A Parish is a Family Throughout Your Whole Life
Sacraments of the Orthodox Church
Baptism & Chrismation
Baptism and Chrismation (i.e., Confirmation) are the two Sacraments (or Holy Mysteries) of entry into the Orthodox Church. Through baptism, the believer partakes in the Death and Resurrection of Christ and enters into a new relationship with God. Consequently, baptisms are traditionally performed by a three-fold immersion in a baptismal font, which represents both the tomb of burial, resurrection and the womb of the second birth into new life in Jesus Christ.
Funerals
Through the Resurrection of Christ, and the promised resurrection of all the departed, death is not viewed as an ending, but as a time of repose — a time to rest from the struggles and temptations of our fallen world. Death, then, is understood by the Orthodox as a “dormition,” a time of sleeping. Indeed, the very word “cemetery” comes from a Greek term meaning “a place to sleep.”
Marriage Service
The marriage ceremony, like all services in the Orthodox Christian Church, is steeped in spiritual symbolism, often on several levels, expressed by words, images, signs and physical actions during celebration of the rite. Its purpose is to remind the couple of certain deep spiritual realities and events, and enable them to identify with them.