It occurs to me...
I wish I had a church that wasn't 120 miles from where I live. There are both an Antiochian and a Greek church in Tucson, but having been to both of them I joined the Russian church in Phoenix. I remember well the day I walked into Holy Archangels church in phoenix. I had trouble meeting the eyes of the icon of Christ on the righthand side if the Iconostases.
I had trouble looking up from the floor. Here, in a small, obvioiusly poor church, was Gods house. It was more than a little unnerving to be standing in a place where the worship was carried out in a way dogmatically identical to that of the first Christians ever. Tradition unchanged for two thousand years.
The awe of the experience was matched by the warmth of the people. I regret that of the five of us that came up that day, I was the only one to become a cathecumen, and later be baptized. My brother is all on board with Orthodoxy, I just need to get him to Church. For that matter, I need to get myself to churh. But it is a large effort. The irony is that if I started going every week again (like when I was still taking the cathecumen classes), as easy as it would seem getting up at six thirty and making the drive, it would get all the more expensive, a tank of gas every week for the trip. I suppose I could go to the places here in town, but I don't feel totally at home there.
Both the Tucson churches have pews, for example. Doesn't make them non-Orthodox churches, it's just that there is no particular reason they need to have them, but they still use them. The Greek church also uses an organ, and the liturgy is done entirely in Greek.
But it's no excuse. Being at one of those churches and not communing is better than not going to any church at all. I've become lazy. I tell myself that the reality of my job is that my willingness to work untill midnight on Saturdays is a big part of what pays the rent (which is true). Ergo getting up Sunday morning is an aknowledged hardship (which is not true). Thus It is understandable that Church is a monthly thing for me (which is also not true). Still...my options are semi-limited.
There are doctornal issues as well. The Patriarch of Antioch is in communion with Coptic churches in north africa which (though they no longer employ it) have not officially renounced the monophosite herracy. Which means that by extention, the Antiochian patriarchate itself is in communion with the Coptics. If the priest disagreed with this stance, I might be more comfortable going there. But when we inquired with him, his response was that he didn't believe we should break communion with anyone ever, after all, we are called to love one another.
The response to that, in my mind, is that if you really love someone, and they refuse to stop engaging in a destructive behavior, you walk away to show that you will not tolerate it. Not doing so enables them to continue a bad way of life without loosing you as a penalty.
But I most certianly am not in the Patriarchs shoes. Nor do I have a bishops understanding of the holy mysteries. Which is not to say he cannot be in error, the stance of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Jerusalam Patriarchate, ROCOR and possibly even others is that he is, indeed, wrong.
I'm not sure what to do. Pray that I might recieve wisdom.
Alexey the Sinner.
I had trouble looking up from the floor. Here, in a small, obvioiusly poor church, was Gods house. It was more than a little unnerving to be standing in a place where the worship was carried out in a way dogmatically identical to that of the first Christians ever. Tradition unchanged for two thousand years.
The awe of the experience was matched by the warmth of the people. I regret that of the five of us that came up that day, I was the only one to become a cathecumen, and later be baptized. My brother is all on board with Orthodoxy, I just need to get him to Church. For that matter, I need to get myself to churh. But it is a large effort. The irony is that if I started going every week again (like when I was still taking the cathecumen classes), as easy as it would seem getting up at six thirty and making the drive, it would get all the more expensive, a tank of gas every week for the trip. I suppose I could go to the places here in town, but I don't feel totally at home there.
Both the Tucson churches have pews, for example. Doesn't make them non-Orthodox churches, it's just that there is no particular reason they need to have them, but they still use them. The Greek church also uses an organ, and the liturgy is done entirely in Greek.
But it's no excuse. Being at one of those churches and not communing is better than not going to any church at all. I've become lazy. I tell myself that the reality of my job is that my willingness to work untill midnight on Saturdays is a big part of what pays the rent (which is true). Ergo getting up Sunday morning is an aknowledged hardship (which is not true). Thus It is understandable that Church is a monthly thing for me (which is also not true). Still...my options are semi-limited.
There are doctornal issues as well. The Patriarch of Antioch is in communion with Coptic churches in north africa which (though they no longer employ it) have not officially renounced the monophosite herracy. Which means that by extention, the Antiochian patriarchate itself is in communion with the Coptics. If the priest disagreed with this stance, I might be more comfortable going there. But when we inquired with him, his response was that he didn't believe we should break communion with anyone ever, after all, we are called to love one another.
The response to that, in my mind, is that if you really love someone, and they refuse to stop engaging in a destructive behavior, you walk away to show that you will not tolerate it. Not doing so enables them to continue a bad way of life without loosing you as a penalty.
But I most certianly am not in the Patriarchs shoes. Nor do I have a bishops understanding of the holy mysteries. Which is not to say he cannot be in error, the stance of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Jerusalam Patriarchate, ROCOR and possibly even others is that he is, indeed, wrong.
I'm not sure what to do. Pray that I might recieve wisdom.
Alexey the Sinner.
posted by Alexios at 3:09 AM
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