Posted on 01/18/2005 9:46:17 AM PST by sionnsar
"Dog collars and spanky clean shaven faces to "disguise" the origin, I guess " is passing for white" Anglo-Saxon and not sticking out in a crowd."
LOL!!! Not our priests. Both are fully beared and wear their rasos and clerical headgear. There's never a question around here who the Orthodox priests are. They receive great respect on the streets by everyone. One buddy of mine, a Roman priest, tells me he envies them. The fact that my spiritual father is 6'5" in his stocking feet doesn't hurt. With his kalimavki on he looks 7' tall!
No, I'm not talking big numbers here, probably not even a dozen in the DC area. Due to the Pentagon being here, we do have a concentration of them that you just would never see anywhere else.
It isn't just the military chaplain thing. Most of the OCA (and certainly nearly all in the northeastern section of the country) is Carpatho-Russian in background. Their forebears, about 100,000 strong converted en masse from being Uniates back to the Orthodox Church in the late 19th century. They had been heavily Latinized in certain ways during their centuries of union with Rome, and one of these things was in clerical dress and facial hair. Goatees seem to be the Carp thing. The OCA Diocese of the West, on the other hand, is dominated by the heritage of the Harbin emigration of Great Russians -- photos of our diocesan assemblies show that it is a very hirsute affair there. Convert clergy are also not afraid of growing beards. With time, this, too, is all becoming more traditional.
When I was a child, I was so terrified of our priest, I kept calling him "Good god, good god!" He just looked like soemthing from a fairytale.
"When I was a child, I was so terrified of our priest, I kept calling him "Good god, good god!" He just looked like soemthing from a fairytale."
I have a nephew who, when he was about three years old was really into super heroes. On Sunday he was at church and asked my sister, "Mommy, why does the "bureest" wear a cape? Is he a super hero? Is that his hide out (pointing to the altar)?"
A superhero or a magi from a fairytale -- no matter how you turn it, the Orthodox Church back home was always magic and awe-inspiring.
Before Metropolitan Christopher was Metropolitan Christopher he was Father Vel and he was my priest from birth all the way up to high school. He was born and raised in Texas so to this day I always expect Serbian Orthodox priests to speak with a Texas drawl :-D
I never met Metr. Christopher, but I was received into the Orthodox Church under one of his priests, so he will always be my first bishop... I have met Bp. Longinus. I think he is one of the most remarkable men I have ever met. In our one conversation face to face, he was, not to mince words, clairvoyant.
Ah see!
Thanks FormerLib for keeping this ping list.
Keep me on it!
regards,
-Thoreau
SPOTREP - True Worship
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