Posted on 05/27/2005 7:36:52 PM PDT by Destro
"Many have a tendency to view the kind of affinity for Orthodoxy that you describe as a Protestant reflexive anti-Catholicism. I really don't think that this is what it is at all. I think that the Reformation was not just a reaction against the errors of Rome -- it was also an attempt to reach back to apostolic purity. We in the Orthodox Church, for all of our storied "fossilization," are constantly doing the same thing, although outsiders don't see it."
I agree. I think part of the reason why I do have much more admiration for the Orthodox is that you guys actually are what you say you are, very old. The post Vatican-II Catholic church isn't really the old church they say they are. They are a modern one that only recently came about.
At least the Orthodox stick with their tradition, and for that I have much respect and I even want to visit the Orthodox church in Wichita sometime just to see what it is like.
I yearn for the worship of the 1st century, not worship of 20th century America. That is why I love my church partly because we haven't bought into praise bands and all the other stuff. We only sing Psalms and do it accapella, which is just absolutely beautiful. None of this modern claptrap..just good, old-fashioned sermons.
But I admit to wanting sometimes an order of worship that is what the apostles lived, not what has existed since the 17th century Puritans. I still would not be able to take the iconography etc...I dont' like things painted on the walls since they serve as distractions for me. I prefer simple churches. But, I know there are some things that I would like as a die-hard Calvinist longing for real, meaningful worship.
One piece of advice...get a lawyer or public notary before you buy any land anywhere over there!
"I still would not be able to take the iconography etc...I dont' like things painted on the walls since they serve as distractions for me."
What an interesting comment! I guess I had never thought of the iconography as a distraction (or that anyone else might for that matter) but rather as an very concrete reminder that we here as the Church Militant are completely connected to the Church Triumphant, especially during the Liturgy. The OT Patriarchs, Evangelists, Fathers, Saints and angels of the iconography are the "cloud of heavenly witnesses" to our Divine Liturgy. For us the Liturgy takes place "off the timeline" and "not in this world". Thus, we and the priest pray and chant just before the consecration:
"It is proper and right to sing to You, bless You, praise You, thank You and worship You in all places of Your dominion; for You are God ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever and always the same; You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit. You brought us into being out of nothing, and when we fell, You raised us up again. You did not cease doing everything until You led us to heaven and granted us Your kingdom to come. For all these things we thank You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit; for all things that we know and do not know, for blessings seen and unseen that have been bestowed upon us. We also thank You for this liturgy which You are pleased to accept from our hands, even though You are surrounded by thousands of Archangels and tens of thousands of Angels, by the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring with their wings,
Priest:
Singing the victory hymn, proclaiming, crying out, and saying:
People:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to God in the highest."
I was visiting an Orthodox site earlier today, and I have even more respect for you guys considering you actually reject the idea of one man being infallible, reject purgatory, and honor Mary at a level that is not above what she should be honored.
I also REALLY like the view that tradition and doctrine should not change and alter with the times and new papal pronouncements etc.
I like how you decide doctrines in councils, which is the Biblical manner.
I still have areas of disagreement I am sure: prescense of Jesus in Communion, praying to the saints (yes, you have a logical argument for it, but I just can't agree with it when when it isn't modeled in Scripture by Christ....though I have now discarded my argument against it based on the idea that Christ is our only mediator since you really don't violate that truth when you ask a saint to pray for you, just like you would a friend down here. The only problem I have is where is the evidence the dead in heaven hear your requests for prayer?). I also have problems with non-English liturgy if you have that, as well as icons of course. But, I am finding I have more areas that I admire than I disagree.
Do you believe in justification by faith alone or works also?
They, the ones beneath the smooth, snowy mounds of graves, are the living. We, yet to be perfected, are the dead.
Mary Sawyer
I am making a grave. In my clean morning kitchen, I pour onto a platter the mix of boiled wheat berries, nuts, and dried fruits. I pat it into an oval mound, and it rises like a newly made grave. My grandfather died two years ago, and I am making this dish, called "kolliva," to bring to a memorial service.
In the Orthodox Church, at regular times of the year, we hold a group memorial service. Members of the church give the priest a list of the names they'd like remembered at the service, and each family brings a dish of kolliva as well. The wheat berries, small nut-like grains with a satisfying crunch, symbolize the hope of new life; as Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Once it has been mixed with fruits, nuts, and honey, the concoction is heaped on a platter and shaped into a mound. It is then covered with white powdered sugar to symbolize purity--the state of the soul newly received into Heaven. Candy and fruit decorations mark the kolliva with a cross.
