From The Well Thought Out Life blog. You may recognize a few of these names.

I promised this post a while ago, when I mentioned that I’d been reading about a number of converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, some that were quite surprising. Supposedly over 70% of priests in the Orthodox church in America today are converts, which is a pretty stunning statistic, particularly in light of the fact that that is up from 10% a few decades ago.

I’ve mentioned Frederica Mathewe’s Greene before, and I just finished her book Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy. Greene’s husband was a priest in the Episcopalian church when they converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, and their story is fascinating to me, and seems pretty classic. They are a part of the recent wave of converts from the Episcopalian/Anglican and Cathlic church.Another convert from the Anglican church is Kallistos Ware, an Oxford-educated scholar who intensely encountered Orthodoxy when he travelled through Greece. He is now an Orthodox Metropolitan.

A truly watershed conversion was Jaroslav Pelikan, who was a preeminent church historian and a professor at Yale. He was born in Ohio to a strongly Lutheran family, he also became a church historian and Lutheran scholar, earning a PhD by the age of 22. He was known for the great breadth of his expertise, which included study and books on the early church, Augustine, Luther, the development of doctrine, Kierkegaard, medieval philosophy, etc. He came out with a five-volume work of church history, and was the first Protestant scholar to include Eastern Orthodoxy in their work on church history.

After being such a strong scholar and Lutheran for so long, it was shocking to the Protestant world when he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy at the age of 70 years old in 1996. He didn’t talk much about his conversion, but a few quotes caught my eye. He said:

“I was the Lutheran with the greatest knowledge of the Orthodox Church, and now I am the Orthodox with the greatest knowledge of Luther. “

He also said that he didn’t so much find Orthodoxy as much as return to it,

“peeling back the layers of my own belief to reveal the Orthodoxy that was always there.”

Even more surprising to me than Pelikan was the discovery of the story of Peter E Gillquist, who was not so much a high church scholar as much as a low church evangelical leader. He got involved with Campus Crusade in college and became a born-again Christian. He pursued graduate studies at Wheaton and then Dallas Theological seminary (where my husband is now). He began working for Campus Crusade based in Notre Dame, and eventually became a regional director.

While with Crusades Gilquist and some co-workers began studying historical Christianity and reading the Church Fathers, and eventually became convinced that the Orthodox church was the only unchanged historical church. They initially formed house churches that intended to recapture the historical practice of the early church, but most ended up joining the Antiochian Archdiocese. When Gillquist finally converted, in 1987, he led 17 parishes and 2,000 evangelicals with him. Holy cow. That story stunned me.

Another convert from low-church evangelicalism is Frank Schaeffer, the son of Francis Schaeffer. Many don’t know the name Francis Schaeffer, but for evangelicals in the 60′s he was writing books like A Christian Manifesto, How Should We Then Live?, and True Spirituality. He was a BIG name. He went to Switzerland and started L’abri, a center for discussion and debate about faith and spirituality. He was super influential. His son Frank became an artist and filmmaker. He picked up the reigns and followed his father’s path, until the mid-1980′s when he publicly stepped away from the Religious Right. I knew about that part of his story and have appreciated his critique of the Religious Right. I did not know, however, that he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1992.

Kallistos Ware, formerly Timothy Ware, was Anglican clergy when he travelled through Greece and deeply encountered Orthodoxy at some churches there. He is now a preeminent Orthodox theologian, author, and Metropolitan.

Peter Jackson was an evangelical and Wycliffe Bible Translators missionary to Columbia. As he dealt with translation difficulties he began to look for clarity in authorial intent by studying church history. He really took a look at the East as he searched further for rational and reasons against Calvinism. They actually joined an Orthodox church while on the mission field, even though the Orthodox community was tiny and didn’t even have a priest. He is now studying at an Orthodox seminary with the intent of starting an official Orthodox church back in Columbia.

Matthew Gallatin was part of the Jesus movement. He was a singer/songwriter, youth minister, and Calvary Chapel pastor. In this position he struggled with the huge range of Protestant opinions, all brought from the same belief in the final authority of scripture. This drove him to a study of the early church, which lead him to the place that he believes still holds the beliefs and practices of the early church: Eastern Orthodoxy.

Joel Kalvesmaki was an eager young evangelical who also became a missionary with OM. When a fellow Wheaton grad and OM missionary shared his search into the Orthodox Church with Joel, Joel was skeptical. He began to read up on the Church Fathers to argue again his friend’s journey, and was indeed initially very anti-Orthodox. The more he read, the more humbled and surprised he was at the lack of understanding in his own evangelical faith. He considered Anglicanism, and heavily considered Roman Catholicism. He saw other history-hunting evangelicals journeying the same way and landing in a variety of places. Eventually the belief that the Orthodox best hold to the simplicity of early faith rather than adding to it led him into Orthodoxy.

John Maddex has been mentioned on my blog before. He helped run Moody Radio for years, and his daugthers attended Moody and Wheaton. One daughter and her boyfriend began exploring Eastern Orthodoxy after some church history courses, and the other daughter and her boyfriend followed. John began attending with them purely to be able to argue against their journey into Orthodoxy. His wife immediately felt at home in the Orthodox church, and as he began to read the Church Fathers his arguments also melted away. After the whole family converted he ended up starting Ancient Faith radio for the Orthodox Church, and I got to hear him speak in a spiritual formation course while I was at Moody.

Fascinating, eh? The theme of nearly every conversion to Orthodoxy is a study of the Early Church. I(t) seems to be rather earth-shattering for most Protestants.

An Interview with the Abbot Vasily (Pasquiet)

Father Vasily, the first question which comes to mind when one meets you is how you, Pierre Pasquiet, a man of exclusively French origin, became an Orthodox Christian, and not just a layman but a monk and priest, found yourself in Russia, and not simply in Russia but in the ‘back of beyond’, in the small Chuvashia town of Alatyr? How did it happen?

- The answer is simple – it was the will of God. When I chose the path of Orthodoxy, when I became a monk, I gave myself to God. Embarking on such an ‘aventure’ has brought me to the backwoods of Russia, to Chuvashia.

Did you become an Orthodox Christian before you first found yourself in Russia or vice versa?

- I don’t like this expression, ‘to become an Orthodox’, I think I had been an Orthodox Christian for a long time. When my present supervising archbishop, Metropolitan Varnava, first met me in 1993 (I was a Catholic Greek monk back then) and could watch how we lived and how we viewed the world, he told me: Father Vasily (I already had that name as a monk, Basile in French), you are Orthodox. And about 15 years I had been waiting for the completion of my union with the Orthodox Church. They were 15 years of suffering, because I loved Orthodoxy with all my heart, but couldn’t partake in Communion with the Orthodox believers at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem…

Were you a monk in Jerusalem?

- Yes, I was a monk in Jerusalem, near the Holy Sepulcher, where the birthplace of John the Baptist is situated. And St. John the Baptist’s monastery, which is where, according to legend, there is a cave where he spent the first years of his life with his mother, Elisabeth. She died there as well, and her tomb is in the monastery. It is not far from Ein-Karem and the Russian Gornensky nunnery. With her love, Mother Superior Georgia of Gornensky monastery made a huge impact on my decision. I talked to her nearly every week. Saturday night I stood there, prayed with them and cried because I couldn’t take Communion with them. And I had to wait for that moment for 15 years.

Then I met Metropolitan Varnava, Archimandrite Gury and father Hermogen, and those meetings impacted on my decision a lot. When I heard their heartfelt words and felt their support I didn’t doubt any more that I had to make up my mind. I did it in 1993, when I left the Greek Catholic monastery and came back to my motherland. Then I wrote my first letter to Patriarch Alexy.

- And where is your motherland?

France, the town of Chole. It is a small town in the west of France, where I was born, and my family originates from Vandee. It is a famous French region, which was well known for its royalist spirits and opposed the Revolution.

- So how did you find yourself in Moscow?

