Ask About Eastern Orthodoxy...

[Veronica]

Hello! I am a returning poster and my husband and I left the coC nearly 10 years ago for Eastern Orthodoxy (Greek, Russian, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian, etc)
Feel free to ask me anything about Eastern Orthodoxy and I will do my best to answer!

[FinallyFree]

I have heard they don't use instrumental music in the Orthodox Church. Is thus true? Do they consider it sinful? Also, do they baptize infants?

[Veronica]

I have heard they don't use instrumental music in the Orthodox Church. Is thus true? Do they consider it sinful? Also, do they baptize infants?

Mostly true! The occasional piano can be found in Eastern Rite parishes to aid the choir, but for the most part they stick to the early church practices. The coC was very fond of talking about how the early church didn't use instruments and they know this because of the Greek, and who knows Greek better than Greeks? Blah, blah, blah I heard that many times, as I was a music major.
For the most part it's a Capella and what can be gorgeous chanting.

As for infants, yes we do, by immersion, 3 times. Much like in the coC how your faith isn't really your own until you make it so, the faith of your parents and godparents stands in until you are ready to make it your own.

[Veronica]

This is the baby of our friends' baptized the other day...

[FinallyFree]

Wow! I never heard of immersing a baby!

[Veronica]

Wow! I never heard of immersing a baby!

Yep. They may not like it, but most priests do it right and they are just fine.

[flawed]

What made you choose orthodoxy? Also coming from coc, I really have a hard time with infant baptism, was this ever an issue for you? If so, what helped change your thoughts on it?

[B.H.]

In the middle picture where the baby is holding to the rim of the baptismal font and obviously not wanting to go under again.....I can see the priest lovingly and jokingly saying "Get in there you little heathen"


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[B.H.]

What made you choose orthodoxy? Also coming from coc, I really have a hard time with infant baptism, was this ever an issue for you? If so, what helped change your thoughts on it?

It looks like the baby in the middle picture has a hard time with infant baptism too.

It is just sooooo cute.

[Veronica]

As for what changed our thoughts on it...It's Biblical. If you don't mince up the words and say..."that couldn't possibly mean what it says...blah, blah, blah" then it says that entire households were baptized. It does not say that those of an accountable age who were able to consent were baptized. Whole households. Got to think that there were some babies and small children in those houses.
Add to that the early Church fathers, that some in the coC actually love to quote, didn't say that it was wrong. It seems to be necessary inference that if people were doing something so wrong, that one of the epistle writers would have said "Hold up!" They address far lesser issues, why would they fail to say 'Oh yeah, that whole practice of baptizing babies...stop."
They didn't address it because it wasn't an issue. It was accepted practice.
The other thing is, where is the actual BCV (book, chapter, verse) that says don't. They insinuate that it says THAT YOU MUST BE A BELIEVER TO BE BAPTIZED.
How many kids did you know who were just riding the coattails of their parents' faith? Most of the ones I did were. Some found their very own faith in high school, some in college and I am certain that there are still some spiritually immature adults who just go to church on Sunday because Mama & Daddy say to.

One thing I love about Orthodoxy is that it is continuous. It has been the same for nearly 2000 years. Babies being immersed and all.