What We Believe

The Orthodox Christian Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. From the beginning, Christians gathered together to worship God, receive the Holy Eucharist, hear the Scriptures, and live the life Christ taught. The Orthodox Church today seeks to preserve and live this same apostolic faith and life.

The word Orthodox means right belief and right worship. From the earliest centuries, the Church has faithfully proclaimed the truth about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and our salvation. When serious questions arose, the Church gathered in Councils, prayed, searched the Scriptures, and expressed the faith handed down from the Apostles.

At the heart of this faith is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which begins, “I believe in one God…” It confesses the Holy Trinity, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, His death and Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, the Church, baptism, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

The Orthodox Church is not simply a set of beliefs about God. It is a way of life in Christ. Through prayer, worship, the Holy Mysteries, Scripture, fasting, repentance, and life together in the Church, we seek to know Christ and to be transformed by His grace.

This is the Orthodox Faith. This is the life we seek to live at St. Philip.

[Explore the Orthodox Faith]