Stand up, sit down, prostrate, sign the cross…
March 18, 2004
I spent the evening tonight with many Orthodox Christians, including Fr Patrick and Bishop Joseph (who is the Bishop of the West Coast Chancery of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North American). I attended the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (which, I was told, was one of the longer Orthodox services - about two and a half hours). It was my first Orthodox service, and it was definitely a multisensory worship service; the music, the chanting, the icons, the incense, the priestly garments. We stood for most of the 2.5 hrs and read through an enormous amount of Scripture. It took a while for me to figure out when to stand, to sit, to get myself prostrate, to make the sign of the cross (which, incidentally, Orthodox Christians do it the opposite direction from Western Christians who do the sign of the cross, does anyone know a theological reason for that?
The service was really good though, and the Bishop gave some wonderful comments about the Great Lent, about holiness, about illumination (& deification: God became like man, so that man could become like God) and about Mel Gibson’s Passion. He is very supportive of the film and encouraged all those who were able to see the film. Fr Patrick also introduced me as a wonderful young man, who he was great friends with, who was heading to Princeton.
After the service, we all had dinner together at the church. Bishops. Russians. Romanians. Bulgarians. Bosnians. (Looking for diversity in rural areas? Go to an Orthodox church!). Teachers, priests, construction workers, ex-Yugoslavian National Team soccer players. It was really wonderful…the laughter, banter, conversations that were occurring in this small Orthodox church. I was definitely experiencing fellowship and community - two things the Orthodox have down pretty good. I think that as I look at possible churches to work at after Seminary, smaller churches is definitely where it’s at for me. It felt really good to be with this diverse group, eating, drinking wine and sharing our lives together…
Tags: Bishops, Diversity, Orthodox, Orthodox-Christianity
Posted in Theology
Adam Walker Cleaveland: 
March 18th, 2004 at 12:03 pm
this reminds me of the time I visited an orthodox church in Post Falls, Idaho. Talk about mystery, (part of it was I didn’t know what was going on, but people helped me). I got lost in the liturgy, in the presence of God, the sights, sounds, smells and the like. I can see that if I was orthodox, I would need a lot of study to be able to fully enter into the litugy.
March 18th, 2004 at 10:29 pm
“I can see that if I was orthodox, I would need a lot of study to be able to fully enter into the litugy.”
Nah. You’ve already figured out the important part: entering into the mystery. The rest is just icing on the cake!
Adam: As for the difference between the sign of the cross…The earliest tradition is right to left, like the Orthodox do it. The Latins changed it to left to right during the Middle Ages.
There is some symbolism (right hand first, to signify “the right hand of God”) but there isn’t some huge, doctrinal issue about it.
March 20th, 2004 at 12:13 pm
I remember going to an orthodox service once as a teenager with my parents. We went b/c some friends we were staying with were orthodox. I was completely weirded out but fascinated with the “theology of icons” that was printed in the bulletin. I still remember it when thinking about art in the worship place… I’d like to revisit an orthodox service now that I’m older.