By Archpriest Theodore Heckman The word "orthodox" contains in it two Greek roots: orthos — meaning correct, right, straight, authentic; and doxa -meaning belief, doctrine, teaching, as well as glory, worship. Orthodox therefore means both right doctrine and right worship. The Greek mind did not separate those two areas. Right teaching is deeply imbedded in the right glorification God; one implies necessarily the other. Orthodox Churches have always understood their central task as the celebration of the glory of God and His eternal Kingdom in splendid liturgical worship. Those who worship can "enter" this glory, participate in it, be illumined and transformed by it. The Church thereby functions as a kind of crucible, a place heated by the Divine Fire which purifies and refines its members. When one leaves the Church assembly after a Festal celebration, one is not the same as he or she was beforehat experience. "Orthodoxy is the Church of Christ on earth!" So begins the book The Orthodox Church by the late Fr. Sergius Bulgakov. There are not multiple or even two churches of Christ, but one. Christ does not take to Himself two or more brides, neither is He the Head of two or more bodies. There is One Body made up of many members, each in harmony and unity with each other and in mystical union with Jesus Christ the Head. This One Church, the Body and Bride of Christ, on earth is both visible and invisible. It is not correct to assert that the true Church is by nature hidden, and that all visible aspects are "accidental" or not really the Church because one can detect imperfections there. The visible aspects include doctrine, hierarchy, prayers, services and service structures, sacraments, icons, liturgical music, and so on. These visible aspects have a kind of perfection as delineated by their respective natures. And each of these has an invisible center, which is not separable from the visible manifestation. The visible must necessarily lead one beyond itself, so that it is not an "end in itself," but an instrument of penetration to and communion with the world beyond or, as it were, "underneath," or perhaps best to say "within." The world within is, of course, the Kingdom of God, which lies within to some degree or other all phenomena. One could say that the invisible is certainly more important and even more real than the visible, but the latter is not disposable as long as we are in the flesh. One can no more cast away the doctrines, liturgies, hierarchical order, etc., than one can cast off the human body as long as we live in this world; the body and soul are inseparable until our death; likewise the visible aspects of the Church are inseparable from the invisible core until the end of cosmic time.