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Statement of Faith

Religious Requirements for Employed Administrators, Faculty, and Staff of The Saint Constantine School

1) All administrators, faculty, and staff must be one of the following:

(a) a catechumen in a parish of a canonical Orthodox Christian jurisdiction,
(b) an Orthodox Christian who is a member of a parish of a canonical Orthodox Christian jurisdiction, or be
(c) a non-Orthodox Christian who affirms that he/she has been baptized with water in the Name of the Holy Trinity: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2) All administrators, faculty, and staff must affirm sincere belief in the Holy Trinity and, therefore, affirm the doctrine of the Holy Trinity expressed in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, first compiled at the First Ecumenical Council (AD 325) in the city of Nicea and completed at the Second Ecumenical Council (AD 381) in the city of Constantinople. They must also affirm the Chalcedonian definition of Christology as defined in the Fifth Ecuminical Council (AD 451) held in city of Chalcedon, which expresses the truth that Christ is One Person in two natures (human and divine), that is, Christ is fully God and fully man.

Excerpt from The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed regarding the Holy Trinity:

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten,
Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, True God of True God,
Begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made:
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
And was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father;
And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father,
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets.”

Chalcedonian Definition of Christology:
“We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.”

3) All administrators, faculty, and staff at The Saint Constantine School are expected and required to teach and live by example the ethical and moral life of the Church, including those Orthodox teachings pertaining to human relationships and sexuality. Therefore, they are to live a life of fidelity with regard to the body, that is, practicing either celibacy outside of marriage between a man and a woman or marital faithfulness within a marriage, exclusively between the man and woman united together. The teachings of the Church are expressed, in part, in this passage from the ancient text, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (The Didache): “You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.” The Church’s understanding on so-called “same-sex marriage” is reflected in the Orthodox Church of America (OCA) statement on same-sex relationships and sexual identity. 

4) Recognizing that education at The Saint Constantine School involves shaping students in the ethos and worldview of the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Christian Church, all administrators, faculty, and staff must teach all subjects in harmony with the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Christian Church.

The Saint Constantine School is a pan-Orthodox organization. The Saint Constantine School permits non-Orthodox Trinitarian Christians, separated from the Holy Orthodox Church as members of non-Orthodox communions, to be employed at The Saint Constantine School as long as they agree with the aforementioned requirements. Employment of the non-Orthodox in The Saint Constantine School does not indicate a compromising the doctrines of the Church, including the essential ecclesiological understanding that the Orthodox Church is exclusively the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, that is, the only true Church of Jesus Christ on earth, and that Holy Orthodoxy is only truly known in its fullness noetically through the experience of living the Orthodox life as a member of the Holy Orthodox Church.