The word “orthodox” comes from two Greek words: orthos (straight, right, correct) and doxa (belief, glory, worship). Put them together and you get something that means both “right belief” and “right worship.”
That double meaning isn’t an accident. It’s the whole point.
When your Baptist coworker at the refinery asks what makes your church “Orthodox,” you’re not just talking about having the correct doctrines written down somewhere. You’re talking about a way of life where what we believe and how we worship can’t be separated. They’re two sides of the same coin.
More Than Just Getting Your Facts Straight
If orthos just meant “correct” and doxa just meant “opinion,” then being Orthodox would be like acing a theology exam. But doxa in Greek carries this other meaning: glory, praise, worship. The Church glorifies God. We offer Him doxa. So orthodoxy isn’t just about having right opinions about God, it’s about glorifying Him rightly, worshiping Him as He’s revealed Himself, living in a way that actually corresponds to who He is.
This is why we can’t separate theology from liturgy. The Divine Liturgy isn’t just a nice ceremony we tacked onto our beliefs. It’s where our theology lives and breathes. When we sing “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,” we’re not reciting facts about God’s attributes. We’re participating in the truth of who He is.
The early Church understood this. When the councils fought over whether Christ was truly God or just a really special creature, they weren’t just splitting theological hairs. They knew that if you get Christ wrong, you get salvation wrong, and then your worship becomes a lie. Right belief protects right worship. Right worship forms and expresses right belief.
Straight, Not Crooked
The word orthos means straight. Not bent, not twisted, not wandering off the path. There’s something beautifully simple about that image. The Church has kept the faith straight, not because we’re smarter or better than anyone else, but because the Holy Spirit has preserved the apostolic teaching through the centuries. We’ve got the same Creed, the same sacraments, the same liturgy that Christians have had since the beginning.
When people come to St. Michael’s from non-denominational backgrounds, they sometimes find this claim startling. “You really think you’ve got it right and everyone else got it wrong?” Well, not exactly. We think the Church Christ founded is still here, still teaching what the apostles taught, still offering the same mysteries. That’s not arrogance. It’s what we actually believe happened historically.
How You Learn It
Here’s the thing about orthodoxy: you don’t learn it primarily by reading books (though books help). You learn it by showing up. By standing through the services, by fasting when the Church fasts, by going to confession, by receiving the Eucharist, by asking your priest questions when you don’t understand something.
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes about this in The Orthodox Way, how the faith is caught as much as taught. You absorb orthodoxy by living it. The prayers form you. The fasting teaches your body what your mind needs to learn. The icons show you what words can’t quite capture.
This is why we don’t have altar calls or “accept Jesus into your heart” moments. Orthodoxy isn’t a decision you make one Sunday morning. It’s a life you grow into, slowly, through the Church’s rhythms of prayer and fasting and feasting. You’re learning to worship rightly, and that right worship is forming right belief in you, and both together are transforming you into the image of Christ.
Why It Matters Here
In Southeast Texas, most folks think of “orthodox” as meaning “traditional” or “old-fashioned” or maybe “strict.” And sure, we’ve kept ancient practices. But that’s not what the word means. We’re not Orthodox because we like old things. We’re Orthodox because we believe the Church has kept the faith straight, has continued to glorify God rightly, has maintained the fullness of what Christ gave the apostles.
When you walk into an Orthodox church for the first time, you’re not stepping into a museum. You’re stepping into the same worship that Christians have offered for two thousand years. Same faith, same mysteries, same Christ. That’s what orthodox means. Straight teaching and true worship, held together, kept intact, still living.
And if you’re exploring Orthodoxy right now, you’re learning what that means by being here. Keep coming. Keep asking questions. Let the services work on you. Orthodoxy isn’t something you figure out from the outside. It’s something you discover by coming in.
