Greek Orthodoxy

We have big foot stories too. He (or she) is known as the yowie, or the wowie. A bigger mystery is the black cat, a huge panther like creature that roams the Australian bush. There are no big cats indigenous to Australia. Some sightings were reported recently and have been going on for a century. One story is a big cat escaped from a traveling circus, but that would have had to have been a breeding pair to survive for so long. The Blue Mountains are renowned for sightings of black Panthers.

Another claim for the origin of the cats is claimed to be American World WWII airmen who brought cougars with them as mascots and released them in the Australian Bush. No conclusion has been reached, and the photos are blurry for they disappear in a flash. Mysterious mass slaughters of sheep occur to support this big cat theory. The sheep are killed by a clean puncture wound  to the throat. Their guts are then eaten with no mess, in the same way a big cat kills and eats its prey. How is it that after all these years, not one of these beasts has been trapped or shot? Nobody knows.

I agree with you, but I would phrase it a bit more precisely. I do not think that the problem is with the acts of veneration, themselves. Rather, I believe, the problem is a general lack of understanding--especially, as you noted, among the older generation--as to why we venerate, what we venerate, and how we venerate.

During the liturgical services of the Church veneration of the icons does indeed take place during prayers. The icons are material used to lead us into a deeper experience of worship. I will agree that it is a bit unsettling for one not acquainted with Orthodoxy, but I think that the unsettling feeling is as much a result of our culture as it is of our individual religious persuasions.

The practice of venerating icons, as well as the theology behind it, goes back to the earliest days of the Church. As you say, some take the veneration of icons too far, but I believe the transgression is generally an inadvertent ideological one.

An act of veneration--such as kissing an icon--is an act of prayer. So is lighting a candle, making the sign of the cross, etc. Though these physical acts are occasionally accompanied by verbal--or mental--prayer, they are forms of prayer in their own right.

The Orthodox Church understands that the saints lead us to Christ; by reflecting on the lives of these holy men and women we reflect on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, which leads us to a more perfect understanding of Christ in whom we see the Father.

Christ's mediation and grace are, indeed, wholly sufficient. Does this mean, however, that we should not ask for the prayers of our fellow Christians, here on earth? Of course not. Why then, would we refuse to ask those who have fallen asleep in Christ to pray for us?

The saints act as intercessors before God. They pray for us, just as our Christian brethren on earth pray for us. They can do nothing by their own power, separated from Christ. Unlike our living brothers and sisters, however, the saints prayers are not interrupted by any of the mundane concerns that occupy our lives; they can, as the Apostle commands, "pray without ceasing."

Aye, that is the way the passage has been most commonly intepreted. Still, we continue to pray for each other--indeed we are commanded to do so. Why then, would we not want those who have "finished the race" to pray for us?

I believe that you understand correctly. 

Hell is absolutely not an experiential separation from God; it is, rather, a volitional separation from Him. By refusing to accept His love, which is never forced on us, we refuse to accept our own redemption. As Bishop Kallistos (Timothy Ware) puts it:

Hell is not so much a place where God imprisons humans, as a place where humans, by misusing their free will, choose to imprison themselves. And even in hell the wicked are not deprived of the love of God, but by their own choice they experience as suffering what the saints experience as joy.
[Ware, The Orthodox Church]

Thus, while Hell is a result of the rejection of God, by an individual, it is not a separation from God who never rejects us.

Ah, now there's an interesting topic!