* Heresy in Orthodox Judaism

The Books of the Bible are listed differently in the canons of Judaism and the Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Slavonic Orthodox, Coptic, Georgian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac, Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches, although there is substantial overlap.

Rather, it is sometimes employed by unaffiliated groups to indicate a range of beliefs and practices more liberal than is affirmed by the Orthodox, and more traditional than the more liberal Jewish denominations ( Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism ).

Working with this 1990s trend of diversity and institutional growth, Conservative Judaism remained the largest denomination in America, with 43 percent of Jewish households affiliated with a synagogue belonging to Conservative synagogues ( compared to 35 percent for Reform and 16 percent for Orthodox ).

The movement is supported by the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel, an American organization that provides funding to Masorti programs, which are disadvantaged by the Israeli government's practice of funding only Orthodox institutions.

Concerning the degree of revelation of Torah, Conservative Judaism rejects the Orthodox position of a direct verbal revelation of the Torah.

They believe that the Orthodox Jewish movements, on the theological right, have erred by slowing down, or stopping, the historical development of Jewish law: " Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly study of Jewish texts indicates that Judaism has constantly been evolving to meet the needs of the Jewish people in varying circumstances, and that a central halakhic authority can continue the halakhic evolution today.

See also under Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Conservative Judaism accepts that the Orthodox approach to halakhah is generally valid.

Some Modern Orthodox leaders cooperate and work with the Conservative movement, while haredi (" Ultra-Orthodox ") Jews often eschew formal contact with Conservative Judaism, or at least its rabbinate.

* Orthodox Judaism

The three largest Jewish denominations — Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism — maintain the belief that the Jews have been chosen by God for a purpose.

Orthodox Judaism deliberately makes it very difficult to convert and become a Jew, and requires a significant and full-time effort in living, study, righteousness, and conduct over several years.

* Admiel Kosman, Between Orthodox Judaism and nihilism: Reflections on the recently published writings of the late Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg, Haaretz, Aug. 17, 2012.

Within Modern Orthodox Judaism, there is no one committee or leader, but Modern Orthodox rabbis generally agree with the views set by consensus by the leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Orthodox Judaism holds that Halakha is the divine law as laid out in the Torah ( First five books of Moses ), rabbinical laws, rabbinical decrees and customs combined.

See Orthodox Judaism, Beliefs about Jewish law and tradition.

This is considered wrong, and even heretical, by Orthodox and Conservative Judaism.

As they do not receive Holy Orders in the Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental Churches, they do not possess the ability to ordain any religious to Holy Orders, or even admit their members to the non-ordained ministries to which they can be installed by the ordained clergy ( females do not serve as clergy anyway, per formal church teaching, in these churches ), nor do they exercise the authority they do possess under canon law over any territories outside of their monastery and its territory ( though non-cloistered, non-contemplative female religious members who are based in a convent or monastery but who participate in external affairs may assist as needed by the diocesan bishop and local secular clergy and laity, in certain pastoral ministries and administrative and non-administrative functions not requiring ordained ministry or status as a male cleric in those churches or programs ).

Some Protestants feel that such claims of apostolic succession are proven false by the differences in traditions and doctrines between these churches: Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox consider both the Church of the East and the Oriental Orthodox churches to be heretical, having been anathematized in the early ecumenical councils of Ephesus ( 431 ) and Chalcedon ( 451 ) respectively.

The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox receive several additional books in to their canons based upon their presence in manuscripts of the ancient translation of the Old Testament in to Greek, the Septuagint ( although some of these books, such as Sirach and Tobit, are now known to be extant in Hebrew or Aramaic originals, being found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls ).

For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions.

Catholic Christians, following the Canon of Trent, describe these books as deuterocanonical, meaning of " the second canon ," while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem ( 1672 ), use the traditional name of anagignoskomena, meaning " that which is to be read.

* They hold that the practice within Independent groups of ordaining women demonstrates an understanding of Priesthood that they vindicate is totally unacceptable to the Catholic and Orthodox churches as they believe that the Universal Church does not possess such authority ; thus, they uphold that any ceremonies performed by these women should be considered being sacramentally invalid.

