Sunday of Orthodoxy
The first Sunday of Lent is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. On this day each year, the Orthodox Church commemorates the restoration of icons for use in the churches and homes of Christians. (Orthodox Wiki)
Ok, this could get messy, so first, some background.
In the Orthodox Church, there are different jurisdictions, and as it exists in the western world, they are pretty much all present and accounted for. An Orthodox Christian in SoCal could potentially find a Greek church, Antiochian, Romanian, Serbian, maybe Bulgarian, and one of several Russian churches. The possibilities are endless, really. These are nothing like the Protestant concept of denominations, as you will see shortly.
Each jurisdiction has its own leadership, and since Los Angeles is a major metropolis, the LA area is the home of several regional jurisdictions. The Serbian Diocese of Western America, for example, has its cathedral in Alhambra. Bishop Maxim is the Serbian bishop over the Serbian Christians of this part of the country. The Antiochian cathedral is just outside of downtown LA.
Enough background. Now for the story.
This year, for Sunday of Orthodoxy, Bishop Joseph called all the local clergy to the cathedral. Since we weren't going to have a priest today anyway, a couple from church decided it was a good excuse to take all us new folk on a field trip to the cathedral. Most of us had never been there.
Well, it was not just a collection of Antiochians at Divine Liturgy today. As deacons and altar servers went through the doors in the iconostasis, I could see Bishop Maxim among the faces back there. This was, after all, the Second Annual Pan Orthodox Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Toward the end of the liturgy, Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco gave the homily. We got to see our friends from the OCA monastery, too.
God bless the internet. I never could have come up with all these names and titles otherwise!
A few thoughts, then, on today's adventure.
I thought metanias were awkward at St. Peter's. One tends to run into the chairs in the row in front of oneself. I must say, it is even more awkward, nearly impossible, in the cathedral. There are pews! Well, that was fantastic for Mark with his MD, and with my knee being stupid today, I sure appreciated the place to sit. Still, wow.
That said, the cathedral was rather nice. Before today, the only other "real" Orthodox church I had been in (in this country) was a little Serbian one with fairly grotesque icons. Ok, that is not entirely true. I did briefly walk inside the nave of the Greek church that hosted a seminar last month. These churches that are actually churches, rather than repurposed office or warehouse space, are really a sight to see. I wouldn't quite call it breathtaking. I reserve that description for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Still, it was beautiful. It will be so exciting when our little parish finally has its own place!
It was definitely a full house in there today, as we all knew it would be. I had mentally prepared myself for crowd related panic, but none was forthcoming. Whew! It was packed, but not to the point of crowding. I suspect it also helped that I was between Pam and Martin, while Jackson, Grace, Mark, Barb, and Khouria were right in front of us, Fr. Patrick was two rows up from them, and the Z tribe was two rows behind us. I was literally surrounded by friends. Circulation of air and natural light probably played a role as well. Another thing to look forward to when we have our own place!
Of course, the two things that really struck me were exactly the sorts of things that always strike me. In many of our services, at least liturgy, but I think it's in vespers as well, we pray for "the unity of the faith." It is possible that this prayer means something other than how it sounds, but since I know no such thing, I will go with how it sounds.
This is something that, when I was a Protestant, bothered me tremendously. I hate division. Absolutely, completely hate it. The state of affairs in the proliferation of denominations is literally sickening. It's not so much the existence of the denominations themselves that is bothersome. It is the root cause of them. Division. Fighting. Granted, some of the fights are over significant issues. This only makes the problem uglier, though. Very few denominations even get along with each other at all. The jokes about Protestant denominations are funny only because they are so true. This is both ridiculous and heartbreaking.
In contrast, this morning in a single building in a seedy part of Los Angeles, three men from different jurisdictions in the Orthodox Church presided at Divine Liturgy, and they did so together. These men are Greek, Syrian, and Serbian. If culture and politics were the prevailing rule, they would not even be able to associate peaceably, yet there they were. Unity is a beautiful thing when it happens. The service was in English, Arabic, Greek, and Slavonic, and no one seemed to mind. I rather doubt anyone ever lost their place, either, even if they did not recognize the words being sung at any given moment.
Speaking of singing... What, you didn't expect me to pass on mentioning the music, did you? This, of course, is another one of those things that always gets my attention. The music. Wow. Um. So, Arabs can sing. Really. I mean, every time the singing from the kliros was in Arabic, it was phenomenal. The ornamentation. Wow. I have got to learn to chant like that. I guess I should work on getting the tones down first, though. Also, they sang one of my favorite hymns. And then they sang it in Arabic. We take this unity thing so seriously, even our songs sometimes cross linguistic lines! (Here it is in Greek, Slavonic, and Romanian! *whimper*) It's so beautiful!
That is beginning to sound like the refrain for the day, isn't it? It's true, though. Beauty is one of the hallmarks of Orthodoxy.
Have I mentioned that I really love being Orthodox?
Ok, this could get messy, so first, some background.
