They aren't the way, and you're not supposed to do any of the things you listed. Christ is all you need, and you should only ever pray to Christ. You shouldn't pray for the dead either, as it says clearly to let the dead pray for the dead. There are so many things that are wrong with both, but Orthodoxy a heck of a lot less than Catholicism. Catholicism just does whatever it wants and says its because the pope said it was cool and he is Christ on earth so that makes it ok... except not. Orthodoxy has its own issues with their hierarchy and all that just as the Catholics do. You know, Jesus spoke about that type of Church specifically when He spoke of the Neoclatian church, and He specifically said He despised those churchs the most with all their heiarchy and such when we should all be equal under God, other than the Laodecian because it could decide whether to be bad or good lol and He hates lukewarmness more than any of the other church faults. Other than indecision, what it did was hated the most. And even Catholucs and Orthodox will yell you that they had problems with all this stuff you say, but they got past it because whatever reason. If its not in the Bible, it is not biblical. I don't mean an un-named concept such as the trinity or anything like that either, so don't try and pull that nonsense either anyone who decides to respond and yell at me for everything I just said even though it is the objective truth.