Part 2 of 9 · 4 min read
Common misconceptions
In short Many common assumptions about Orthodoxy come from mixing it up with Catholicism, or from seeing what happens without knowing why. Tap one to open it.
You might thinkThey worship Mary and the saints.
Worship belongs to God alone. Saints are honoured (“venerated”), the way you’d honour a hero or keep photos of family who have died. Asking a saint to pray for you is like asking a friend at church. Death doesn’t remove anyone from the family: God “is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Luke 20:38).
You might thinkIcons are idols.
An idol is treated as a god. An icon is a window to a real person. The Church settled this in 787: honour given to an icon passes to the person shown. Kissing an icon is like kissing a photo of someone you love. You’re not kissing the paper. And because God became visible in Jesus, he can be pictured.
You might thinkIt’s salvation by works.
Salvation is God’s gift from start to finish. But it isn’t a one-off transaction. It’s a lifelong healing that you take part in. Prayer, fasting and the sacraments don’t earn points. They’re more like physio: how you cooperate with the healing. Paul calls it “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).
You might thinkThey don’t really read the Bible.
The services are packed with Scripture: psalms, readings every day, and prayers built from Bible verses. Orthodox simply read the Bible within the Church that recognised it in the first place, rather than each person interpreting it alone.
You might thinkTradition is man-made stuff added to the Bible.
Tradition is the faith handed down from the apostles, and Scripture is its heart. Paul told the church to “hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Not every local custom counts as capital-T Tradition, and customs are allowed to vary from place to place.
You might thinkThe priest stands between you and God.
Everyone prays straight to God. The priest serves the community, like a father in a family. At confession, the prayer even says the priest is “only a witness”. You’re confessing to Christ, and the priest is there to guide you and pray the prayer of forgiveness.
You might thinkWritten, repeated prayers are “vain repetition”.
Jesus warned against empty words, not repeated ones. He prayed the same words three times in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:44), and heaven sings “Holy, holy, holy” without stopping (Revelation 4:8). Set prayers give you good words on days you have none.
You might thinkYou need a moment you “got saved”.
An Orthodox answer to “Are you saved?” is: “I have been saved, I am being saved, and I hope to be saved.” Salvation is a road, not a single moment. Confidence rests on trusting God, not on remembering a date.
You might thinkIt’s basically Catholicism.
They share the first thousand years, so they look similar. But Orthodoxy has no pope. Its bishops are equals, and the Patriarch of Constantinople is “first among equals”. It also keeps the original wording of the Creed, uses leavened bread at Communion, and ordains married men as priests (bishops are monks). It doesn’t teach purgatory or the Immaculate Conception. Once you’re inside, the two feel quite different.
You might thinkYou have to reject evolution.
The Orthodox Church has no official teaching on evolution or the age of the earth, and Orthodox Christians hold a range of views. Early Church writers often read Genesis on several levels. It tells us who God is and who we are. It’s not a science textbook. Your view on this isn’t a test of faith.
You might thinkIt’s tied to a political side.
The Liturgy is about prayer, repentance and Communion, not elections, and you’re unlikely to hear politics from the front. To be honest, some national churches have messy histories with governments, and members have opinions like anyone else. But the faith itself isn’t a political movement.
You might thinkIt’s only for Greeks, Russians or Serbs.
Orthodoxy is for everyone. Many parishes use English, alone or mixed with another language, and converts are common. The culture is a gift to enjoy, not a gate you have to get through.