Romanian Religion

    The vast majority of Romanians are of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Eastern Orthodoxy is the body of Christians who follow the faith and practices defined by the "universal" church. The term "universal" applies to the whole church before the split between the Western and Eastern churches in 1054. When the Eastern and Western churches broke off contact, the Eastern churches kept the term "orthodox" as a sign of faithfulness.
     The reasons for the split of the universal church are numerous and complicated. They are related to the division of the Roman Empire into an eastern and western half, centered in the cities of Constantinople and Rome.
     Originally the entire Christian church worked together to establish a consensus on matters of doctrine. However, the two branches of Christianity evolved in different directions because of the culture and philosophy of the lands in which they developed. The Western church, which developed in Rome and the conquered lands of Western Europe, leaned toward a more legalistic approach while Eastern Christianity, which developed in Greece, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, and northern Africa espoused a more mystical theology.
     During the ninth century, conflict involving differences of opinion over doctrinal matters widened and reached a climax with the Great Schism in 1054, whereby the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome excommunicated each other.

Orthodox Beliefs
    The Eastern Orthodox Church (also referred to as the Byzantine Church), like Protestantism, rejects the belief that the Pope is infallible. But Roman Catholics adhere to the notion that when it comes to theological matters, the Pope cannot make a mistake. Unlike Protestantism, however, the Eastern Orthodox church believes in transubstantiation. That is, it believes that in the celebration of the Eucharist or Holy Communion, ordinary bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus, the Holy Communion is the high point of the liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
     The Romanian Orthodox Church, in common with all Eastern Orthodox churches, gives a central place to icons, or holy images. A believer in a church goes up to the iconostasis - the wall of paintings that separates the sanctuary from the nave - and kisses the icons. On the feast day of a particular saint, the icon of that saint is displayed on the lectern where the faithful pay their respects by a kiss and a bow, and then make the sign of the cross before rejoining the congregation.
     At home, a Romanian Orthodox family usually has an icon hanging in the eastern corner of the living room and bedroom. Traditionally, a guest on entering a room first greets the icon by making the sign of the cross and bowing to it.
     On Sunday mornings and at the grand Easter services, which are more important than Christmas festivals, Orthodox churches are filled with the smoke of incense and hundreds of burning candles. It creates a mystical atmosphere, especially when accompanied by the sonorous music of singing choirs invisible to the congregation.

Icons
In the Orthodox Church, an icon is traditionally regarded as a kind of window between the earthly and the celestial worlds; a window through which an inhabitant of the celestial world - a saint, or Christ himself - looks down into the earthly one. The image recorded in the icon is a sacred one because of the belief that the true features of the heavenly spirit have somehow been imprinted in a two-dimensional way on the icon. This belief in the sacred nature of an icon was developed by early religious scholars in the eighth and ninth centuries into the concept of incarnation, meaning that God appears in human form. The idea was that Christ becomes incarnate in the very materials of the icon. This belief never became orthodox dogma, but it helps explain the extraordinary reverence accorded to icons in the religion.

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