Why Orthodox Worship (Letter to a friend)

The topic: Why Orthodox Worship as opposed to the alternatives?
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Dear XYZ,

I admire your passion for the Orthodox Faith. We’ll need people like you in the Church.

I grew up in Florida, so I have had my taste of the Bible belt and the strong evangelical tradition. For a long time, I truly hated praise and worship. I didn’t want to hear it, and I didn’t want any of it going on in my conferences and retreats.

I’ve softened up over the years though. I think this is primarily because I think the Christian God is an eternally loving God. If Christ has truly triumphed over death, than I have no problem with rejoicing and praising his name.

So, there is nothing innately wrong with that aspect of protestant-styled worship; singing of praise and worship songs (provided this is truly the fruit of the Spirit, and not driven by the “charismatic” movement).

However, for me the problem is not the depth of their sincerity, but rather how incomplete their worship is.

If I’m going to praise God, I must confront my own sinfulness. I must plead for mercy. If Christ truly died on the Cross, and resurrected, how am I supposed to really participate in that Salvation. There is a difference between knowing about salvation then singing about it, and otherwise truly partaking in it.

If the Eucharist is what Christ said it was supposed to be, His Body and Blood, than that is the means by which we may identify ourselves with Christ and His saving act.

That is the essence of Orthodox worship. Strip away all the helpful things that give us a mystical experience, and at the core we are gathered around the table as Christ instructed His Apostles. The liturgical worship is complete, not just because it’s old, but because it’s true.

I don’t mean this to be an exhaustive theological essay. Bounce your ideas off of me if you’d like. I’m going to blog this with names removed of course. Stay true!

-Steve K.

The Oldest Church on Earth has an altar??? Get outta heeeere!

"We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," said Abdul Qader al-Hussan, the head of Jordan's Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, to The Jordan Times.
He added that the discovery was “amazing.”
The nearly 2,000-year-old church was discovered underneath Saint Georgeous Church in Rihab, Mafraq, in northern Jordan near the Syrian border. St. Georgeous dates back to 230 A.D., and is considered the oldest “proper” church in the world.
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The underground church has been described as a cave with several stone seats believed to have been for the clergy and a circular shaped area, thought to be the apse – an area which usually contains the altar.

full article on Christian Post

Liturgy: A Deeper Relevance (Evangelical Perspective)

"This is one reason I thank God for the liturgy. The liturgy does not target any age or cultural subgroup. It does not even target this century. (It does not imagine, as we moderns and postmoderns are tempted to do, that this is the best of all possible ages, the most significant era of history.) Instead, the liturgy draws us into worship that transcends our time and place. Its earliest forms took shape in ancient Israel, and its subsequent development occurred in a variety of cultures and subcultures—Greco-Roman, North African, German, Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, and so on. It has been prayed meaningfully by bakers, housewives, tailors, teachers, philosophers, priests, monks, kings, and slaves. As such, it has not been shaped to meet a particular group's needs. It seeks only to enable people—people in general—to see God.

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The liturgy, from beginning to end, is not about meeting our needs. The liturgy is about God. It's not even about God-as-the-fulfiller-of-our-need-for-spiritual-meaning. It's about God as he is himself: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is not about our blessedness but his. The liturgy immediately signals that our needs are not nearly as relevant as we imagine. There is something infinitely more worthy of our attention—something, someone, who lies outside the self."- Mark Galli (full article)

Popular Piety vs. Real Piety

My recent letter to ICON
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Dear All:

In reading the ICON thread about Church music and choir responsibilities, I’d like to reference the following 5-year old video I found on the “other” forum:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3064136024677620812&hl=en

I’m not highlighting some particular aspect of the Patriarchal faction as in error. In fact, I am well aware that the Metran faction indeed has had just as many “mooninmel” and “unchinmel” Qurbanas. My point is that when we, as a united Church, have lost sight of exactly why we come together to celebrate the Eucharist, our most Holy Sacraments are turned over on their heads into a mere spectacle.

Why really do we come together to celebrate the Liturgy? We are gathered together as a complete Church at the Lord’s Table. The focus of the Service is in the hands of the priest who leads the congregation together in a sacred mystery. What happens in the Liturgy, while not just a commemoration, is, indeed in the same spirit as that Eucharist offered on the table by Christ in the upper room two millennia ago. There was no choir and no musical accompaniment.

I am not saying that Church music is unnecessary. What I am saying is that what is really at the core of the Liturgy is the Sacrifice being offered, and around that core we, as a Church, have added many layers. We have chants, vestments, icons, instruments, and particular architecture because there is a mystical experience of the Liturgy that is being enhanced. These layers, though very beautiful and rich, are necessary and vital only as far as they point to the core of the Sacrament. The beauty of the Church, the voices of the choir, or the brightness of the vestments are all a sideshow to the main event taking place on the altar table.

Personally, I’m inclined to say that a Liturgy could (though not should) be simply spoken without any sort of tune. In fact, I’d be willing to say that if we did that many more would actually be in touch with the whole point of the Service. The real experience of the Eucharist is not in the supporting beauty but instead in the Truth that is spoken, which is beautiful. That is why Eucharists have been celebrated throughout history in attics, catacombs, and even in gulags.

This is the distinction between popular piety and real heartfelt piety. Are we the real Church, the body of Christ, or are we just a shadow of that body, turning over that which has been handed down to us over for that which we like instead? Do we have clericalism or do we have priesthood? Do we have rituals or sacrament? Do we have legalism or Faith? We would do more to act like the real Church than merely saying that we are so.

When our real piety is turned over on its head, we end up with things like 101-mel Qurbanas. The real organic participation in the Eucharist, and the movement of the soul that takes place, has been replaced with a spectacle of color and sound. The priests and deacons have become actors instead of mediators. The choir, which has a real necessary role in the Church, has become a show on its own.

When we forget the heart of our Sacraments, we end up with the “Manglish” transliterations. What is the point of these? Transliterations are so non-Malayalam speakers can feel as if they are participating, and so non-English speakers can feel like there is unity in the Church. Perhaps this is why I can’t expect to see a transliteration of English into Malayalam script.

When we lose sight of the real core of our Apostolic heritage as the Church, we end up desperately searching for a way to stem the tide of people choosing other faiths. I can not blame someone for leaving the Orthodox Church because they have never felt ministered to nor that their identity in the Church is central to their being. If Sundays are taken over by performance and not sincere worship, than hearts truly searching for Christ will wander. I am truly convinced that the Orthodox Church is complete and has everything to offer anyone who will receive it, but that message of completeness and continuity has no real weight unless it’s genuinely and clearly conveyed on a Sunday to Sunday, parish to parish basis.