- When I was waiting for an answer, I had a phone call from Moscow, they spoke in French, but with an accent, and asked me whether I was really going to come to Moscow and embrace Orthodoxy. It was unexpected for me, but of course I said that yes, it was true and asked them to help me with an invitation, because without one I couldn’t get a visa. The people who called me belonged to the Sretensky parish. I didn’t know much about them- it was, as they called them here, an ‘experimental’ congregation. Then I got the invitation and arrived here. I was met by Father Georgy, who of course welcomed me nicely, but I felt uneasy in my heart, I felt that it was not exactly what I was expecting. They suggested I would take part in Communion… At the service the next day I realized it was not what I had sought. They say it was some kind of movement, renovation of sorts…but I have no right to judge them, I just felt out of my element there. And the relatives of my friends who lived here and who I had previously met in Jerusalem, understood the difficulty of my situation and tried to help me to find a different parish.

- So I found myself at Father Alexander Shergunov’s parish. I felt comfortable with Father Alexander, especially since he speaks French, which for me was of great relief at that time when I couldn’t speak Russian at all. Father Alexander immediately directed me to Bishop Arsiny, to the Patriarchy, and I wrote my second petition there. The answer arrived at the beginning of March 1994, when Lent started.

So during the first week of Lent, on Tuesday, I was invited to St. Daniel monastery, where through the special ceremony I became a Russian Orthodox Christian. The next day there was the Liturgy of Presanctified Hosts and I took Communion. Of course it was unforgettable and great comfort to me because I had felt I was a fully Orthodox Christian for such a long time. The second Eucharist was on Friday, and on Saturday I was invited to serve with the Patriarch in St. Daniel monastery. It just was St. Daniel day and it was great honour for me – to serve with the Patriarch.

Were you a Deacon?

- Yes, I was ordained Deacon. I was allowed to say litanies in French, which was a relief, because I couldn’t speak Church Slavonic or even Russian back then. After the Liturgy I was at dinner with Patriarch and all of the monks. And I could feel I was completely an Orthodox Christian, not only in my thoughts or in my heart, but absolutely. Then I was sent to Pskovo-Pechersky monastery. Before that I had met Father Tikhon (Shevkunov), just by chance : Father George was passing the Sretensky church to the new monastery, which then worked as representative of the Pskovsko-Pechersky monastery. Father Tikhon and I had a wonderful meeting. We liked each other at once and this good love for each other still works. Later we met again in the Pskovo-Pechersky monastery, and by the blessing of Father Archmadrite Ioann Krestiankin, I was anointed. It was a modest ceremony, in the Uspensky church. And Father Tikhon, since he was present, became my Godfather. And he is really my brother in spirit.

How long did you stay at the Pskovo-Pechersky monastery?

- Not very long. I arrived there in April, at the end of Lent, and stayed till the end of June. Then there was a break because my visa had expired. The authorities in Pskov didn’t know what to do with me, and I was directed to Moscow. There I met Archmadrite Jeronim (now he is the abbot of the St. Trinity monastery), then he still was a regular priest. He just returned from the Holy Land. We met on St. John the Baptist’s Day and decided to go to Athos. It was my lifelong dream. So, blessed by Patriarch Alexy we went to Athos for two weeks. As soon as I was back I wrote a petition to the Patriarch asking him to send me to Chuvashia, to Bishop Varnava’s diocese, who now is a Metropolitan.

Father Vasily, I have heard a story about you painting something while living in Pskovo-Pechersky monastery when a French delegation arrived…Could you tell us about it?

- Well, yes, it did happen, they were military, paratroopers. I wasn’t painting, I was plastering Elder Simeon’s(now a canonised Saint) cells. I can plaster a little, though I think a monk must be ready to learn any manual work. Once I had learned to plaster, and so they asked me to do it. But I couldn’t find a common language with the monastery caretaker, and he even called me a sheep. I was hurt at first, but then accepted it with humility, thinking that a monk should not get offended, but must be patient for the sake of God, for the sake of Christ.

And what about the French delegation?

- Naturally they were surprised to see me there, especially since it was 1994, it was not clear where Russia was going, too much confusion and temptation. And what a Frenchman would do in Russia, was not clear to anyone, not even to myself.

Did they immediately find out that you were French?

- Well, yes, I welcomed them and it became clear. Especially since one of my younger brothers was an Army Officer as well (he is a Colonel now) and we had things to discuss together. Their group was located in the same place where my brother was, so they knew each other.

And how did Chuvashia welcome you?

- In Chuvashia the Bishop met me with great love and great attention. I found my comforter in him at once. Varnava – means ‘the son of Comfort’. The Bishop is sort of my highest spiritual father and teacher. When I look at him I know where to go, what to do.

But you found yourself virtually in this, one might say, hole….

- – Well, it does a monk good.

Thick mud, insects…

- It is all good for a monk. Of course, there were moments when I thought about going away and asked God directly: What do You want from me? Why do You put me in these conditions? And the conditions I was in at first were horrible: rats, a leaking roof, a bed with dirty sheets where before me possibly some drunk had slept, everything wet – on the whole, horrendous. And after my Jerusalem life of course it was difficult and hurtful for me. I really cried and asked God: ‘Why, what do You want from me? What do I need this for? Now I understand what I needed it for. There is a parable: The Lord invites everyone on to the mountain of Tabor, to witness Transfiguration. You can get on a bus which would take you there free of charge. But you will sit really far from the Lord. But then there is a special ticket, which you pay for, and then have to walk up that high mountain and have to pay every hundred meters to be allowed to go further. I think a Christian life is the same, if you want fullness in your life. If you want to be close, you have to pay for it.

So how did you pay?

- I paid, experiencing humility, humiliation, and so on. A monk should live like that. If a monk has everything, has comfort, he needs to think whether he might be lost on his way. If a monk’s life is a bit tough, then probably he is on the right path.

You have been in Chuvashia for eight or nine years?

- Yes, nine years.

They say, somebody like the French Minister of Foreign Affairs visited you?

- Huber…No, the Ambassador. Huber…

Huber Colin de Verdiere?

- Yes, yes

- Now he is the General Secretary of The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs…

- Really? Good.

- So how did you like it there?

- It was fine. Of course he was surprised to see the monastery in such a poor state. It was a building site. The monastery premises were destroyed under Soviet ownership. He saw how much we had done in a short time and how much was left. But he could see what Faith is, what miracles are. Later he thanked us for inviting him to spend the night at the monastery, because staying there and eating with the brothers was a special event for him. Of course all the local and regional dignitaries were present as well.

- Was all the grass painted green?

- Of course. (Laughs). It was a good meeting. Then we saw him to the border with Mordovia.

- We know that France takes great care in its citizens and aspires to spread its culture. Apparently the fact that you were a French citizen brought on the Ambassador’s visit?

- Yes, France really takes care in its citizens through its embassies and consulates. They also want other nations to learn French and help schools and other organizations. But he did it, apart from other reasons, out of spiritual curiosity – he wanted to see the monastery from within.

- But you were visited not only by the French Ambassador, but by His Holiness the Patriarch as well…

- Yes, he was here, but not visiting me personally. It was his first visit of Chuvashia. The first time he was there was in 1996, but then he visited only the capital, Cheboksary. And in 2001 he went to several towns, including our Alatyr. Of course it was a great honour for the city, for every Orthodox Christian. Thousands of people gathered to meet him, even His Holiness himself was surprised. His visit gave us an impulse which still lasts. We would be happy to meet him again.

- Father Vasily, you speak so well about Bishop Varnava, but there are rumours among some Orthodox people that he allegedly sanctified some idol…

- Yes, you know, I really revere Bishop Varnava, he is a saint man. And to blame him in such a sin is really wrong. These rumours are really hurtful for us, the clerics of the diocese of Chuvashia, because we all love our bishop, he is like a father for us.

- So what really happened?

- One priest has simply found a pretext (he has been looking for it for a long time) to insult the Bishop. He simply hates him, I don’t know why. And the pretext he found was the Bishop’s presence at the blessing of a monument, dedicated to our mothers. Why wouldn’t there a monument in honour of our mothers, who brought us up, who worried and suffered for us? This monument is a cultural object, has nothing to do with religion. Father Andrei Berman is deeply mistaken in this case, and that is because here he fights not for the purity of the Christian Orthodoxy, but for his pride and disobedience. In my opinion, he is an idolater of his pride. This is my own opinion.

