Church Address: 893 North Church Road, Elmhurst, IL 60126
Date Attended: February 28, 2016
Church Category: Greek Orthodox
Describe the worship
service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular
context?
The style of worship was very different from what I’m
accustomed to. What was most notable was
that the people leading the service rarely faced the congregation. Contrary to the atmosphere at a lot of
protestant churches, the emphasis was clearly not supposed to be on those who
were on the stage; the four men (no women were involved in the service at all)
who were leading the cantor were tucked away in the corner and were facing the
center of the stage rather than the audience.
Additionally, there was no explicating of Scripture like one would
expect to see in a western church service.
No priest or bishop stood up to give their own thoughts on the prodigal
son (it was “The Sunday of the Prodigal Son”); instead they sang and repeated
phrases that had to do with the theme of the parable (e.g. “kyrie eleison” – Lord have mercy) while moving through a
liturgy that was unfollowable for someone who doesn’t know Greek.
How did the worship
service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?
I’ve been to several orthodox services in the past, so this
was not my first experience with icons and orthodox liturgy. However while my first experiences made me
aware of the abundance of good that western Christianity can glean from our
eastern brothers and sisters, this experience really illuminated for me why I’m
not orthodox. During the service I tried
and engage in the worship, but as I was praying and reflecting I was distracted
by the fact that there were very few icons of Jesus. It kept leading me into the following thought
process: “Man, these saints did all these wonderful things for the kingdom; I
want to be more like them.” It was
distracting because, in my opinion, a worship service should not inspire us to
be more like a certain man or woman, but more like Jesus. The few icons that they had of Jesus
portrayed him in three ways: one merely as a prophet, one as an equal with
Mary, and one as Mary’s inferior (if size and centrality of location are to
mean anything). I would have been much
more comfortable if the largest and most glorious icon in the room was of
Jesus, but this was not the case – it was of Mary. For me, this experience illuminated the reason
why Protestants place such heavy emphasis on Jesus.
How did the worship
service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?
I have heard several orthodox converts to evangelicalism say
that while the use of icons is not innately bad, it is a very slippery slope to
idolatry; my experience at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Demetrios
confirmed that. While I would not
presume to call anyone an idolater, I will say that I am much more content to
place heavy emphasis on the Son and less on the saints. Obviously I would never want the Church to lose
sight of its rich tradition, but I think there are better ways to stay in touch
with the intertemporal Church than to use icons of saints. That said, my experiences at orthodox
churches like this has positively informed my decisions on church membership by
demonstrating that a church can be vibrant and enriching without expensive
sound equipment and without eloquent speakers.
The Church is wonderful because it is by and for the glory of God; all
else is superfluous.
Daniel Kraemer – Church Visit # 1
ReplyDeleteChurch Name: The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Demetrios
Address: 893 N Church Road, Elmhurst, Il 60126
Date Attended: 2/28/16
Church category: Greek Orthodox
Description of Worship Service:
The layout of the church was what I have come to expect, a more traditional setup, with three rows of pews and an aisle between each of the rows. All around, the color scheme was a combination of bright gold and light brown. Every space on the walls and ceiling, as well as all available space on the stage was covered with painted icons and statues. The setup was important to the worship service because, at the beginning, parish leader went around to many of the icons and statues and prayed over them; he then shook incense over them and turned to do the same for the congregation.
The entire service was in Greek, with members of an all-male choir singing the whole time off on the side of the stage. Most of the service consisted of parish leader going about ceremonial tasks, praying and shaking incense over the choir, icons, and congregation. About every five minutes the parish leader would do a task that prompted the congregation to cross themselves.
In my context, the congregation sings alongside the musicians, and there is no ceremonial shaking of incense or praying over icons. The service is also entirely in English.
How the service illuminated the history of global Christianity:
I was struck by the admiration that the parish leader and the congregants had for historic leaders of the church. The walls and domes were covered with stain glass depictions of several church fathers, including Athanasius and Tertullian. It was obvious by the parish leader’s and congregants’ attention to and prayer over these church fathers that they highly respected the fathers’ contribution to church tradition and the life of faith; the church fathers were an integral part of the normal church service and congregant life. Though depiction of the fathers in this way can possibly have ties to idolatry, I felt that I was able to participate in aspects of historical Christianity by attending this service. Being reminded of the church fathers’ influence on the Christian tradition was a refreshing difference from my context that has never directly taught on or even mentioned the church fathers.
How the worship service illuminated my identity as a Christian:
Though I come from a church context radically different from that of the Greek Orthodox, I was still encouraged that, despite diversity within the body of Christ, we can both worship God. Our contexts worship very differently, especially the difference in spoken and sung language. Even still, I was able to pick up some Greek phrases from the worship songs, most notable the phrases, translated into English: “Oh God give me strength” and “Oh God give me mercy.” Together, we could worship our mutual God whom offers us the same salvation, though we worship differently. This experience helped me realize how much I have been influenced by my church context, and that my context is not the only valid way to “do Church.” I believe in the same God that they believe in, though I have my different worship preferences. My identity as a Christian shall always be rooted in God’s promise that I am His child, regardless of which worship preferences I hold.