ORTHODOX TRADITION

In the Orthodox Christian tradition, the Immaculate Conception of Mary is not accepted as an official dogma.

In the Roman Catholic dogma, Mary was cleansed of all original sin while in her mother's womb, so that Jesus her pure Son of God could be born.

This argument does not consider the free will of mankind and consequently the Orthodox Church dogma states that Mary was cleansed of all sin at the Annunciation after she accepts the offer of God the Father via the Archangel Gabriel.

There is indeed a very close linkage between dogma and devotion in Orthodoxy which are in essence inseparable from one another.

It is evident from Scripture that the glory of the Mother of God is not located in her physical maternity, but in the fact that she carried the Logos, the Incarnate Word.

The tradition around her is important, whether it be concerning the nativity, her presentation in the temple or her assumption.

Much is celebrated by the Church without being stated in the Holy Bible.

Holy tradition complements the Holy Bible especially in terms of the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophesies in the New Testament's good news.

Holy tradition is what gives us the power to understand the meaning of the revealed truth (Luke 24, 25).

Holy tradition confers upon us an understanding of what we need to hear and how we should continue to practise what we hear.

In this way, the cult of the Mother of God is a fruit of Holy tradition and is the "...germ and stem of tradition.

We can find a definite relationship between the person of the Mother of God and what we call the tradition of the Church" (Lossky 1951: 268).

The term Mother of God, Theotokos, has not been understood, neither has it been intended to be understood, as referring to Mary as Mother of God from eternity, 

that is, as Mother of God the Father.

It only refers to the birth of the Logos Jesus, that is, God in human form.

The limitation in the meaning of Mother of God must thus be implicitly understood by the writer using the term.

By means of contrast, the term Theotokos makes it explicit, and it therefore discounts any misunderstanding of the divine maternity of Mary.

God the Father chose Mary to be a personal part of His immense act of clemency for humanity.

Mary was thus full of His grace and kept spotless and thus free from sin for her complete life.

Mary was prepared to be the perfect dwelling place for the God-man (Theanthropos) Jesus, the incarnate Logos, and was really His mother.

Due to the fact that Mary became the Theotokos, she is a representation of God's compassion and grace to all His people.

Mary's role in the economy of mercy is huge and she possesses the most earnest understanding of the mystery of God's salvific grace and mercy for humanity.

Her pure body was required for the formation of a physical child and its development.

Mary, by virtue of the conception of the Holy Spirit,

gave birth to the second entity of the triune Godhead.

She created His human nature, which became one with His divine nature.

In Orthodoxy then Mary is hugely honoured and she is venerated as "more honourable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim" (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

St. Cyril of Alexandria praised Mary at the fourth Ecumenical Council Synod of Ephesus in 431 BCE by stating in his sermon the following about Mary:

Hail Mary, Mother of God,

Precious treasure of the whole world.

Light unquenchable,

Crown of virginity,

Sceptre of Orthodoxy,

Temple which shall never be destroyed,

Place which contained Him whom nothing can contain,

Mother and Virgin (P.G. Ixxvii. 992, b.)

St. John of Damascus (675-749 BCE) explains that the name Mother of God "contains the whole history of the divine economy in this world" (P.G. xciv. 1029d-1032a). Mary was thus called the Mother of God to emphasise that she bore a child that is a single and indivisible individual person who is God and man simultaneously. Mary is venerated directly due to her relation to Jesus Christ. Mary was not the Mother of God per se, but rather the Mother of God the Son incarnate and she is never venerated in isolation. This is evident in the iconography of the Orthodox Church where Mary is always depicted with the child Jesus. The icons are therefore not icons of Mary but rather of the Incarnation. St. Paul gave advice to prospective couples on marriage as an institution (I Cor. 7:1-40; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; Eph. 5:21-33), and also viewed the union of husband and wife as a representation of Christ's union with the Ekklesia tou Theou (Church of God in Eph. 5:25-30). It is thus to be noted that a celibate life and a person's desire to detach from the world did not suggest a contempt for the institution of marriage amongst early Christians. In fact marriage and family life were witness to the teachings of Christ. Mary's vow of virginity was indeed a whole consecration of her complete person, both in soul as well as in body, to God the Father. She thus planned to remain a virgin in both her soul and body, and did; and God respected her fervent wish to do so.