The answer
Worship is a confession of the Holy Spirit’s divinity, because worship is due to God alone, according to the commandment, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 4:10).
Worship is connected to the prayers in which the Church, in all of Her rites and Mysteries, invokes the Holy Spirit, be it Baptism, Myron (Chrismation), Eucharist, Repentance and Confession, Marriage, Priesthood, or the Unction of the Sick.
It is worthy to note that the Church, on the day of the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, prays at the Ninth Hour (3 P.M.) the Office of Kneeling, and so, according to this order, the Church receives the work of the Holy Spirit while She is kneeling. It was called the Office of the Kneeling, because most of its prayers are done while the people are kneeling.
All of this is in negation of the claims of Macedonius the Heresiarch, who taught that the Holy Spirit is a creature (i.e. not God), and is therefore not of one essence with the Father and the Son. This teaching is contradictory to Holy Scripture, as it is known that the Spirit of God is nothing other than His life; “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).
Also, Christ’s commission to His disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19), is evident that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are Three Hypostases of One God.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 130–131.
The pages in the book (130–131)