Before the memorial service begins, all the plates of kolliva are placed on a table near the front of the church. Candles are plunked into each mound, one to represent each person you are remembering. The candles represent light and resurrection. At Christ's death on Holy and Great Friday, darkness covered the earth, but we know that he rose again; he is the Light that extinguishes all darkness.
At the end of the service, the sweet kolliva is served up for everyone to eat. When everyone has been served and there are still leftovers, women start going around with their platters, doling out extra helpings. Before long, there is an assortment of different kinds of homemade kolliva on your plate, representing several different families' prayers. Everyone's kolliva is mixed together, just like everybody's loved ones, who are now acquainted and "mixed" together in the Place of Eternal Rest.
After many, many years of waiting and hoping, I am now four months pregnant for the first time in my life. Early this morning as I patted my little mound of kolliva, layer after layer of patting, smoothing, feeling the curvature of its little grave-like mound, I could not help but notice that it feels exactly as my budding belly feels these days. I am just beginning to swell, and the shape, at the end of four months, is the same as my little kolliva. The firmness was like the strange firmness to my stomach. The curve of one imitated the curve of the other.
The kolliva beneath my hands was being offered for my grandfather, who passed from this life two years ago. For him, I was making the mound of the grave. The swell in my hands was the shape of death. But the swelling stomach beneath my nightgown early this morning was the swell of new life. And yet, as a friend pointed out last night while we were preparing the ingredients, "Your grandfather is alive. You are the one that is dead."
How very right he is. They, the ones beneath the smooth, snowy mounds of graves, are the living. We, yet to be perfected, are the dead.
In doing this we blur the boundary between the mortal and the immortal. We blend the physical and the spiritual. We dissolve the barrier between the living and the dead. How beautiful is this mixing of this life and the next life, of this world and the next world; of things visible and things invisible! Whether we know one another or not, we share, materially and spiritually, in our kolliva, our prayers, our loss of loved ones, our grief, our hope, our expectation of the resurrection, our light, our joy. This simple act of preparing food, attending church, and sharing what we have made resonates with profound meaning.
I am four months along, waiting for a birth that will change my life. But I look forward to another birth, one my grandfather has already undergone, that will change it for all eternity.
"Orthodox Christianity teaches that belief in Jesus must be combined with putting that belief into action -- feeding the hungry, ministering to others, etc. Both essential. We read in the epistles: "Faith without works is dead." One can indeed "believe" in Christ and yet lead a life that betrays that belief. Hence belief alone is not sufficient. "Not all who say 'Lord, Lord' will have a place in my Kingdom."
Also see faith and works
Thank you for the information. That is a recipe for a train-wreck.
Thank you for the link to the pictures.
Well, subtle word differences in theology can mean a lot, but on first glance, this Protestant has no problem with those two statements.
It is certainly true as James says that faith without works is dead. For, a true faith must show itself in works, a true faith WILL result in a changed life that results in doing good in the world. If it doesn't, your faith is fake.
I can agree with that....it doesn't say works save (another Orthodox site I was at absolutely denounced the view that works save), but they will accompany a true saving faith. A true saving faith will produce works. That is true and a Biblical view, again unlike the Catholic stretch.
Converts have things to unlearn. Babies don't.
The spiritual 'godfather' was invented for such a purpose when the Church was growing back in the olden days.
a tradition which continues to this day. I'm not certain I follow your point.
"Converts have things to unlearn. Babies don't."
Well, you're right of course, but on the other hand, some cradle Orthodox in the diaspora need to learn that The Church is not some Greek/Russian/Serb/Bulgarian/Arab ethnic club too! :)
just keep cooking the baklava and no one will get hurt. ;)
"just keep cooking the baklava and no one will get hurt. ;)"
As my wife says, "Come for the food, stay for the religion!"
The Antiochians and the Greeks, both have a habit of doing a lot of things that are not only against the canons, but are way too risky.
I heard a story of several of the "Evangelical Orthodox" that were flat out kicked out by Metropolitan Phillip, for changing the liturgy to suit thenselves, etc.
And then there are the Greeks, or in all fairness, their Bishops, like Iacovos...(spelling may be wrong there....)
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