And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Right faith and right worship
The word Orthodox joins belief and worship. The Church does not treat doctrine as ideas separated from prayer. What the Church believes about the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Holy Spirit is confessed in the Creed, sung in hymns, prayed in the Liturgy, and lived through repentance.
That is why Orthodoxy cannot be reduced to being old or traditional. The question is whether the Church has received the apostolic faith and continues to worship God according to that faith.
The apostolic life received by the Church
Orthodox Christianity includes Scripture read within the Church, Holy Tradition, the Creed, the Liturgy, the Holy Mysteries, the fathers, saints, martyrs, fasting, and spiritual fatherhood. These form one received life.
When the Coptic Church calls herself Orthodox, she is saying that her worship and teaching are accountable to what the Church has received from the apostles. The word should lead to humility, not pride: the Church guards the faith because the faithful need truth in order to worship Christ rightly.
How to use the word well
A good way to test the word Orthodox is to ask what a teaching says about Christ. Does it confess the Holy Trinity, preserve the truth of the Incarnation, honor Scripture in the Church, and lead people toward repentance and communion with God? Used this way, Orthodox becomes a serious theological word rather than a vague label.