KE,
Well, I have yet another question for you. Being raised RC I know that in referencing priests, bishops, archbishops, etc. there are certain titles that go along with said ranks.
I am wondering if this is also the case for the Orthodox Church?
Good question! Yes.
Orthodox clergy are always 'Title Firstname' - Patriarch Alexis, Metropolitan Kyrill, Archbishop Michael, Bishop Job, Fr James, Reader Paul.
There are also titles bishops use that are lot like the ones Roman Catholic bishops have - 'Your Holiness/His Holiness' or 'Your Beatitude' for a patriarch, 'Your Beatitude' for a metropolitan (same as an RC archbishop - he rules a province with several bishops/dioceses under him), 'Your Eminence' (sound familiar?
) for an archbishop (in Russian usage an honorary title for a bishop).
There are also foreign-language names for bishops - a Russian bishop is '
Vladyka Andrei'; an Arab bishop is '
Saidna Philip'.
There are also honorary titles for some priests and deacons, kind of like RC
monsignori - mitred archpriest, archpriest (the Very Revd), protopresbyter (Greek for archpriest?), protodeacon - and among priests who are also monks, 'Abbot' or 'Hegumen'/'Igumen' (the Right Revd?).... Don't worry about those
- unless you are writing letters to these clergy. Talking to them, 'Fr Firstname' is fine.
Do I refer to the priest simply as "Father", the deacon simply as "Deacon" etc.?
Yes, you can - 'Father' or 'Father Firstname'. Also, many Orthodox churches call deacons 'Father' too - 'Fr Paul' or 'Fr Deacon Paul'.
Orthodox monks who aren't priests are 'Fr Firstname' too! And Orthodox nuns are '
Mother Firstname', not 'Sister' ('S'ter', I hear, in good old US Catholic school lingo).
Interesting bit of etiquette that theologically makes sense: when writing to his bishop a priest
doesn't sign his letter as 'Fr John Smith'. Only the bishop is, as the Anglican Prayer Book puts it, a 'reverend father in God' in his own right. Priests are given the
privilege by the bishop of being called 'Father' by the laity because they share in the bishop's apostolic ministry, in his priesthood. In other words, they represent him. This distinction is why sometimes in articles, etc. you see Orthodox priests sign their names 'Priest John Smith' - that's how they sign their letters to their bishops.
But you call him 'Fr John', not 'Fr Smith' (though sometimes in America you hear it and nobody minds), not 'Priest Smith', not 'Priest John'.
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