- Are there any more foreigners in your parish?

- Yes, an Englishwoman, Orthodox Christian as well. She works at school as a teacher of English.

- Did she move specifically to Chuvashia?

- About eight or nine years ago she was invited to Cheboksary specifically, but then she met me through some friends and came to Alatyr because she was looking for a spiritual father. She speaks French, so it is easier for her to confess and consult with me. Of course she speaks Russian perfectly too, better, than I do, because she studied it at university. I didn’t study Russian – just soaked it up, like a sponge.

- How do you find a common language with your parishioners, they are mainly elderly country women?

- It is really easy. As they say in Russian : the parish is like the priest.? If ‘grannies’ can see that their priest is a fervent believer, even the language becomes superfluous, they look in your eyes, and follow you. If a priest loves Christ, then even if he is poor and not very literate, they will follow him. That is why it is easy. Of course, I am not saying that I am exactly that kind of priest, but I do love Christ, and I have given my life to Him, and probably people can feel it.

- Father Vasily, many people in Russia complain that it is difficult to understand Church Slavonic language, difficult to work with it and so on. But you are a French man and you had to master it…

- Well I should say that the Church Slavonic language was easier for me than Russian.

- Why?

- I don’t know why, but I can read in Church Slavonic without problems, and I have difficulties dealing with Russian. I understand the Gospels perfectly, even Tipikon. Of course, sometimes there are difficulties, but I can understand the service and the Gospels perfectly. I’d advise those people, those who don’t understand, to work a little, to be patient, and pray – and they will understand. I didn’t speak Russian, but I was thrown into the village where people spoke only Russian and I started to understand gradually. And if these people go to Church, pray, and listen soon they will know the Church Slavonic language. But the young people of our time are too lazy and don’t want to work, to study.

- Are they lazy here or in France?

- Here in Russia.

- And in France?

- The same. It is a contemporary decease of our young people. It is okay for them to sit by the TV or computer, thinking about nothing, the computer will do everything – will write and think. A modern man is a kind of disabled in terms of real life and history.

- Father Vasily, you were in France last year, after a long break, how did you find it?

- Of course I was happy because one’s motherland is one’s motherland. I could see that everything is so wonderful and beautiful, and so tidy and trim there. Neat, beautiful. But you know, the last week of my stay there I felt nostalgic, missed my poor Chuvashia and my parishioners who are my brothers and sisters. Both Russia and Chuvashia are my motherland now, because I was born anew there. As the Lord said : Who left his family or fatherland for the sake of Christ, will find a new family and motherland.

- How did they receive you in France, when you arrived there as an Orthodox priest?

- It was fine. You know, the church-ward of our parish, said “Our Father Vasily, he is like a banana, there is something exotic about him”. And I do feel that way, that I am a little exotic – I could feel it when I arrived to live in Russia, and now I can feel it when I visit France as well.

- And how did your relatives and family meet you?

- It was fine. Of course, they worried about me, my decision was unexpected for them.

- Are they Roman Catholics?

- They are Catholics. Of course, my father was very upset, and was against it, but he has brought us up in freedom, and in the freedom of conscience as well. So he kept his worries to himself. I think that now that nine years have passed he is reconciled to it, even if he cannot understand why I left Roman Catholicism and became an Orthodox Christian. Maybe he cannot understand why, but he can see that it is the will of God.

- And what about your brother?

- It is the same with him. My younger brother is even thinking about becoming an Orthodox Christian. He has not made up his mind yet because he has children and one of his daughters is a lay-sister in a Catholic monastery so the step would not be easy for him. He doesn’t want to split the family. I told him to wait, not to hurry, I had been living as an Orthodox Christian for fifteen years, though officially I wasn’t an Orthodox. The most important thing is to live like an Orthodox. To be one not on paper, but in real life.

- But in France, Father Vasily, there are many shrines which are revered by the Orthodox as well.

- Yes, many. The veil of the Mother of God in Chartre, the Crown of thorns, a part of St. Genevieva’s relics…During the French Revolution these relics were profaned – clearly devils’ work, because the relics of the saints who created France, who protected France, were profaned…

- Some people say that Orthodoxy becomes more popular in France. Is it true?

- Yes. Yes, it is true, and we are happy about it. We could say that France is going back to her first love. Though the number of Orthodox parishes is still not high, about 200.

- Here everyone thinks that France is a Catholic country…

- This hasn’t been so for a long time. You would sooner speak of France as a Muslim country because Catholics have stopped being Christians. They are secular. ‘Catholic’ is just a name. Churches are shutting down everywhere. One priest serves in 20-30 parishes. There is a terrible lack of priests. There could be no clerics at all in the near future. It is a crisis, a real crisis.

- What about young people, do they go to Church?

- No, they don’t want to. And the number of people who are practising Catholics is really low. Of course, most people are nominally Catholics but more people attend mosques than Roman Catholic churches. That is why Orthodoxy grows, because many people are seeking the Truth, want a real Christian life, and they can find it in Orthodoxy. I think Orthodoxy is going to have a big influence in France quite soon. Even now Orthodoxy has authority. You could see it through mass media, TV, radio. Catholics even use Orthodox theology to explain the meaning of various Church holidays.

- Why did you say France is going back to her first Faith? Many people here think France was always Roman Catholic.

- No, France was Orthodox Christian until the 12th century, before the schism between the Western and Eastern Churches. But even that schism of 1054 was the split between Rome and Constantinople, and didn’t affect the rest. Up to the 12th century France was deeply Orthodox both in its Liturgy and Theology. And the echo of that Orthodoxy(in my opinion) was heard even in the 19th century, when a new dogma on the papal infallibility was brought about. The French Church strongly opposed its introduction. But nowadays, of course, all French clerics think that the Pope cannot sin when he is in the pulpit.

- Thus you can say you turned back to the faith of your ancestors?

- Yes, yes, it is truly so.

Source

In this excerpt from his memoir, Unlearning God, R. Leo Olson describes his conversion to Orthodoxy from a Protestant fundamentalism as a process of healing from his “spiritual head injuries” and unlearning a problematic understanding of God.

Part of unlearning the conception of God that I had picked up in my fundamentalist Protestant upbringing has been to figure out how to talk about the understanding of God in the Orthodox Church, her different spirituality, and sometimes the ethnocentric life within her. How could I describe what I was experiencing and then tell others, without shredding the spirituality of people from my past? I thought that, rather than try to explain everything, perhaps I should invite them to come and see for themselves. It worked for me.

The first couple of times I invited some of my Protestant friends and family, the service was not entirely in English – a little Greek or Arabic was explainable and acceptable. When a real live bishop was coming to visit, I broke out the first-century letters from St. Ignatius and boasted about how the mystical and true Church manifests itself in a special way when the bishop is present. Some of my seeker friends were excited about this and decided to come and visit.

Of course, the bishop chose to chant almost the entire service in Arabic. I was defeated. I was experiencing a real, incarnational relationship with God and yet could not explain to others why whole parts of the Divine Liturgy were in a different language. I wanted Orthodoxy to be the faith tradition for them, where they could find meaning, healing and encounter God in a real “come-and-see-for-yourself” way. Which language was spoken became a real issue for me as it does for most Protestant seekers and seasoned converts.

I felt like such an American elitist when I demanded the services be entirely in English from my priest. I told him I knew I needed to embrace Orthodox spirituality and worship but could not, would not, if I had to learn Arabic, Russian or Greek.

I’m an American, for God’s sake; why do I need to learn a new language?

I realized that I was still suffering from a spiritual “head injury” of pride.

I had invited some of my siblings to come to a Christmas Eve service. My brothers and sisters are quite a bit younger than me, and for the most part are products of a mixed Pentecostal/Baptist Christian tradition. Most of them were working through their own “unlearning” of God, but had not taken their faith seriously since they left the practices and faith communities of their own childhood.

