Pravoslavniye

It's a Russian term that means "right belief", and gets translated often as "Orthodoxy". It also has connotations of "true believer" and "faithful". Some define it specifically as "Orthodox Church". None of those are quite sufficient to define the entirety of meaning in the word, but "Orthodoxy" will do in a pinch.

As an American Orthodox Christian, looking at cultures that have been deeply influenced by this rather different version of Christianity (neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant), I have to be willing to accept various customs from ethnic Orthodox since we Americans haven't had enough Orthodox for long enough to have developed our own unique customs. Thus I have used a Russian term to identify my "church culture" if you will.

On the other hand, many of those customs are pretty cool. And the food is often "to die for"--and the Greek stuff is even good for you, mostly.

Now I'm hungry for some baked feta and gyros. Off to Greek to Me (on North 6th Street, for those looking for some good ethnic food, or even plain old American fare) for supper!

I'll muse more about what it means to be "pravoslavniye" later.

KNP