Lou Smith- Church Visit # 1

Blog title: Lou Smith-- Church Visit #1 

Church name: Saint Joseph Orthodox Christian Church 

Church address: 412 Crescent Street 

Date attended: 1/26/14

Church category: Orthodox 

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

I went to St. Joseph’s Orthodox Church. I arrived a few minutes late, but discovered that I was among the first few to arrive. The church was covered in icons, which people kissed. A man with a silver lantern walked around the borders of the sanctuary spreading the smoke of incense. There were many clergymen wearing elaborate robes. The two hour service consisted on 40 pages of singing liturgy that required the congregants to stand. The Eucharist was provided only for members of the orthodox church. The priest gave each person the bread and wine with a spoon as they knelt before him.

In my nondenominational home church, Jericho Road, the sermon, not liturgy, consumes most of the allotted time. We don’t voice stipulations about who is allowed to participate in the eucharist, and we practice intinction. We sing contemporary Christian music, and we rent a cafeteria of a local elementary school to meet in.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I was intrigued by the use of liturgy and the way that it can unite congregants together. When everyone is singing and speaking the same thing, it can create a communal aspect to church which can be sometimes lost in more non-participatory settings. I also appreciated the thoughtfulness of the liturgy. Many of the songs we sang were prayers that were masterfully written to express concise and clear goals of the church to glorify god and participate in His will. I appreciated the ability of the priest to switch from singing the liturgy so reverently to making a joke about a local sport's team. I think its easy to forget that priests are people too. I found the icons interesting, but I wish I knew more about why they have them. Overall, I appreciated the thoughtfulness and intentionality in creating a reverent, holy space in which to worship God. After the service they had a coffee hour of socializing while the kids were in Sunday school, which I loved (only the idea of it... I had to get going to small group, and I'd been there for two hours). 

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

The length of the service was tough. It was two hours of mostly standing and mostly singing. It was hard to follow along with the music because it was so different from anything I had ever heard. There was a lot of repetition as well, which made it difficult to sit through without feeling impatient. The kissing of the icons and the cross was confusing to me. I wish I knew more about the theology behind those actions. It was also hard to know when to cross yourself throughout the service. The other congregants didn't really talk to each other which made it feel like a closed, private experience inside the sanctuary. Also, I wish someone had told me that only the clergy say the last line of the Lord's Prayer. Awkward. I definitely the first two words of that line alone, together with the priest. It was also hard to know which events I should and shouldn't participate in (e.g. eucharist vs kissing of the cross). 

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

I think the idea of reverence for place of worship was something that was illuminated and impressed on me. I also saw a type of worship that incorporated a lot of rich theological backing (i.e. incorporating Nicene Creed and Apostle's Creed into the worship service). I had not previously thought of these as important, but now see that their use may contribute to a more theologically-backed and a purposefully Christocentric service and liturgy. There was another thing that I already agreed with but found helpful. The way that the priest expressed what the point of the church was that it was meant to point to the restoration that Christ will bring in His Second Coming. He said that it was meant to provide a glimpse of what that would be like. I agreed and had heard this before, but never as concisely as the priest said it today.