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''Main article: [[Worship]]''
Worship in the Orthodox Church is understood to be the highest calling of mankind, to fall down at the feet of the Almighty God, the Holy Trinity, and to be given over entirely to Himhim, becoming united mystically with Him him in the [[holy mysteries]]. To worship God is to fulfil the purpose for which we were created.
Orthodox worship is liturgical, that is, following specific ritual patterns and [[Daily Cycle|cycles]] in reverent dignity and embracing the whole of the human person. Its reverence and awe are due to its being understood as entering into the very throne room of the Creator. Orthodox worship is transformative in its nature, bringing the Christian more deeply into communion with God and with his cooperation changing him into a holy person, a [[saint]].
''Main article: [[Sacraments]]''
More properly termed ''holy mysteries'', the Church's entire life is one of sacrament. In the mysteries, the Christian is united with God, becoming a partaker of the divine nature ([[II Peter]] 1:4). With all the sacraments, God makes His his presence known in His his divine [[energies]], using physical means to convey Himself to His people.
There are seven generally recognized sacraments, though the number has never been fixed dogmatically by the Church. Two are sacraments of initiation into the Church, [[baptism]] and [[chrismation]]. Another completes the initiation and nourishes the life of the Christian, the [[Eucharist]], which is regarded as the highest of the sacraments. The remainder of the sacraments are occasional: [[Holy Unction|holy unction]] for the sick, [[confession]] for repentance and reconciliation with the Church, [[marriage]] for those joined in the marital community, and [[ordination]] for those called to serve the Church in holy orders.
''Main article: [[Anthropology]]''
Orthodox Christian anthropology teaches that man was created by God to worship Him him in communion with Himhim, made in His his image to attain to His likeness. All human beings are thus of infinite value, because they bear the indelible stamp of their Creator. All human beings are composed of both a soul and body, which are permanently part of human nature. Man was created sinless, but not perfected, and so though [[Adam]] was pure when he was created, he was created as a being of dynamic progress, capable of growing more and more like God.
At the [[fall of man]], [[Adam and Eve]] not only [[sin]]ned in violation of God's commandments, but their ontological state shifted. Their [[nature]] was not changed in itself, but the image of God in them became obscured by sin, which is an ontological separation from God. Fallen man is thus not totally depraved, but rather suffers from the disease of sin which renders holiness much more difficult to attain to.
''Main article: [[Church History]]''
The Church's history records the progress of Christ's work throughout the course of the human experience. History in Orthodoxy has a theological importance because of the [[incarnation]] of Jesus Christ, that just as God chose to become a physical, living, breathing human being, He he also chooses to work in and through human history to bring about salvation. Thus, the Church's history becomes a sacred history, not in the same sense as the Biblical history which forms the salvation story itself, but rather as a record of the continued effects of the salvation story in the experience of man.
==See also==