"The Early Church Fathers believed in purgatory and prayers for the dead."
The consensus patrum is clear in endorsing prayers for the dead. The concept of "purgatory", as such is commonly held, is distinctly Latin and outside the consensus patrum. The idea that any suffering after death as being expiatory is definately not Orthodox, though the theological idea that there is a sort of purification within God's loving mercy is a theory which has been advanced. So far as I know, the only particular church aside from Rome which holds to the Roman idea is the Maronite Church (and maybe the Ruthenians?) and neither Orthodoxy nor the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome accept the Roman formulation of purgatory.
Thank you, K, for expressing the view of the Orthodox Church. Now that you can read the writings of he Early Church Fathers and the supporting Scriptural passages, what is your position? And I repeat to you the same admonition made to ConservativeMind - ask our Lord to open your mind and heart to His words.
What is the Orthodox reading of 1 Cor 3:9f?