Forgive me for my naïve question, but I'm trying to learn. :)

Long story, but my husbands brother with his wife and children converted from Baptist to Russian Orthodox in the past year. They both were raised in a Baptist family, so it was a bit of a surprise when it all happened. Once they "announced" it to us all, they seemed to put a guard up against us, which I think is because they expected a strong reaction. We were all shunned from the baby's baptism into their new church because my SIL said, "I knew 'the family' would get pi$$ed." (Sorry, but that's just not true. Finding out I missed my niece's baptism through my SIL's myspace page DID hurt us though)

My point in saying all this is to explain that with this "barrier" between us, I don't feel open to have a conversation with them about their switch. I'm not judging at all (I tried reminding them that I come from a mixed religious background and do not judge for anyone else faith). I just want to understand their choice and what drew them to it since I know nothing about it.

I personally converted to a Baptist as an adult, so I can relate to them and I'd like to open a dialog. Simply, I find it facinating to learn about other religions and what has inspired others to believe.

Could anyone share with me a somewhat simplistic view of the Russian Orthodox church? I know its probably hard to summarize, but anything would be appreciated. I'm not getting anywhere with my own online searches. Thanks :)

It is part of the Eastern Orthodox group of Churches, is very strong in family. And their beleifs are very very close to that of the Roman Catholic Church. With some obvous differences but in a 4 min writing, in the basic layman idea they are about the same in most beleifs.

Their services are very wonderful ( and long) and many of their churches have wonderful icons.

I am not sure why you can't find anything online, there are 1000's of pages on it.

Also there will be the issues if this is a direct Russian Orthodox, or a break off group, here in the US there are dozens of "independent Orthodox" groups, my own group was originally much more Orthodox, but over 30 years we have went more Western and Catholic.

A search on the net could be helpful

Thanks,
Its not that I couldn't find anything w/ online searches... really, it's that I found so much it had become overwhelming so I'm just hoping to find someone who knows the faith and can give me some basics.

Hopefully, my IL's will be more willing to share in the future. But as it stands they feel like "we wouldn't" understand, so I guess we're on our own until they're ready to open up.