[Kolokotronis]

"LOL! Kolo, do you "reject" the Nicene Creed "and the blasphemous interpretation of Mary"?"

Reject the Nicene Creed? The one we wrote? The first one? The one the Protestants rejected in favor of the Western innovation? No. As for the "blasphemous interpretation of Mary", well if Harley means that she is Panagia or the Most Holy Theotokos or that she was assumed bodily into heaven...no, I certainly don't reject those. That she intercedes for us before the throne of heaven? No. You of course know that I pray with great gusto, as my people have since the 5th century at the latest, "Υπεραγία Θεοτόκε σώσον ημάς" or for your people for nearly as long, "Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!" And for the unfortunates unlettered in the Liturgical mother tongues, "Most Holy Theotokos, Save Us!" :)

Here's a link to a pretty chant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHnzHDmdqrQ

Harley, my friend, you of all the Protestants know us better than that.

[kosta50]

Reject the Nicene Creed? The one we wrote? The first one? The one the Protestants rejected in favor of the Western innovation?...Υπεραγία Θεοτόκε σώσον ημάς" or for your people for nearly as long, "Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!" And for the unfortunates unlettered in the Liturgical mother tongues, "Most Holy Theotokos, Save Us!" :)

Spoken like a true Greek! We love you, Kolo. :)

[MarkBsnr]

Ahem. Latin is a liturgical language. Ahem.

[HarleyD]

I do have a reputation to maintain and I hate to be accuse of saying the most egregious thing on FR. While the Orthodox accept the Nicene Creed in what they consider the "early form", they reject what they consider the "later text".

It was only a few years after this very Council of 431 AD, that some in the western Church began to insert an extra word into the Creed. In the Latin version of the Creed, the word - ‘filioque’ (‘and from the Son’) was added in the statement concerning the nature of the Holy Spirit. This small word had large consequences; it became the cause of much theological disagreement and was a major factor in the eventual separation of the Roman Church from the Orthodox in 1054 AD.

To say the Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father and the Son’, is to attempt to change the very nature of God as he has revealed himself - the Orthodox belief that God is ‘three persons’ and yet ‘one God’. The addition of the ‘filioque’ is to confuse and turn upside down this revelation. This is not just an argument about words, of semantics; it comes to the very heart of who God is. It is this fundamental Christian truth that the Creed was promulgated to protect!

To this day, the Orthodox Church stands firm on the use of the Creed in its original form as declared at the first three Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church. It is interesting that some Protestant Churches have, in more recent times, expressed the Creed in its original form (without the filioque) as an alternative or ‘preferred’ form. The debate still rages between the Roman and Orthodox Churches concerning the ‘filioque’. It was this inclusion into the Creed that had so much bearing upon the eventual separation of the Roman Church 1054 AD, and, sadly, it is its continual use that proves to be such a major obstacle in any talks of reunion.”

Greek Orthodox on the Nicene Creed