They knew I had moved to a different church and suspected that it was a totally different religion. So what better way to show them original Christianity than to invite them to an Orthodox service before a Christmas family party? I mean Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and who He is and why He was born – to save us. I thought that, if I could start with that fundamental truth, this would serve as a foundation for other conversations with them.

We met at my house before the service because I wanted to prepare them, pre-proselytize them, if you will. I had an arsenal of articles, magic Gillquist pamphlets and timelines of church history. I talked for an hour. I was eloquent. I was smooth. I was channeling St. John Chrysostom. [1]

This turned out to be a horrible idea, grossly misjudged by me. I anticipated some of the normal questions about “high church” liturgics, chanting, and icons, and why St. George is slaying a dinosaur like a character from Dungeons and Dragons. I even tackled the “venerational” kissing of icons as not idolatrous. I told them it’s like kissing a picture of Grandma who had Jesus in her heart and thereby reverencing the work of the Holy Spirit, not worshipping Kodak. I could tell I was speaking a foreign language to them and they suspected spiritual trickery of me.

We caravanned to the service. I knew my brother did not want to go to my church because he did not listen to my pre-emptive lecture trying desperately to translate Orthodoxy into his world. But he was forced to attend due to family pressure. We all stood in the back pew of the darkened nave and my brother sat down after one psalm was read, put his hat on and pulled it down low over his eyes. He had checked out seven minutes into the service. The rest of my siblings were wide-eyed, confused and feeling self-conscious that they were under-dressed.

An older gentleman from our parish made his way over to us from the very front and asked my brother to take off his hat. This experience was so horrible for me, I went inside my head and silently recited “Lord have mercy” over and over as fast as I could to get away from my embarrassment.

My brother did take off his hat but did not stand up. He folded his arms with verve and his stubbornness set in. I knew he would endure this Orthodox service once but never again. I recognized this inner passive revolt because we have the same spiritual “head injuries.” I also knew it was hopeless to try and fix this but I leaned down to him anyway and half apologizing and half wanting to punch him in the neck for acting like a jerk, asked,

“So pretty different, hey? What do you think so far?”

He looked up at me and asked,

“What language is this?”

I couldn’t help but laugh and answered,

“Um, it’s English. The whole thing has been in English so far.”

He rolled his eyes and waited the service out. There was “no room at the inn” for my brother, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have stayed at Hotel Orthodoxy if a room was offered. He has never been back and we have not discussed Orthodoxy or God since.

We had a priest who was born in Syria. He spoke English very well, with a slight accent but definitely bi-lingual, and probably still dreamt in Arabic. Our family loved him even though his stay was brief at our parish. Sometimes during the Divine Liturgy he would read the priestly prayers in Arabic. These prayers are supposed to be silent, according to the red service book in the pew, but most priests say them quietly. It’s a fun “cultural” experience to try and follow along as Arabic is being read by the priest right to left and in the book it’s written left to right in English. However, on this particular Sunday morning, it was more than just the silent prayers of the priest; he was going off in Arabic, almost the whole service. My wife could tell bees were buzzing around my head during the service about this issue.

Soon after joining this ancient and sacred tradition of worship I was able to formulate my own sinful nit-pickings. It happens to everyone. We all have those molehills of which we make mountains from time to time. Arabic dominating the services was mine. I was in desperate need of healing and my whole inner life revolved around learning Orthodox worship, not language lessons. Over half way through the Divine Liturgy our priest was still not using English. I leaned forward and asked a woman in front of us, of Palestinian descent, “What is he saying?”

This was very bad of me. I knew there was no good to come from asking this. As an immigrant she didn’t catch the frustrated American sarcasm of my spiritual head injuries coming out – thank God. But my wife knew full well where my heart was and I could feel her stare in the back of my head.

The woman, leaned back and said,

“I don’t know. I can’t understand his accent.”

I laughed through my nose and leaned back. My wife looked at me with eyes that said,

“I had crossed the line.” I whispered to her, “Even she doesn’t know what the heck language this is.”

Her eyes steeled and she replied,

“You’ve got a problem and you should watch your own language before you critique the priest.”

Afterward, I spoke to the priest about his “over-use” of Arabic in the service. I told him I come here to worship and Arabic is a problem for me. I don’t know what you are saying up there. I could tell he sensed a spiritual head injury in my tone.

“Habibi, (loved one in Arabic) was God praised and glorified today, even if you didn’t know the words?” he asked.

He smiled at me without another word of correction needed. I smiled back, full of inner shame that I let my spiritual head injuries lash out like that.

Flashback a few years when my wife and I wanted to visit every parish in town before choosing one to join – that horrible predicament for converts; we had to judge parishes by our own likes and dislikes. We had all but decided to join St. Nicholas, but there was one more parish in town we hadn’t visited. So we did.

Fr. John Estephan, may he rest in peace, was the priest. Fr. John was a highly educated man. He held two doctorates, one in the history of the Middle East and the other in anthropology. He was an ambassador to Lebanon from Mexico, spoke five different languages, of which English was his last and least fluent. He was a priest who had served our city for decades and when he fell asleep in the Lord a couple of years ago, the true fruits of his ministry were seen by all.

As I say, however, English was the last of his languages and he spoke with a thick accent. The Liturgy was great and the choir was grand. Orthodox worship with its ancient ritual and minor toned chanting often transports everyone to a mystical manifestation of the Kingdom of God. I was raptured in spiritual revelry. Then came the homily. Fr. John walked slowly to the podium with many notes and started preaching in English for the most part. He would explain something in Arabic and then in English. It was like he was the speaker and translator for his own sermon. Towards the end of the sermon, he pounded his fist into the podium and said,

“If you are not grateful – you are not Christian! How can you say you love someone and not be grateful to them?”

That was all I needed to hear or understand from Fr. John Estephan. We did not choose St. George as a parish because of the “language issue” on our horrible parish evaluation list of “likes and dislikes.” To this day, however, many years later, I have not forgotten the simple truth of those twenty-two words from Fr. John.

St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 – the “love chapter” quoted in almost every marriage ceremony –

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

I was the one spiritually injured with the “language issue,” not Orthodoxy. Truth transcends language. Orthodox worship engages all the faculties and senses of a person: touch, taste, smell, feel, hearing, mind, and soul.

My spiritual head injuries deformed my idea of worship because it was hyper-cerebral and still self-centered. If I didn’t understand the language, then it was of no use to me. I demanded Orthodoxy conform to me and my American way of thinking, rather than let it transform me through the universal language of God – love. I had become a “clanging symbol” to those around me by proudly demanding English-only.

The shining light of truth and the healing spiritual medicine of love, known in Orthodoxy, made its way to the

“land of the free and the home of the brave”

not by religious crusade or a movement of rational enlightenment, but by way of immigrants. Many risked their own lives and forsook all they owned, their loved ones, and all they knew about life to come here to America. They brought with them the most ancient expression of Christianity and worshipped in spirit and in truth the only way they knew how and in the language they spoke. Who was I to demand the terms and conditions of God’s blessings of Orthodox worship? I had a Jonah complex and that didn’t work out so well for Jonah when he didn’t agree with God about the Ninevites. [2]

I don’t know how many times I’ve said,

“I wish I knew another language?”

Well, I can sample Arabic and Greek and Russian anytime I want. And, unlike my years of studying swear words in French and Spanish classes, I get to learn the very best words in those languages and sing “Lord have mercy” or shout “Christ is risen!” at Easter in multiple languages. To learn the words of praise to our Lord in another language is a great privilege. I am grateful for different languages now. Healing from spiritual head injuries requires the closing of a myopic eye and an openhearted, grateful embrace of someone else and sometimes an entire culture. Orthodoxy is here in America, but it is wrapped in a cultural wrapping paper like a Christmas present.

When I reflect on the language issue now, I remember when my brother didn’t even recognize English in that Christmas Eve service. I spoke so many words to him before he visited. I made biblical arguments about how the Church came before the Bible. I used hollow-point long-range bullets to shoot down praise bands and “pep rally” worship. I said this … Bang! I said that … Fire in the hole! I, I, I – and none of it mattered, because there was no love in my words, no gratefulness. He heard only clanging symbols on that Christmas Eve.

