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            Making the crossbar from right to left is not without significance. Classically, the right is the symbol of light, good and truth, while the left is the symbol of darkness, evil and error. In keeping with the meaning of this symbolism, going from right to left asks God's blessing that sanctification from the right side would cross over to the fallen, sinful side of one's nature in order to transform and redeem it.

            Over the course of its long separation from Orthodox Christianity, the Latin Church reversed the direction of the crossbar and started tracing it from left to right, the significance of which should be apparent. This practice remains in the Latin Church to this day.

            Still another change from the Apostolic practice involves the Latins no longer touching the abdomen, but the chest instead (see Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy's diagram above). In making this change, Roman Catholics no longer make the life-giving Cross of Christ upon themselves, but distort it and seal themselves instead with a travesty of the Cross — that is, an upside down cross. As the same Fr. Seraphim explains in his book The Law of God, the Catholic sign of the “cross” brings joy to the demons, for it is a profane gesture.

            Apostolic Succession does not exist outside Christ's Church. According to the first canon of St. Basil, outside the Church the bestowing of grace is reduced to nothing and every sort of succession is unlawful. These things are so because a layman (actually even less than a layman) executes the laying on of hands upon a layman without transferring any sort of grace to him, because there is none, nor can there be grace outside the one Church, outside of the unity of the Body of Christ. Once a bishop leaves the Church in schism as the pope did in the eleventh century, the continuing Church does not recognize any consecrations or ordinations he performs. Ordinations are invalid when those ordained do not have the right faith, and there is neither Apostolic Succession or priesthood. The episcopi vagantes are not within the succession and can no longer show an uninterrupted priesthood, for Apostolic Succession was severed in the West as of its apostasy and schism from Christ's Church in 1054.

            Only the Orthodox Church can rightfully claim continuity in both episcopate and faith, for Orthodoxy has the complete and preserved Apostolic faith, without any additions or subtractions, and it alone is unchanged from the Apostolic period. Thus, when an Orthodox bishop is consecrated today, or when an Orthodox priest is ordained (from Apostolic times the priesthood has been the second degree of the hierarchy), that consecration or ordination can be traced historically all the way back to the Apostles and back to Christ. The hierarchy was established by Christ, and the Apostles were always citing its divine institution. The Apostles themselves chose their successors through ordination, and those successors were the bishops of the Church. Through Apostolic Succession, the Orthodox Church traces its existence to Christ and is the one Church founded by Him. As Holy Scripture states, “one Lord, one faith, one Baptism” (Eph 4:5), one Holy Tradition (2 Thes 2:15), and one Christian Church (Mt 16:18). All other Churches — that is, the 23,000 Churches of the West, originate from Orthodox Christianity by way of reduction and separation.

            This subject is most serious, for in the Nicene Creed, Christians confess belief in “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Precisely these four words show the characteristics of the one Church established by Christ and the Apostles. Thus, in addition to being One, Holy and Catholic (meaning universal), the true Church has an unbroken tie with the Apostles and is in historic continuity with the Church of the Apostles. The Apostles are the foundation of the Church, for it is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). Calling the Church Apostolic indicates that it was established not on a single bishop, as the Roman Church would later come to assert (beginning in the ninth century), but upon all the Apostles. (Contrary to Rome's teaching of papal supremacy, Christ Himself forbade Peter and the other Apostles to reign or exercise lordship over the flock like the kings of the Gentiles — cf. Lk 22:25). The Orthodox Church is also Apostolic because it alone has its beginning in Christ, Who is the Apostle and High Priest of the confession (Heb. 3:11).

            In the matter of the teachings of the Christian Churches, whenever it was necessary to contrast the theology of the Orthodox Church with Western Christianity's deviations from its former confession of Orthodox Christianity, these distinctions are presented in an objective, non-polemical way. The author feels no irritation at all against non-Orthodox Christians (for he was once one himself), nor does he dispute the piety and good will of these people. In fact, there is no doubt that most of these individuals are motivated by a love of God. However, the concern of this study is the correct confession of faith — not personal integrity. The reader is therefore asked not to be offended when, for the sake of truth, contrasts are made between Orthodoxy's ancient and unchanging teaching, vis-à-vis the deviations of Western Christianity from the faith it held prior to 1054.

            It is also important for the reader to understand that Orthodoxy's claim of being Christ's one and only Church should not be a stumbling block to Western Christians. A Greek archbishop points out that it should be just the opposite: a point of attraction. He explains that Orthodoxy does not maintain its claim of primacy out of arrogance, but out of love for its traditions. Likewise, as a monk notes in this regard, Orthodoxy's primacy does not stem from any human merit on the part of the Orthodox, but because God is pleased to preserve His treasure in earthen vessels. The archbishop further explains that Orthodox Christians do not imagine that they hold something in their hands which is theirs, but which is universal and the domain of all who confess Christ. He states that Orthodoxy has maintained the integrity of faith, and that in this ancient Church is found the fullness of God's grace and truth. Orthodoxy offers that faith in the pure form in which it was handed down from the Apostles, and its boundaries are open to all human beings who embrace it.