Four of these have been previously canonized as saints, namely William of Norwich, Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Simon of Trent ( Simon was decanonized in the 20th century ), and Gavriil Belostoksky who remains canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Estimates of the total number of Protestants are very uncertain, partly because of the difficulty in determining which denominations should be placed in these categories, but it seems clear that Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians after Catholicism in number of followers ( although the Orthodox Church is larger than any single Protestant denomination ).

Although under the jurisdiction of the Coptic Orthodox Church, these adherents are not considered Copts, since they are not ethnic Egyptians.

While the Russian Orthodox Church does recognize the first seven ecumenical councils as valid, some Russian Orthodox theologians believe that the infallibility of these councils ' statements derived from their acceptance by the faithful ( and thus from the infallibility of all believers ), and not from the acts of the councils themselves.

It is unlikely that formal recognition as ecumenical will be granted to these three councils, despite the acknowledged orthodoxy of their decisions, so that only seven are universally recognized among the Eastern Orthodox as ecumenical.

Local meetings of hierarchs have been called " pan-Orthodox ", but these have invariably been simply meetings of local hierarchs of whatever Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions are party to a specific local matter.

Unfortunately, the use of the term " pan-Orthodox " is confusing to those not within Eastern Orthodoxy, and it leads to mistaken impressions that these are ersatz ecumenical councils rather than purely local councils to which nearby Orthodox hierarchs, regardless of jurisdiction, are invited.

Today, in addition to the Orthodox Church, a number of other Christian churches lay claim to this title ( including the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church ); however, the Orthodox Church considers these other churches to be schismatic and, in some cases, heretical.

Due to what these churches perceive as the errors of modernism and ecumenism in mainstream Orthodoxy, they refrain from concelebration of the Divine Liturgy with them while maintaining that they remain fully within the canonical boundaries of the Church: i. e., professing Orthodox belief, retaining legitimate episcopal succession, and existing in communities with historical continuity.

Seven canons, four of these doctrinal canons and three disciplinary canons, are attributed to the Council and accepted by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches ; the Roman Catholic Church accepts only the first four .< ref >

Yet, Lutherans and Orthodox are in agreement that the Second Council of Nicaea confirms the christological teaching of the earlier councils and in setting forth the role of images ( icons ) in the lives of the faithful reaffirms the reality of the incarnation of the eternal Word of God, when it states: " The more frequently, Christ, Mary, the mother of God, and the saints are seen, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these icons the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration.

Eastern Orthodox believe these qualify as icons, in that they were visible images depicting heavenly beings and, in the case of the cherubim, used to indirectly indicate God's presence above the Ark.

However, in most Orthodox synagogues these positions are filled by laypeople on a rotating or ad-hoc basis.

In the Slavic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, these two are commemorated on 19 November ( corresponding to 2 December on the Gregorian calendar ).

Although Orthodox Judaism acknowledges that rabbis made many decisions and decrees regarding Jewish Law where the written Torah itself is non-specific, they did so only in accordance with regulations given to them by Moses on Mount Sinai ( see Deuteronomy 5: 8-13 ).

The council also decreed that every altar should contain a relic, which remains the case in modern Catholic and Orthodox regulations ( Canon VII ), and made a number of decrees on clerical discipline, especially for monks when mixing with women.

This policy resulted in the suspension of Lamaist canonical regulations governing monastery construction and in Kalmyk temples resembling Russian Orthodox churches.

These regulations were variously observed by the ancient Israelites ; contemporary Orthodox Jews and ( with some modifications and additional leniencies ) some Conservative Jews continue to observe the regulations, except for those tied to sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, as the Temple no longer fully exists.

Orthodox Judaism generally adheres to the classical regulations and traditions, and consequently Orthodox Jewish women are obligated to immerse in a mikveh between Niddah and sexual relations with their husbands.

The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the highest authority in the Church of Alexandria and it formulates the rules and regulations regarding matters of church's organisation, faith, service's order.

Pope Pius recognized, and often criticized, an over-centralized papacy and related Church laws and regulations, as an obstacle to relations with the Eastern Orthodox churches.