When I am truly grateful for the Lord’s gift of Orthodoxy, instead of demanding He tell me He loves me in English only, my cold Jonah-like heart warms. I begin to truly love other people and all their customs, values and even their languages. I begin to heal. Twenty-two words from Fr. John would have saved me years of frustration and aided my spiritual therapeutic needs; if only I would have had ears to hear then. I would rather say seven true words of faith, hope and love in any language than thousands of my own words that don’t mean anything in the end.

At Pascha (Easter), every patriarch, bishop and priest stands in front of the holy altar of God and proclaims to all,

“Christ is risen!”

– the only hope of healing for people with spiritual head injuries and salvation for humankind. The people from around the world shout back,

“Truly He is risen!”

And I am among them. What else is there to know, understand or believe?

Jesus Christ, love incarnate, conquered sin, death and Hades for all people, no matter where they were born or what language they spoke. It is with gratefulness that I stand every Pascha with Orthodox Christians worldwide and mystically with every Christian since the myrrh-bearing women at the tomb discovered it empty, and shout the greatest cosmic archetype mystery of faith, hope and love that the universe has ever heard:

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

Albanian: Krishti U Ngjall! Vertet U Ngjall!

Aleut: Khristus anahgrecum!Alhecum anahgrecum!

Alutuq: Khris-tusaq ung-uixtuq! Pijiinuq ung-uixtuq!

Amharic: Kristos tenestwal! Bergit tenestwal!

Anglo-Saxon: Crist aras! Crist sodhlice aras!

Arabic: L’Messieh kahm! Hakken kahm!

Armenian: Kristos haryav ee merelotz!Orhnial eh

harootyunuh kristosee!

Aroman: Hristolu unghia! Daleehira unghia!

Athabascan: Xristosi banuytashtch’ey!Gheli banuytashtch’ey!

Bulgarian: Hristos voskrese! Vo istina voskrese!

Byelorussian: Khristos uvoskros!Zaprowdu uvoskros!

Chinese: Helisituosi fuhuole!Queshi fuhuole!

(Cantonese): Gaydolk folkwoot leew! Ta koksut folkwoot leew!

(Mandarin): Ji-du fu-huo-le!Zhen-de Ta fu-huo-le!

Coptic: Pi-ekhristos Aftonf! Khen oomethmi Aftonf!

Czech: Kristus vstal a mrtvych!Opravdi vstoupil!

Danish: Kristus er opstanden!Kristus er opstanden!

Dutch: Christus is opgestaan! Ja, hij is waarlijk opgestaan!

Eritrean-Tigre: Christos tensiou!Bahake tensiou!

Esperanto: Kristo levigis! Vere levigis!

Estonian: Kristus on oolestoosunt!Toayestee on oolestoosunt!

Ethiopian: Christos t’ensah em’ muhtan!Exai’ ab-her eokala!

Finnish: Kristus nousi kuolleista!Totistesti nousi!

French: Le Christ est réssuscité! En verite il est réssuscité!

Gaelic: Kriost eirgim! Eirgim!

Georgian: Kriste ahzdkhah!Chezdmaridet!

German: Christus ist erstanden! Er ist wahrhaftig erstanden!

Greek: Christos anesti! Alithos anesti!

Hawaiian: Ua ala hou `o Kristo! Ua ala `I `o no `oia!

Hebrew: Ha Masheeha houh kam! A ken kam! (or Be emet quam!)

Icelandic: Kristur er upprisinn! Hann er vissulega upprisinn!

Indonesian: Kristus telah bangkit!Benar dia telah bangkit!

Italian: Cristo e’ risorto! Veramente e’ risorto!

Japanese: Harisutosu siochatsu!Makoto-ni siochatsu!

Javanese: Kristus sampun wungu!Saesto panjene ganipun sampun wungu!

Korean: Kristo gesso! Buhar ha sho nay!

Latin: Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit!

Latvian: Kristus ir augsham sales!Teyasham ir augsham sales vinsch!

Lugandan: Kristo ajukkide! Amajim ajukkide!Malayalam

(Indian): Christu uyirthezhunnettu!Theerchayayum uyirthezhunnettu!

Nigerian: Jesu Kristi ebiliwo! Eziao’ biliwo!

Norwegian: Kristus er oppstanden! Han er sannelig oppstanden!

Polish: Khristus zmartvikstau!Zaiste zmartvikstau!

Portugese: Cristo ressuscitou! Em verdade ressuscitou!

Romanian: Hristos a inviat!Adevarat a inviat!

Russian: Khristos voskrese!Voistinu voskrese!

Sanskrit: Kristo’pastitaha! Satvam upastitaha!

Serbian: Cristos vaskres! Vaistinu vaskres!

Slovak: Kristus vstal zmr’tvych!Skutoc ne vstal!

Spanish: Cristos ha resucitado! En verdad ha resucitado!

Swahili: Kristo amefufukka! Kweli Amefufukka!

Swedish: Christus ar uppstanden!Han ar verkligen uppstanden!

Syriac: M’shee ho dkom! Ha koo qam!

Tlingit: Xristos Kuxwoo-digoot!Xegaa-kux Kuxwoo-digoot!

Turkish: Hristos diril-di! Hakikaten diril-di!

Ugandan: Kristo ajukkide! Kweli ajukkide!

Ukranian: Khristos voskres!Voistinu voskres!

Welsh: Atgyfododd Crist!Atgyfododd in wir!

Yupik: Xristusaq Unguixtuq!Iluumun Ung-uixtuq!

Zulu: Ukristu uvukile! Uvukile kuphela!

Author’s notes:

[1] St. John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) was known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, and assembling the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. He was given the Greek epithet chrysostomos, meaning “golden-mouthed.”

[2] Jonah was the reluctant prophet of God. He did not want to share God’s message with a foreign people. After being swallowed by a fish and vomited on a beach, he angrily preached God’s message then went on a hill to watch the Ninevites burn. They repented. Jonah was consumed with anger at God’s mercy on a foreign people. He was even annoyed with God about the plant that shaded him, but then died, no longer providing him shade while he hoped for Nineveh’s destruction (Jonah 4).

Source

From Orthodox Field Guide, comes a fictitious story of a visit to an Orthodox Church. Sometimes we forget what a first time visit can be like!

When one first enters an Orthodox church, it may be a scary or intimidating experience. There is often confusion about what everyone is doing, when and why they’re going around kissing things, and what a visitor should do or how to behave.

“And did those people really just kiss the hand of that man in the Matrix outfit? Yes, I’m pretty sure that just happened.”

So let’s demystify this a bit with a story. In this imaginary Sunday morning experience we meet George, a lifetime Orthodox Christian, and Sally, a recent inquirer.  Not every detail of this story is replicated in every place, but rather this story is told to give you a sense of what one might see.

George arrived for liturgy, and greeted a few friends on his way in. Fr. Sergius, a semi-retired priest who serves the parish in a limited capacity, was just coming through the doorway, too. He greeted Fr. Sergius by saying,

“Father, bless!”

and then swept his right hand to the ground, bending at the waist. While he was doing that, Fr. Sergius made the sign of the cross over him, and said,

“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!”

while George placed his right hand, palm up and open, into the palm of his left hand, and Fr. Sergius placed his own hand into George’s hands, while George kissed it. George followed this pious custom out of reverence for the Lord and respect for hands that were tools in the hands of God—hands used in the great task of bringing the incarnate Son of God to the people of God through ordinary bread and wine. These hands were holy, for they have handled the holiest things on earth.

Sally watched all this from a few steps behind George.

After this greeting, George entered the foyer and venerated several icons. Sally observed awkwardly from the side, noting that George crossed himself twice, bending over and touching the ground, standing up to kiss the icon, and then crossing and bowing one more time, touching the floor with one hand. When George venerated a second icon, Sally watched closely, and saw that George was kissing the hand of the figure on the icon, rather than the face.

Next, George walked over to some boxes of candles and what appeared to Sally to be a sand-filled litter box. George dropped a few dollars in a bin, and took several candles. Sally wasn’t really sure what to do, so she just awkwardly smiled at a few elderly ladies in head coverings eyeing her, then quickly looked away.