In the Orthodox Church, there are different jurisdictions, and as it exists in the western world, they are pretty much all present and accounted for. An Orthodox Christian in SoCal could potentially find a Greek church, Antiochian, Romanian, Serbian, maybe Bulgarian, and one of several Russian churches. The possibilities are endless, really. These are nothing like the Protestant concept of denominations, as you will see shortly.
Each jurisdiction has its own leadership, and since Los Angeles is a major metropolis, the LA area is the home of several regional jurisdictions. The Serbian Diocese of Western America, for example, has its cathedral in Alhambra. Bishop Maxim is the Serbian bishop over the Serbian Christians of this part of the country. The Antiochian cathedral is just outside of downtown LA.
Enough background. Now for the story.
This year, for Sunday of Orthodoxy, Bishop Joseph called all the local clergy to the cathedral. Since we weren't going to have a priest today anyway, a couple from church decided it was a good excuse to take all us new folk on a field trip to the cathedral. Most of us had never been there.
Well, it was not just a collection of Antiochians at Divine Liturgy today. As deacons and altar servers went through the doors in the iconostasis, I could see Bishop Maxim among the faces back there. This was, after all, the Second Annual Pan Orthodox Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Toward the end of the liturgy, Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco gave the homily. We got to see our friends from the OCA monastery, too.
God bless the internet. I never could have come up with all these names and titles otherwise!
A few thoughts, then, on today's adventure.
I thought metanias were awkward at St. Peter's. One tends to run into the chairs in the row in front of oneself. I must say, it is even more awkward, nearly impossible, in the cathedral. There are pews! Well, that was fantastic for Mark with his MD, and with my knee being stupid today, I sure appreciated the place to sit. Still, wow.
That said, the cathedral was rather nice. Before today, the only other "real" Orthodox church I had been in (in this country) was a little Serbian one with fairly grotesque icons. Ok, that is not entirely true. I did briefly walk inside the nave of the Greek church that hosted a seminar last month. These churches that are actually churches, rather than repurposed office or warehouse space, are really a sight to see. I wouldn't quite call it breathtaking. I reserve that description for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Still, it was beautiful. It will be so exciting when our little parish finally has its own place!
It was definitely a full house in there today, as we all knew it would be. I had mentally prepared myself for crowd related panic, but none was forthcoming. Whew! It was packed, but not to the point of crowding. I suspect it also helped that I was between Pam and Martin, while Jackson, Grace, Mark, Barb, and Khouria were right in front of us, Fr. Patrick was two rows up from them, and the Z tribe was two rows behind us. I was literally surrounded by friends. Circulation of air and natural light probably played a role as well. Another thing to look forward to when we have our own place!
Of course, the two things that really struck me were exactly the sorts of things that always strike me. In many of our services, at least liturgy, but I think it's in vespers as well, we pray for "the unity of the faith." It is possible that this prayer means something other than how it sounds, but since I know no such thing, I will go with how it sounds.
This is something that, when I was a Protestant, bothered me tremendously. I hate division. Absolutely, completely hate it. The state of affairs in the proliferation of denominations is literally sickening. It's not so much the existence of the denominations themselves that is bothersome. It is the root cause of them. Division. Fighting. Granted, some of the fights are over significant issues. This only makes the problem uglier, though. Very few denominations even get along with each other at all. The jokes about Protestant denominations are funny only because they are so true. This is both ridiculous and heartbreaking.
In contrast, this morning in a single building in a seedy part of Los Angeles, three men from different jurisdictions in the Orthodox Church presided at Divine Liturgy, and they did so together. These men are Greek, Syrian, and Serbian. If culture and politics were the prevailing rule, they would not even be able to associate peaceably, yet there they were. Unity is a beautiful thing when it happens. The service was in English, Arabic, Greek, and Slavonic, and no one seemed to mind. I rather doubt anyone ever lost their place, either, even if they did not recognize the words being sung at any given moment.
Speaking of singing... What, you didn't expect me to pass on mentioning the music, did you? This, of course, is another one of those things that always gets my attention. The music. Wow. Um. So, Arabs can sing. Really. I mean, every time the singing from the kliros was in Arabic, it was phenomenal. The ornamentation. Wow. I have got to learn to chant like that. I guess I should work on getting the tones down first, though. Also, they sang one of my favorite hymns. And then they sang it in Arabic. We take this unity thing so seriously, even our songs sometimes cross linguistic lines! (Here it is in Greek, Slavonic, and Romanian! *whimper*) It's so beautiful!
That is beginning to sound like the refrain for the day, isn't it? It's true, though. Beauty is one of the hallmarks of Orthodoxy.
Have I mentioned that I really love being Orthodox?
Labels: Becoming Orthodox
posted by Sam Gamgee at
7:17 PM
3 Comments:
I think I am in love with some Byzantine Chant. Especially one of your favorite hymns. See it makes me want to show overt expressions of worship that I don't think would be welcome in the Orthodox church which is one problem I have.
In fact probably the only way around that would be for me to learn the music and be a chanter...it figures, chalk me up for lessons What. sigh.
I rather love your loving it :-)
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