1. Basics of Orthodoxy: The Holy Trinity

2. Father
Son
Holy Spirit

3. Characteristics of each Person of the Holy Trinity
Father
Creator
Fully Divine
The Source of the Godhead
Without cause or generation
Begotten of the Father from before all ages
Co-creator with the Father
Consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit
Fully Divine
Incarnate
Son
Holy Spirit
Proceeds from the Father from before all ages
Co-creator with the Father and the Son
Fully Divine
Consubstantial with the Father and the Son
Sent to the Church at Pentecost by the Father and the Son

4. Scriptural References to the Holy Trinity: CREATION
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light.” (Gen.1:1-3)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (Jn.1:1-3)

5. Scriptural References to the Holy Trinity: ANNUNCIATION
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Lk.1:35)

6. Scriptural References to the Holy Trinity: BAPTISM
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when He came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son, with You I am well pleased.’” (Mk.1:9-11)

7. Scriptural References to the Holy Trinity: TRANSFIGURATION
“And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them, and His garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.’” (Mk.9:2-3,7)

8. Scriptural References to the Holy Trinity: PENTECOST
“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear.” (Acts 2:32-33)

9. Scriptural References to the Holy Trinity: THE GREAT COMMISSION
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me; go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.’” (Mt.28:18-20)

10. Concerning our belief in One God (from St. John of Damascus)
God has no beginning, and is uncreated, without any generation of any kind.
He is imperishable, everlasting, infinite, and boundless.
He has infinite power
He is simple, uncompound, incorporeal (immaterial and intangible), without change, passionless, and unseen.
He is the fountain of all goodness, virtue and justice.
He is inaccessible; a power known by no measure, measurable only by His own will alone.
He is the creator of all created things, seen (like us) or unseen (like the Bodiless Powers), the maintainer and preserver of all, the provider for all, master and lord and king over all, with an endless and immortal kingdom.

11. Concerning our belief in One God, continued (from St. John of Damascus)
God has no contrary (there is no dualism/no yin and yang).
He is encompassed by nothing, but rather fills all things.
God is super-essential and above all things.
God determines all sovereignties and ranks. He, Himself, is above all sovereignty and rank, above life and word and thought.
God is true light, true goodness, true life and true essence; He does not derive His being from another, that is to say, of those things that exist.
He is the fountain of being to all that is: Life to the living, Reason to those that have reason; to all the Cause of all good: perceiving all things even before they have become.

12. Concerning God the Father
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” (Nicene Creed)
The Father is the source and cause of all; begotten of no one, without cause or generation, alone subsisting.
The Father has generative power, meaning the power of producing from one’s self, that which is like in nature to one’s self.
He is the Creator of all, but the Father of only one by nature, His Only-begotten Son and our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. He could not have received the name Father apart from the Son, for if He were without the Son, He could not be the Father.
At the same time, He is the source of the procession of the most Holy Spirit.
The Father is eternally the source and cause of both the Son and the Holy Spirit, for the generation and procession are eternal.
We don’t have icons of God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit reveals itself in a specific way (a dove at the Baptism of Christ, flames at Holy Pentecost). The icon of the Holy Trinity—that is, the three angels who visited Abraham and Sarah—is the only traditional representation of the Father and it includes the Son and the Holy Spirit. Iconographers are careful not to depict that which has not been seen or revealed.

13. The Traditional Representation of the Holy Trinity

14. Concerning God the Son

15. Concerning God the Son
The most comprehensive confession of the Person of Christ was made at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
“Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; ‘like us in all things but sin.’ He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (Mother of God). We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation. The distinction between natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.”
“And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father, before all the ages: Light of Light, true God of true God: begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, through Whom all things are made.” (Nicene Creed)

16. Concerning God the Son, continued
The Son of God was not brought into being out of nothing like the rest of creation; He was with the Father and in Him. There never was a time when the Father was and the Son was not. His generation is without time or beginning.
Unless we grant that the Son co-existed from the beginning with the Father, by Whom He was begotten, we introduce change into the Father’s subsistence.
The Son is of the exact same essence or substance as the Father. He is always the essential, perfect and living image (icon) of the unseen God, for the Son is never in any way separate from Him, but is ever in Him. For this reason, the Son is able to fully make the Father known, and whoever sees the Son, sees the Father; whoever accepts the Son, accepts the Father.
The Word’s existence does not come from outside the Godhead, but His hypostasis (or personhood) is distinct from that of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
There is no superiority in nature of the Father over the Son. The only difference of the Father with the Son exists with respect of causation.
Jesus Christ is He who will return to judge the living and the dead.

