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Those garments and vestments originate from the traditions of the Levitical priests of the Old Testament. Hence, the Orthodoxy claim they are ‘closest’ to the birth of Christianity to the time of Jesus among the Jews. In other words, many of the Orthodox priests early on were Jewish and preserved Jewish traditions of dress and authority.

We must remember that Christianity came about from a schism among Jews. Christian orthodox are the first organized Christians and have not changed in nearly 2000 years. Many Episcopal are joining the Orthodox Church for that very reason, they want a faith is unchanging, as close to the original witness as possible.

The Orthodox Church is said to have been founded by the Apostle Paul, and also Apostle Peter before Peter went to Rome.

No disrespect intended, I just found the garments pretty cool and different.

The first time I ever saw it was at my uncle's wedding: He had a friend who was/is an Orthodox priest, which was odd, seeing as how my uncle is an Episcopalian priest.

Now, with the passage of time, I acknowledge the Orthodox guy as being closer to true Christianity than my uncle.

The Orthodox Church is said to have been founded by the Apostle Paul, and also Apostle Peter before Peter went to Rome.

nope. The Orthodox Church in Antioch can lay that claim, yes, but not the Orthodox Church as a whole unless you mean the orthodox catholic Church. BOTH Churches were founded by Apostles -- some, like the Coptic Church was founded by St. Mark, others like the Syro-Malabar, etc. by St. Thomas. Each of equal dignity.

One niggling point is human -- how do you organise such a group? The orthodox do have a strong organisation,yes, but the role of a strong Pope was needed after the Western Roman Empire collapsed and you needed a strong central figure. Did it get out of hand? Yes, as a Catholic I can say it DID.

modern-day popes are more spiritual heads remember.

however, the Orthodox organisation has one flaw that I can see (and I may be very wrong) -- national Churches. While the Catholic Church would say we have equal bishops like the Bishop of Rome, the head of the Maronite Catholic Church, the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church etc., we also say that the Bishop of Rome, the Patriarch of the West has a jurisdiction that is not bound by nationality. Those two conflicting views lead to, well, conflict.

And, I think the Orthodox Church out of it's traditional areas is also seeing the issues that purely national churchs can lead to -- e.g. should there be an Orthodox CHurch of Japan, or Australia or Canada or the US? debatable points. That's something the Catholic Church wrestles with -- remember the shouts going out to the Pope to crack the whip on American bishops?