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The meaning of this Community involved the Saints who are in heaven (i.e. those who have achieved theolsis, or likeness of Christ; that is real saints, not the "holies" who share in faith and sacraments on earth; I think the Protestants refer to themselves as saints or the divines -- Calvinists and lutherans respectively).

Yes, we believe the Biblical meaning of "saint" is any saved person. Such as in this passage:

Rom. 8:26-27 : "26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

From the Catholic or Orthodox view, why would the Spirit need to intercede for a saint? Aren't all saints already purified, and thus avoid purgatory? Also, this passage clearly refers to physically living people. For Catholics, I thought that for anyone to become a recognized saint, he or she had to first be physically dead, and then canonized by the Church.

No one intercedes for those in heaven. Those in heaven can intercede for others, though. In Romans, the Spirit is interceding for those who are not in heaven yet. Jesus desires that the Kingdom of God is made present to all men of all time. Thus, He continues to intercede for them, not those who already have the Kingdom fully within them. A person doesn't have to be a cannonized saint to be in heaven. Cannonized saints are "officially" recognized for the purposes of the Liturgy, but we are encouraged to ask the prayers of any saint whom we believe has been saved (and is in Purgatory or Heaven).

Regards

We pray for the dead because they are in an unnatural state and we presume they are not comfortable. Our prayers are supplications for spiritual comfort for those who are separated from their bodies. It is no different than praying for someone who has just lost something very dear and very close.

We do not pray for the Saints. They pray for us. The Saints are people who have achieved greater likeness to Christ than we have, so it is logical for them to pray for us to succeed than the other way around.

FK, at the risk of making this a longer read than I wanted, I think this will give you a better idera of how the Orthodox see their connection with God and where freedom comes in.

"The development of the doctrines concerning the Trinity and the incarnation, as it took place during the first eight centuries of Christian history, was related to the concept of man's participation in divine life.

The Greek Fathers of the church always implied that the phrase found in the biblical story of the creation of man (Gen. 1:26), according to "the image and likeness of God," meant that man is not an autonomous being and that his ultimate nature is defined by his relation to God, his "prototype." In paradise Adam and Eve were called to participate in God's life and to find in him the natural growth of their humanity "from glory to glory." To be "in God" is, therefore, the natural state of man.

This doctrine is particularly important in connection with the Fathers' view of human freedom. For theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa (4th century) and Maximus the Confessor (7th century) man is truly free only when he is in communion with God; otherwise he is only a slave to his body or to "the world," over which, originally and by God's command, he was destined to rule.

Thus, the concept of sin implies separation from God and the reduction of man to a separate and autonomous existence, in which he is deprived of both his natural glory and his freedom. He becomes an element subject to cosmic determinism, and the image of God is thus blurred within him.

Freedom in God, as enjoyed by Adam, implied the possibility of falling away from God. This is the unfortunate choice made by man, which led Adam to a subhuman and unnatural existence. The most unnatural aspect of his new state was death. In this perspective, "original sin" is understood not so much as a state of guilt inherited from Adam but as an unnatural condition of human life that ends in death.

Mortality is what each man now inherits at his birth and this is what leads him to struggle for existence, to self-affirmation at the expense of others, and ultimately to subjection to the laws of animal life. The "prince of this world" (i.e., Satan), who is also the "murderer from the beginning," has dominion over man. From this vicious circle of death and sin, man is understood to be liberated by the death and Resurrection of Christ, which is actualized in Baptism and the sacramental life in the church.

The general framework of this understanding of the God-man relationship is clearly different from the view that became dominant in the Christian West—i.e., the view that conceived of "nature" as distinct from "grace" and that understood original sin as an inherited guilt rather than as a deprivation of freedom.

In the East, man is regarded as fully man when he participates in God; in the West, man's nature is believed to be autonomous, sin is viewed as a punishable crime, and grace is understood to grant forgiveness.

Hence, in the West, the aim of the Christian is justification, but in the East, it is rather communion with God and deification. In the West, the church is viewed in terms of mediation (for the bestowing of grace) and authority (for guaranteeing security in doctrine); in the East, the church is regarded as a communion in which God and man meet once again and a personal experience of divine life becomes possible." [from The Doctrine of the Orthodox Church]

Hope this helps shed some light on our perspective and how it contrasts with Protestant and Catholic beliefs, if any.