George walked into the nave—the main part of the church, where the congregation stands—and made his way to the front. Sally entered right behind him, but lingered along the rear wall. He stood for a few brief moments in front of several icons, apparently praying, and repeated the triple crossing and bowing kissing thing, and occasionally would light the candles he had, cross himself yet again, and place the candles on these interesting-looking gold or bronze stands.

Eventually, George made his way to a place in the congregation to stand. Like many other Orthodox parishes in America and around the world, this church had pews, and he took a place, but he did not sit.

Something then occurred to Sally—there were chanters up front and off to the side, and a priest was swinging a thing full of incense and muttering some barely audible words. It appeared to her that the service was already in progress, but people were still milling about, kissing icons and lighting candles.

Much of the service was a blur for Sally. There were a lot of hymns, a lot of “Lord have mercys,” and a number of strange words, like “Theotokos.” Some of the service was in a language she didn’t recognize—perhaps she even heard several languages, she could not be completely sure.

There were distinctly familiar moments, such as Scripture readings—but even such moments felt unusual to her, since they were chanted instead of simply read. And what was with all the crossings? She must have seen the sign of the cross made a thousand times around her.

There was a sermon in the middle of the service. Everyone sat down, and there were even a few people in flip-flops who just plopped down on the floor along walls and in corners. The sermon was nice, but it felt strange to her. No pulpit, no detailed verse-by-verse exposition, and certainly no emotional altar call. Perhaps most striking was that the sermon clocked in at 15 to 20 minutes or so (who’s counting?) instead of the 45 minutes or more she was used to at her old church.

After the sermon, there was a great deal of commotion up front, behind a strange wall with a lot of icons on it, while a choir in a balcony above sang a cappella hymns. She found it a little jarring when the priest chanted for something or other to depart—over and over he said a strange word about some people and told them to depart. Yet, she never saw anyone depart (except for people with fussy babies, but this didn’t appear to have any correlation with the command to depart!).

After that, more litanies were sung, and the priest prayed a lot of prayers. George appeared to be at home, crossing himself and bowing his head slightly just about every time the choir sang

“Lord have mercy.”

At one point, Sally felt really awkward when a long line of people came out from behind the icon wall…a few kids, a couple assistants, and the priests literally paraded down the north side of the nave carrying a cross, some disc-like things, incense, a chalice, some cloths, and other mystifying items. And as they rounded the corner at the back, she realized she was in the way, and stumbled her way to the opposite side of the center aisle. The entourage rounded another corner and headed down the main aisle toward the altar, praying for various names of people.

The rest of the service was pretty much a blur to Sally. She occasionally glanced at George, but he seemed right at home, crossing himself and occasionally singing along to “Amens.” The service felt long, and sometimes she got tired from standing, so she would  rest in a pew set along the back wall.

The one moment that stood out to Sally was toward the end of the service, when it was time for communion.

The priest announced,

“Holy things are for the holy!”

and the choir responded,

“Only one is holy, only one is the Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father!”

Then a minor rustling began as men, women, children, and the elderly alike began lining up in the center aisle with most crossing their arms against their chests, while a few carried small children. Up front, it looked as if the priest was spoon feeding each person from a golden chalice, but it was difficult to see from the back of the nave. Whatever was happening, it looked pretty special to Sally.

As people moved past the priest, they took a few pieces of bread from a bowl and returned to their places in the building. One stranger greeted Sally with a piece of bread and said to her,

“Christ is in our midst!”

She sheepishly replied,

“Thank you,”

and took the bread.

After the service was over and the priest made a few announcements, Sally was more-or-less swept away into a river of people going down to the front of the Church and speaking with the priest. People were kissing a cross and the priest’s hand, and then receiving more pieces of bread from a bowl held by a young child. Sally was greeted warmly by the priest and invited to stay for coffee hour afterward. Still processing everything that she just witnessed, Sally thanked him, and made her way toward the door.

Source

This is a glorious presentation! The presenters explain how the stories of Genesis are a part of Chinese characters and history. Glorious!

“Even a year or two ago, only a few people could have imagined that Patriarch Kirill would visit China, that it would not be just a private visit, but it would be a semi-official visit, which would take place at such a high level – the highest state level,”

the metropolitan told the Voice of Russia radio station. Patriarch Kirill was the first Christian faith leader to meet with the head of China, he said.

“A year ago, no one could have thought that religious services would be conducted in Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai, especially in Shanghai’s Church of the Mother of God the Surety of Sinners, which had not been used for religious services for almost 50 years. In my opinion, this visit has exceeded even the most ambitious expectations in many ways,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

However, there is still a great deal to do to bring the life of the Orthodox Church in China back to normal, he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church will conduct this work in close cooperation with the Chinese authorities and China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs.

Metropolitan Hilarion described the main task as securing the ordination of Chinese priests and resuming religious services at churches that still function as lay churches, he said.

“Our church is Orthodox. It must have priests. We will not be satisfied until all churches in China have priests,” Metropolitan Hilarion said. “The Chinese Orthodox Church is “not some foreign church structure, but it is a national church, which was established certainly with the help of Russian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, and became a national church in the 18th century.”

“The Orthodox Church of China is not some project imposed on us from outside. It was born in the depth of the Chinese Orthodox community, which is small, but is strongly committed to its faith. And I hope that this understanding will keep growing from now one,” the metropolitan said.

Source: Interfax

Some years ago, I had the pleasure of dining in Toronto’s “Greek Town” with a sister in Christ, a Greek grandmother who had been around the Church all her life, and who was a true realist. As we walked through the warm summer streets, surrounded by mobs of young people – many of them Greek, and presumably Orthodox Christians – my friend let out an audible exclamation.

“Look at them, Father – they don’t even know what an Orthodox priest is! Why aren’t they at Church?! They should be ashamed of themselves!”

Of course hearing this, all these young people heard the voice of their own yia-yia, or grandmother, confronting them with their own lack of piety, spiritual observance, and care for their Faith.

About a year later, a young friend – also Greek – was confessing her frustration that the Church didn’t provide answers for her life and the lives of those she knows – answers on questions about marital life, family finances, the news we see on television, and how to answer the pointed questions of her atheist co-workers.

“But the Orthodox Church does provide those answers,” I protested.

“Then why have I never heard them?” she asked, poignantly.

She had an excellent point. Where had the breakdown occurred between the zeal of the grandmother, and the yearning for answers of the young woman?

I should note here, that both women were and are regular churchgoers, and both have family members who all but ignore their Orthodox faith. The two women are not related; I don’t believe they have ever met. Yet in a very real way, their questions reflected two sides of the same coin.

Politicians sometimes talk about the divisions that exist between “Bay Street”, the centre of economic life, and “Main Street”, the centre of real life. Perhaps it is a result of a generation gap, or growing secularism, immigration patterns or the popular media, but somewhere in the last fifty years, Canada’s “Main Street” stopped hearing the answers given by the Church. In many cases, Canadians had never heard the eternal answers offered by the Orthodox Church, of course, but they at least had some share of Christian truth from the society around them. Orthodox efforts in this area appeared to be safe to take a generation-long time out.

This is no longer the case. The issues facing “Main Street” Canadians, particularly those under 30 years of age, leave many people spinning in the storm of western relativism: many simply do not know where to find the truth, or even if truth exists.

There has never been a time when the hunger for the Truth has been stronger and more needed than it is today. The fact that this Truth is not an idea, but a Person – God Himself – makes the answers His Body the Church has to offer so much more fitting to fill the emptiness in the lives of many “Main Street” Canadians, Orthodox ones included.

The same eternal Truth, expressed in the words of the saints and the prayers of the Church, that sustained grandmothers in generations past, can and should sustain the disappointed relativists, truth-searching activists, and recovering Emo kids of our time.

Christ died and conquered Death in order to achieve the salvation of the world, including those on “Main Street”. It is to that large segment of our nation’s family that this issue, its questions, and the answers it offers, is dedicated.

May God bless us all to carry on God’s work in our own hearts, and on Main Street as well.

