Orthodoxy is a way of life that’s lived within a community – a local embodiment of the Church. There’s no such thing as a “virtual” Christianity. The faithful of the community express their faithfulness to God and to one another through the practice of that which the Church has believed and taught from the beginning.
Orthodoxy isn’t a set of rational principles to which one gives mental ascent. It isn’t a list of doctrines that get "checked off" before you're considered "right with God." Nor do you pick and choose that which you want to believe. Right belief and right practice -- both are essential.
The way that we worship and pray, the feasting and fasting, our love for one another is all part of the ancient tradition of the Church handed down to us. It’s a living tradition that we receive, make our own, and put into practice. That's how we're transformed. The home then becomes a natural extension of the spiritual life going on in the assembly of the church.
We see the essence of this "way of life” described in the early history of the church in Jerusalem.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart (Acts 2:46).
We declare the following on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, which is always the first Sunday of Great and Holy Lent.
As the Prophets beheld,
as the Apostles have taught,
as the Church has received,
as the Teachers have dogmatized,
as the universe has agreed,
as Grace has shown forth,
as Truth has revealed,
as falsehood has been dissolved,
as Wisdom has presented,
as Christ has awarded:
thus we declare,
thus we assert,
thus we preach Christ our true God,
and honor His Saints
in words,
in writings,
in thoughts,
in sacrifices,
in churches,
in Holy Icons;
on the one hand worshiping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord;
and on the other hand honoring as true servants of the same Lord of all,
and accordingly offering them veneration.
This is the Faith of the Apostles;
this is the Faith of the Fathers;
this is the Faith of the Orthodox;
this is the Faith which has established the universe!