protectors and defenders of it, the Church of Christ commemorates annually and proclaims:

To the Holy Fathers, Great Hierarchs and Ecumenical Teachers: Athanasius, Cyril, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Methodius, Cyril, and all other Pastors of the Church: MEMORY ETERNAL!

People: Memory eternal (3x).

To the holy and most pious Emperor Constantine, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and to his mother, Helen: to the Orthodox Emperors Theodosius the Great, Theodosius the Younger, and Justinian, and all pious Orthodox Rulers: MEMORY ETERNAL!

People: Memory eternal (3x).

To the most holy Patriarchs and most reverend Orthodox Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops: MEMORY ETERNAL!

People: Memory eternal (3x).

To all who have suffered and fallen in various battles in defense of the Orthodox Faith, and of their countries; and to all Orthodox Christians who have died in the True Faith and piety, and in the hope of the resurrection: MEMORY ETERNAL!

People: Memory eternal (3x).

To the faithful founders of our holy parishes, who have gone to their rest in the hope of resurrection and eternal life: MEMORY ETERNAL!

People: Memory eternal (3x).

The Orthodox Church of Christ thus triumphantly commemorates those who in times past contended in piety, thereby to excite all her Christians to follow their examples, does also have the duty to extol those who now labor for Orthodoxy and by salutary faith and virtue prepare themselves for eternal beatitude:
To Their All-Holinesses, the Patriarchs;
To Their Eminences, the Archbishops;
To Their Graces, the Bishops; Many Years!

People: God grant them many years!
To all those in civil authority, grant, O Lord, peace, health and salvation, prosperity in all their public undertakings and preserve them in true honor MANY YEARS!

People: God grant them many years.

To all Orthodox Christians holding rightly the saving Faith, and living in obedience to the Church of Christ, grant, O Lord, peace, quiet, prosperity and abundance of the fruits of the earth, and MANY YEARS!

People: God grant them many years!

Glorify all these, O Holy Trinity, and confirm them in the right Faith even unto the end; and convert the corrupters and blasphemers of the Orthodox Faith and Christ's Church who are disobedient to Her: that they may come to the knowledge of your eternal truth; through the intercessions of our most holy Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and of all the Saints.

Amen.

 

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