HT: Pravmir

Source: Orthodox Canada

While the presence of Western Christian Churches in China is a well-known fact, many people are not aware that the Orthodox Church has also been present in that country for more than 300 years. In this interview, the webmaster of Orthodox.cn, Mitrophan Chin, tells us more about the history, current situation and prospects for the Orthodox Church in China.

The Orthodox Church in China was given a status of autonomy by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1956 and had two Chinese bishops, several priests and possibly up to 20,000 faithful in the early 1960s.

But it has never fully recovered from the turmoils of the “cultural revolution” of the 1960s and its antireligious policies. In December 2004, the last Chinese Orthodox priest living in China, Father Alexander Du Lifu, passed away in Beijing at the age of 80. He did never manage to get permission from the government to open a church in Beijing: the authorities argued that the community (about 300 faithful) was too tiny.

However, there are efforts from several sides to revive Orthodox life in China, and a few Chinese students are reported to be currently training in Russian theological schools. According to estimates by Father Dionisy Pozdnyaev, who is in charge of Chinese affairs at the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, there are some 13,000 Orthodox faithful living in China. There are parishes – without clergy – in Xinjiang, in Inner Mongolia and in Harbin, where the Russian church building is a local landmark. The Moscow Patriarchate would like to see the Orthodox Church recognized officially, but its small size seems to present an obstacle.

Attempts to revive Orthodoxy in China also take place in virtual space. An Orthodox believer of Chinese background living in the United States, Mitrophan Chin, is the webmaster of the website Orthodoxy in China (http://orthodox.cn), which was launched in Spring 2004. In this interview, he tells us more about the history, current situation and prospects for the Orthodox Church in China.

Religioscope – How did Orthodoxy reach China first, more than 300 years ago.

Mitrophan Chin – Orthodoxy reached China with the eastern expansion of the Russian empire across the Siberian Far East in 1651. At around the same time in 1644, the Ming dynasty was overthrown in China by the Manchurians who introduced the Qing dynasty which lasted until the Nationalist revolt of 1911. The Russian Cossack settlements along the Amur River at Albazin eventually was met by fierce attacks by the Chinese army in 1685 which led to the downfall of Albazin, and the captives were taken to the capital city of Beijing.

Religioscope – The first Orthodox in China could thus be described as “immigrants”. When did missionary activities directed toward Chinese begin, and how successful were they?

Mitrophan Chin – Missionary activities started when a number of the original captives of the Albazinians were given the honor to serve the Chinese Emperor Kangxi in the Imperial capital of Beijing in one of the most prestigious banners of the honor guards. The first Orthodox priest, Fr Maxim Leontiev, was sent unwillingly to provide spiritual guidance to these new Albazinian immigrants. An old Buddhist temple was provided at the northeastern corner of the capital, and it was converted to an Orthodox chapel bearing the name of St Nicholas the Wonderworker in honor of the miracle-working icon that Fr Maxim brought along with him.

Thus the seed of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission has been planted on Chinese soil. In the 200 years leading up to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Mission took in only a small number of indigenous Chinese converts, mostly through inter-marriage with the Albazinians. This stood in stark contrast with active missionary efforts by rival Catholic and Protestant missionaries.

Religioscope – Orthodoxy in China had its first martyrs at the time of the uprising of the Boxers, which not only targeted Catholics and Protestants, but Orthodox as well. Your Christian name, Mitrophan, is the name of a martyred Chinese priest, isn’t it?

Mitrophan Chin – St Mitrophan, along with over 200 other Chinese and Albazinians in Beijing gave their lives up for the Christian faith during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, or the Yihetuan Movement as the Chinese called the uprising. Albazinians at this time have pretty much assimilated with the local population after two centuries of cohabitation. Their outward appearance is not much different from the majority Han Chinese population even though ethnically they consider themselves of Russian descent.

Religioscope – After the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, many Russians fled East and settled in China, where there was during a few decades a very active church life. When did those Russian emigrants then leave China? Are there still some of them left?

Mitrophan Chin – The Orthodox population swelled in the 20th century in China, mostly due to the influx of white Russians. At the same time, the Boxer uprising had not stopped the blood of the Martyrs from bringing forth a new generation of Chinese believers. Archimandrite Innokenti Figurovsky, who in 1902 became the first Bishop of Beijing, initiated translations of liturgical and catechetical Orthodox material for the first time into spoken Chinese called guanhua.

This was considered the golden era of Orthodoxy in China, with many churches being built. Unfortunately, most of the Russians fled China when the Communists took over in 1949. Some returned back to Russia but many others immigrated to Australia or America.

The famous St John, who was Archbishop of Shanghai, was one of the last to leave when the Communists took over and eventually settled in California. Also, Fr Elias Wen, who was the rector of the Church dedicated to the Surety of Sinners Icon of the Theotokos in Shanghai fled to Hong Kong and eventually immigrated to San Francisco. Fr Elias is the oldest Orthodox priest still alive and will be approaching 108 years of age this November. May God grant him many years!

Also, the priest Michael Wang, and protodeacon Evangelos Lu stayed behind in Shanghai and suffered much through the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). They have likewise reached an old age and have withdrawn from active clerical involvement as there are no functional Orthodox Churches in Shanghai. Another Protopriest Michael Li, also originally of Shanghai, immigrated to Australia and serves as the spiritual father of Russian-Chinese Orthodox Missionary Society of Sydney.

Today, there are a few hundreds of Albazinian or Russian descent who consider themselves Orthodox that reside in each of the major cities of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Harbin. Many more are scattered in the western and northern autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. In all, the most recent Chinese census have recorded around 13,000 Chinese citizens of Russian descent.

Religioscope – How did the Church first manage to continue its activities under the Communist government? What happened then to Chinese Orthodox at the time of the “cultural revolution”? Did some type of underground church life continue, insofar we know it?

Mitrophan Chin – The Church was required to be independent by Chinese government. Therefore the archbishop Victor consecrated Archimandrite Vasily to be the first Chinese bishop of Beijing in preparation to lead the Church to autonomy which was eventually granted in 1957. The Cultural Revolution destroyed most of the Church buildings and many believers were persecuted. Church life was practically eliminated and the believers have to resort to reader services in private homes to continue living their faith.

The Chinese Martyrs icon mounted at the entrance to the Orthodox Church of St. Luke the Evangelist in Hong Kong was commissioned to the famed Greek iconographer Maria Sigala.

Religioscope – In recent years, there have been attempts by several Orthodox Churches to help Chinese believers. The Moscow Patriarchate has been quite active, including attempts to convince the Chinese government to register the Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate (Constantinople) has established a diocese in Hong Kong – which is now part of Chinese territory – in 1996, serving South Asia and the Far East. Moreover, priests of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia have also been regular visitors to the Chinese mainland. Those visiting priests have performed baptisms and celebrated liturgies for scattered communities of believers. Would you please summarize those efforts?

Mitrophan Chin – Efforts by non-indigenous priests have been hampered, including the recent deportation of an Orthodox priest who was secretly crossing the border between serving the spiritual needs of the Orthodox Faithful in Xinjiang in the western frontiers of China in December 2003.

The Chinese government is usually flexible with small group prayers in private homes, but they will start noticing if there are more than a handful gathering together. Visiting priests usually have to work within the supervision of the State Administration of Religious Affairs if they do not wish to encounter any obstacles, and for the most are only allowed to hold services for foreign compatriots working or residing in China. Such services are normally held in an embassy and are off limit to Chinese believers.

Religioscope – The major step to be taken seems to be the registration of the Church. Are there indications that this might take place in a foreseeable future? And what about those Chinese priests now in training in Russian seminaries?

Mitrophan Chin – The Chinese seminarians in the Russian seminaries do hope to return back to China to serve the Orthodox faithful there. This is a sensitive issue and requires the blessing of the Chinese government and their future is uncertain.

