I'm glad you made this nice response. So as not to derail another thread, I didn't post on the "Parable of the Last Judgment"
How you read that and think that "works don't matter" is beyond me. Also, one ignoring that "He will render to each man, according to his works" is at best, weird.
One of the other mysteries that is also implied in the Parable of the Last Judgment, which is the Orthodox position, is that we are saved as communities, or rather, as the people of God/His assembly. Not...