Most people who look into Orthodoxy read for months before speaking to a single Orthodox Christian. That is the wrong way round, and it is usually shyness rather than conviction that causes it. So the honest summary of this whole page is: read the first two or three things, then go to a Liturgy, then talk to the priest.
Two things worth saying at the top
You do not have to decide anything. Attending an Orthodox service commits you to nothing at all. Nobody will ask who you are, put you on a list, or expect you back — and a great many people visit for a year before saying a word about it.
This site cannot be your priest. These pages explain what the Orthodox Church teaches and why, and they are careful about their sources. They are not spiritual direction. Anything about your situation — your rule of prayer, your fasting, your marriage, how you would be received — belongs with a priest who knows you.
Step 1
You are just curious
Nobody has to commit to anything to read these. Start at the top.
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What Is Orthodox Christianity?
The one to read first. What the whole thing actually is, underneath the icons and the incense and the long services.
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Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant: where do they actually differ?
If you are coming from another Christian tradition, this saves a great deal of time and prevents a good deal of confusion later.
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Why does the Orthodox Church claim to be the original Church?
The claim that unsettles most newcomers, stated plainly, with what it does and does not mean.
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Salvation Is More Than a Verdict
The single biggest difference in how the East thinks, and the one most worth understanding early.
Step 2
You are going to visit a church
This is the part people put off for months. It is also the part that actually decides things — Orthodoxy is very hard to understand from a page.
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What to Actually Do in an Orthodox Church
Where to stand, what to do with your hands, when to sit, and what happens when everyone goes forward and you do not. Read this one before you go.
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Your First Orthodox Liturgy: what is happening in the room?
The same morning, explained from the other side: what the service is and why it is shaped that way.
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Why Orthodox Worship Refuses to Hurry
Written for the moment, about forty minutes in, when you wonder how much longer this can possibly go on.
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Why is communion not open to everyone?
The thing most likely to sting on a first visit. It is worth knowing the reason before it happens rather than afterwards.
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How to Talk to a Priest
What to call him, how to send the first email, and what is worth asking him rather than the internet.
Step 3
You want to know what you are looking at
The furniture of an Orthodox church, and the practices that look strangest from outside. None of this is urgent. Read what you are curious about.
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What an Icon Is—and What It Is Not
Since this is the question everyone arrives with.
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Why Orthodox Christians call Mary “the Theotokos”
A title that is, in the end, a statement about her Son.
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Why Orthodox Christians ask the saints to pray
The other question everyone arrives with.
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Do Orthodox Christians really believe the Eucharist is Christ?
Yes. Here is what that means and what it does not.
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Why Orthodox Christians make the sign of the Cross
And why right to left.
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Why do Orthodox Christians call a priest “Father”?
Including the verse that is always raised against it.
Step 4
You are thinking about becoming Orthodox
Now it is worth being practical. Two things to say plainly: this takes longer than you expect, and the decisions belong to a priest rather than to a website.
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How does someone become an Orthodox Christian?
The overview: what the steps are and what each one means.
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What is a catechumen?
The word you are about to start hearing constantly.
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What the Catechumenate Is Actually Like
The practical version: the order of events, honest timings, what happens at the rite itself — including the part where you are asked to spit, which nobody warns people about — and what people find hardest.
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What do Orthodox Christians believe happens in baptism?
What you are actually asking for.
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What is chrismation, and why does it follow baptism?
How most adult converts are received.
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Why are Orthodox babies baptized and given communion?
Which matters immediately if you have children.
Step 5
You are trying to live it
The part no reading list can do for you. Everything here should be settled with your priest, not with this page.
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A First Year: prayer, fasting, and what to read
How to build a practice from nothing without burning out — and why the tradition itself tells you to start smaller than you want to.
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A prayer short enough for a wandering mind
The prayer most people begin with.
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Fasting Is Not a Diet
What the fast is for, which is not what most people assume.
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Why confess where another person can hear you?
The objection, taken seriously.
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What a First Confession Is Actually Like
The mechanics, so that the dread has less to work with.
Step 6
You want to go deeper
No order to these. This is the rest of the site, and it is where most people end up spending their time.
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The Church calendar
What the Church keeps today, on both the New and Julian reckonings, with everyone commemorated and the appointed readings — which now open the passage itself.
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The New Testament
All twenty-seven books in the Byzantine text the Orthodox Church reads, with a plain guide to each one.
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A hundred lives of the saints
Written honestly, including the parts that are hard to read and the places where the record is thin.
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What does “Holy Tradition” actually mean?
The word that does the most work in Orthodox theology.
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The Bible did not arrive without a Church
Where the New Testament came from.
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Orthodox resources elsewhere
Catechism, podcasts, the Fathers, chant and charities — each one opened and checked, and honest about whose voice it is.
Finding a parish
The practical obstacle for most people is not doubt. It is not knowing where the nearest Orthodox church is, or which of several to try.
Most jurisdictions publish a parish directory — the Orthodox Church in America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the Antiochian Archdiocese all have one, and the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops keeps a combined directory for the United States. If there are several near you, the difference between them is mostly language and heritage rather than faith. Try the closest one first; you can try the others later.
Then email the priest. There is a short article here on how, if that feels awkward — and it usually does.
If you are in eastern Ontario
St Porphyrios Orthodox Mission in Clayton is a young mission without a building of its own. Visitors are welcome, and it is the church every royalty from the books on this site goes toward.