Whats the difference between “worship” and “veneration”?
Orthodox Christians do venerate Icons, which is to say, we pay respect to them because they are holy objects, and because we reverence what the Icons depict. We do not worship Icons any more than Americans worship the American flag. Saluting the flag is not exactly the same type of veneration as we pay to Icons, but it is indeed a type of veneration. And just as we do not venerate wood and paint, but rather the persons depicted in the Icon, patriotic Americans do not venerate cloth and dye, but rather the country which the flag represents. This was the reasoning of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, which decreed in its Oros the following: “Since this is the case, following the royal path and the teaching divinely inspired by our holy Fathers and the Tradition of the catholic Churchfor we know that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit who lives in itwe decide in all correctness and after a thorough examination that, just as the holy and vivifying Cross, similarly the holy and precious Icons pa