17. Concerning God the Son, continued
Jesus Christ is fully Divine:
a. “He is the image (icon) of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Col.1:15-17)
b. “I and the Father are one.” (Jn.10:30)
c. “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” (Jn.1:18)
d. “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?” (Jn.14:9)
Jesus Christ is fully human:
a. Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. (Jn.4:6)
b. Jesus wept. (Jn.11:35)
c. "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but Yours, be done." (Lk.22:42)
d. “He said, ‘It is finished;’ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (Jn.19:30)
e. “When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.” (Jn.19:34)

18. Concerning God the Holy Spirit
The First Ecumenical Council, Nicea

19. Concerning the Holy Spirit
“And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life; Who proceeds from the Father; Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke through the prophets.” (Nicene Creed)
He is the object of equal adoration and glorification with the Father and Son, since He is of the same essence and co-eternal.
The Spirit of God possesses the exact same authority as the Father and the Son.
He is the fountain of wisdom, the fountain of life, and the fountain of holiness.
He is uncreated, complete, creative, all-ruling, all-effecting, all-powerful, of infinite power, Lord of all creation and not under any lord; deifying, not deified; filling, not filled: shared in, not sharing in: sanctifying, not sanctified: the intercessor, receiving the supplications of all
“Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things. O Treasury of every good and Bestower of life: come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O Good One.”

20. Concerning the Holy Spirit, continued
He possesses all the qualities that the Father and Son possess, save that of not being the cause of the Godhead (the Father) or generated through being begotten (the Son).
The Holy Spirit is not generative in character but processional. Even so, the generation of the Son from the Father and the procession of the Holy Spirit are simultaneous and eternal.
The Holy Spirit is participated in by all creation as co-Creator with the Father and the Son, investing with essence and sanctifying, maintaining the universe, and making the Son known.
He has subsistence (hypostatic existence), existing in His own proper and peculiar hypostasis, inseparable and indivisible from the Father and the Son.
In prayer, He is addressed along with the Father and the Son, for the operation of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity is one.

21. Scriptural References to the Holy Spirit
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will be in you.” (Jn.14:15-17)
“But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to Me.” (Jn.15:26)
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:” (Jn.16:7-8)

22. The Holy Trinity
All that the Son and the Spirit have is from the Father, even their very being.
Unless the Father is, neither the Son nor the Spirit is. And unless the Father possesses a certain attribute, neither the Son nor the Spirit possesses it.
The three Persons of the Trinity possess in common all things regarding the Godhead.
one Lordship made known in three perfect hypostases (persons)
adored with one adoration
believed in and ministered to by all rational creation,
united without confusion and divided without separation (which indeed transcends thought)
The three absolutely divine Persons of the Holy Godhead agree; for they exist as one in essence and uncreated.
We believe in God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: One God in three Persons.

23. The Holy Trinity, continued
In hypostatic or personal properties alone do the three holy Persons differ from each other, being indivisibly divided not by essence but by the distinguishing mark of their proper and peculiar hypostatic existence.
The relationship of the three Persons to each other is referred to in Greek as perichorisis, or in English as a “round dance.”
There is a distinction between God’s essence and His energies.

24. Properties of the One Divine Nature
Uncreated
Without beginning
Immortal
Infinite
Eternal
Immaterial
Good
Creative
Just
Enlightening
Immutable
Passionless
Uncircumscribed
Immeasurable
Unlimited
Undefined
Unseen
Unthinkable
Wanting in nothing
Being His own rule and authority
All-ruling
Life-giving
Omnipotent
Of infinite power
Maintaining the universe
Making provision for all
All these and such like attributes God possesses by nature, not having received them from elsewhere, but Himself imparting all good to His own creations according to the capacity of each.

25. Summary 1. No one has seen the Father
2. The Son is the perfect Image of the Father
3. We know the Father by knowing the Son
4. We know the Son through the Spirit
5. The Spirit of Truth, the Counselor is sent into the Church by the Father and the Son
6. The Holy Trinity is a mystery of unity in diversity, and of diversity in unity.