^Most Orthodox jurisdictions do not require specific renunciations (other than heresy in general). However, as a professor of mine at St. Tikhon's once told us, he regrets not bringing in others into Orthodoxy without the specific affirmations and renunciations in many years of his pastorate. They have to know what they are getting into and what they are subscribing to, and also affirm it. I recall years ago (early to mid-1990's) a person who told me that, after 10 years of being Orthodox, he still did not subscribe to the Orthodox understanding of predestination. He went into some detail. I suppose I was just in shock. There is room to roam in the pasture so long as you are still within the bounds set by the fathers, but not outside of these bounds.
thank you Father. BTW, what is the Orthodox understanding of predestination? Anyway, as a Roman Catholic, there are a whole lot of things that I like about the Orthodox Church, but I would not renounce a belief in Purgatory. It just seems reasonable to me that for lesser sins, there would be a punishment lesser than eternal fire in hell.
The Orthodox understanding of predestination is that God sees all things simultaneously, including our decisions. There is no determinism, but rather omniscient knowledge ("foreknowledge" from our point of view).
Regarding Purgatory, there is no specific renunciation of it. Only, in the broader renunciations the "doctrines of the Latin confession" that are "contrary ot the Word of God, and to the true Tradition of the Church, and to the decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils."
it may seem like a hair-splitting difference to some. But the Orthodox position is that the Biblical Hades was transformed into purgatory. The Orthodox do not believe that there are any specially created temporal fires--all fires that transform are God's energy, not created fire, as is the RC position.
So I would only ask if what you really believe when you say "purgatory" is the older Orthodox-Catholic understanding of Hades:
Council at Constantinople of 1772:
"We the pious, following the truth and turning away from such innovations, confess and accept two places for the souls of the dead, paradise and hades, for the righteous and sinners, as the holy Scripture teaches us. We do not accept a third place, a purgatory, by any means, since neither Scripture nor the holy Fathers have taught us any such thing. However, we believe these two places have many abodes." It continues:
"None of the teachers of the Church have handed down or taught such a purgatory, but they all speak of one single place of punishment, hades, just as they teach about one luminous and bright place, paradise. But both the souls of the holy and the righteous go indisputably to paradise and those of the sinners go to hades, of whom the profane and those who have sinned unforgivably are punished forever,
and those who have offended forgivably and moderately hope to gain freedom through the unspeakable mercy of God. For on behalf of such souls, that is of the moderately and forgivably sinful, there are in the Church prayers, supplications, liturgies, as well as memorial services and almsgiving, that those souls may receive favour and comfort. Thus when the Church prays for the souls of those who are lying asleep, we hope there will be comfort for them from God, but not through [created] fire and [expiative] purgatory, but through divine love for mankind, whereby the infinite goodness of God is seen."
When we speak of hell, we have to be specific. Before the general resurrection, there are two "places" (place-states): Paradise and Hades, but as it says, there are many "abodes" of Hades. But strictly speaking, eternal "hell" (Gehenna) is a "place" of the post resurrectional state. We are not there yet. Incidentally, the Orthodox call what the bible calls the deepest part of Hades: Tartarus. This is where the wicked are confined until the General Resurrection.