Sign of the Cross.

[onodera]

I have a question: do you make the sign of the cross in your church if you're Christian? If yes, how do you fold your fingers and what is the hand movement order?

When I used to be a Christian, I used the standard Orthodox sign: thumb to middle pressed together, the other two bent against the palm, head-stomach-right-left.

[Main_Brain]

/nm

[snoopy369]

In the west it's left to right, but otherwise the same... the hand folding is usually only done by older (pre-vatican II) folks (in the US).

[Krill]

And that's supposed to be part of being Christian why?

[-Jrabbit]

In my Catholic school, the thumb was not involved. The 3 middle fingers of the right hand were held together (doubtless a 'trinity' thing). The thumb was held inward, toward the palm. Some used the thumb to hold the pinky, but iirc this was not required.

Forehead - chest - left shoulder - right shoulder

Amen.

[Patroklos]

I have only seen Catholics do the sign of the cross.

[Jon Miller]

The sign of the Cross changing is one of the main things that made Old Russian split off from the Orthodox.

JM

[Sir Og]

What is the difference between Old Russian and Orthodox method.

I am pretty sure that Orthodox is what onodera described.

[Elok]

Close. The thumb and first two fingers of the right hand are pressed together (for the Trinity), with the remaining two fingers standing for the dual nature of Christ. You go from top to bottom because He came from Heaven to Earth, and right to left to show passage from Jews to Gentiles.

I was unaware of any difference between crossing methods among the old-believer Russians. I thought they broke off in a paranoid fit of more-Orthodox-than-thou spurred by the Bolshevik revolution. If anything, it was over refusal to use the new calendar. Or so I thought. I could be wrong.

[Ninot]

I recall, in my Russian History course, that part of it was going from 3 fingers to 2, or something like that.

[snoopy369]

According to wiki, it was the other way around - the Russians in the 1600s were using 2, and around then they were required to go back to 3 (as the Greek Orthodox Church did).

[SlowwHand]

Re: Sign of the Cross.

Originally posted by onodera
I have a question: do you make the sign of the cross in your church if you're Christian? If yes, how do you fold your fingers and what is the hand movement order?

When I used to be a Christian, I used the standard Orthodox sign: thumb to middle pressed together, the other two bent against the palm, head-stomach-right-left.

Methodists use no hand gestures of which I'm aware.

[onodera]

Originally posted by Elok
Close. The thumb and first two fingers of the right hand are pressed together (for the Trinity), with the remaining two fingers standing for the dual nature of Christ. You go from top to bottom because He came from Heaven to Earth, and right to left to show passage from Jews to Gentiles.

I was unaware of any difference between crossing methods among the old-believer Russians. I thought they broke off in a paranoid fit of more-Orthodox-than-thou spurred by the Bolshevik revolution. If anything, it was over refusal to use the new calendar. Or so I thought. I could be wrong.

You've just made my day, man.
But hey, when I was a kid I thought Washington and Lincoln knew each other well.

[Jon Miller]

The old-beleiver russians broke off long before the Bolshevik revolution.

JM

[Ben Kenobi]

Didn't know that about the three fingers together.

It's forehead, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder.

How I always remember it is "glory be to the father, (forehead), son (chest), holy spirit (left-right shoulder).