Russian President Putin has visited China, and has promised the Bishops Council of the Moscow Patriarchate that he will bring up with the Chinese authorities during his visit to allow an iconostasis which has been held up in customs for four years, to finally enter China to be installed in a church temple built by the Chinese goverment in 1999 in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The Chinese government has been seen as more accommodating in recent years including allowing a hieromonk from Russia to visit the Pokrov Church in Harbin to hear confessions in both Russian and Chinese in July 2004, and also the August 2004 visit by Russian Bishop Mark to Beijing at the official invitation of local religious leaders and the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

Religioscope – I understand that there are also efforts for reaching diaspora Chinese. For instance, a few months ago, the Russian Orthodox Church has decided to celebrate liturgies in Chinese in Vladivostok and other places of the Russian Far East. Are there already small groups of Chinese-speaking Orthodox outside of mainland China?

Mitrophan Chin – Vladivostok Diocese has a creative missionary endeavor by actually allowing its church to serve as a one of the tourist sites for Chinese tourists visiting the city. The church has prepared an explanation of the Orthodox Church and its divine services in Chinese which is given to the tour guides to explain to the visitors, and at the end of the tour, the tourists actually get to light a candle in front of an icon of the Chinese Martyrs.

Not only tourism but Chinese immigrants outside the Chinese border in Russia have swelled tremendously. They have been seen as a rival economic force in Russia, as evident when the recent Bishop Council of the Russian Orthodox Church brought up this demographic issue with President Vladimir Putin. Putin turned the table around and asked the bishops about the conversion of the Chinese to Orthodoxy, since Orthodoxy has always been universal or catholic, and, furthermore, Putin emphasized that each person’s spiritual state is important.

Religioscope – Let’s now come to your website. Orthodoxy in China – http://orthodox.cn – seems to be on its way to become a major resource for Orthodox material in Chinese as well as for information on Orthodoxy in China. Could you tell us more about the content and purpose of this website?

Mitrophan Chin – Orthodox.cn is created to be the portal of everything you will ever want to know concerning Orthodoxy as it developed in China and its environs, and especially where it is today and where it will be tomorrow. Catechetical literature and liturgical texts in classical and modern Chinese are gathered here for easy access for anyone interested in learning more of what Orthodoxy have to offer.

Links to various Internet resources and Chinese Orthodox discussion boards are also provided to take advantage of the strength of the Internet in providing a wealth of information and exchange of ideas which no one site can provide.

News articles related to Chinese Orthodoxy from Russian language media are translated into English and disseminated to keep the international English-speaking community in the loop concerning missionary activity made from the Russian Orthodox part of the world.

Religioscope – You intend also to make liturgical and devotional material available in Chinese. Are most Orthodox liturgical texts already available in Chinese? Are they being reprinted, or is the Web currently the best solution to make them available again?

Mitrophan Chin – Currently, an online library of most of the extant classical Chinese Orthodox text that were produced in the 19th and early 20th century Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China have been scanned in and being made available for free distribution via the web, which is the most economical and quickest way for those in China to get a personal copy of these rare historical texts. More recent Chinese translations suitable for the younger Chinese generation have also been made available online for the daily prayers with various canons and akathist plus the divine liturgy of St John Chrysostom. Most of this freely distributable material can be burned onto CD upon request for those in China without convenient Internet access, and they are encouraged to copy and share with family and friends.

Religioscope – An ambitious project which you have is the Chinese translation of the Prologue of Ohrid, a collection of lives of the saints for every day of the year…

Mitrophan Chin – This project has been spurred by a Hong Kong Protestant who did preliminary translation of half a year’s readings of the the lives of saints section of the Prologue of Ohrid. He has passed the torch to a Chinese Orthodox convert currently living in Romania to revise and complete translating the rest of the readings including hymns, contemplation, reflections and homilies. The fruits of this project will greatly enrich the daily devotional life of the Orthodox faithful in China and also to introduce the riches of Eastern Orthodoxy to our non-Orthodox readers.

Religioscope – While your website is a useful resource for people who would like to know more about Orthodoxy in China, it is also meant as a service to Orthodox faithful living in mainland China, a country where there are already several dozens of millions people online. Do Orthodox believers in China use the Web and write to you for material?

Mitrophan Chin – Most Orthodox believers that are online are mostly converts and are usually self-motivated in seeking out the truth. They usually post anonymously to various online religious message boards to ask questions about the Orthodox faith. In the physical world, many times they would be drawn by the beauty of some of the restored Orthodox churches in China and would travel to visit such former churches like the St Sophia in Harbin or they may be curious and go seek out the existence of any former Orthodox church buildings that may have survived the destruction caused by the Cultural Revolution and ask around if there are any cradle Orthodox believers in the vicinity. Since mainstream Chinese media lacks coverage of Orthodox concerns, the web site also provides a much needed international and domestic Orthodox newsfeed in Chinese.

Religioscope – Are there also other Orthodox websites in Chinese?

Among the worshippers were Russian Ambassador to China A. Denisov, Minister-Counsellor of the Russian Embassy Ye. Tomikhin, the Russian Embassy’s first secretary A. Povalyaev, as well as Russian and foreign diplomats. There were also V. Legoida, head of the Synodal Information Department, Russian-speaking expatriates living in China, Orthodox believers in China and other countries.

In his Primatial address to the congregation, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill greeted them with the Paschal exclamation and speaking about St. Thomas, who is commemorated on this day, said in particular,

‘What happened in Thomas’s soul has happened today and throughout history to very many people. We often read the Gospel and other books about Christ and his miracles and his life. We are amazed at the Gospel’s depth of thoughts and power of its moral message. But for very many it remains an insufficient testimony and while recognizing the value of Christianity as an ethical system, people remain non-believers. It happens because they have not encountered Christ, have failed to see his face and to feel his real presence.

And how can one encounter Christ? It is to feel, at some moment in your life, the hand of God lying on you, and what happens to you falls out of the life logic and gives an idea of a different world with which you have come in touch. It happens to very many people in this life, regardless of external conditions.

External conditions can be very unfavourable for one’s coming to believe in Christ. Nevertheless, meeting with the Lord, they find steadfast faith. It is not in the 90s that religious revival began in our country. It began in the terrible years of the Great Patriotic War when everybody, both generals and soldiers, turned to God, when our very victory over the enemy, who exceeded us in power many times over, appeared to be God’s intervention in our life. Overcrowded churches in the post-war years in our country were a testimony of people’s personal encounter with God…

It is a real religious experience, the one that Thomas had when he met with our Saviour. He confessed Christ as Risen God and his Saviour. From this meeting he received such a powerful spiritual impulse that made him take the path of preaching Christ, which led him to as far as India and China.

Thomas was the first to preach the Risen Christ in this land. This land saw the one who had seen the Risen Christ, and the tradition about it is still kept in the Chinese land.

Over three hundred years ago, Russian people, the Albazin Cossacks, appeared in this very place. They, together with their priest, were taken prisoner and brought to Beijing and settled on the very spot we are standing on. Nobody prevented our ancestors from praying and confessing our Lord and Saviour. Very soon the Albazin Cossacks married Chinese women. Their posterity got married to Chinese men and women, and today the Albazians are children of the Chinese people who keep the Orthodox faith in their hearts.

With a special feeling I greet the descendants of the Albazians and all the Orthodox Chinese who worshipped together with us.

In the early 18^th century, a Russian Orthodox Mission was founded at the place where the Albazians lived. And great China came to know Russia through the Russian Orthodox Church. Neither Russians nor Chinese should forget that the first contact between the two nations happened in the very place where we have celebrated the liturgy today. Throughout the subsequent years, the Russian Orthodox Church was aware of her special responsibility for the relations between the two countries and peoples. Perhaps the fact that Russia was represented in China by the Russian Orthodox Mission explains the peaceful presence of our country in China with its great respect for the Chinese people and Chinese culture.

The preaching carried out by the Russian Orthodox Mission was successful, and in the last century 50s, two Chinese were ordained bishops and many Chinese were ordained priests. In 1956, Chinese Orthodoxy was declared by the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church. It was a special date in the history of Chinese Orthodoxy.

The subsequent history was complicated both for China and Russia. We know that the Church suffered in Russia and she suffered in China, too.

Now, new times have come. By God’s mercy, the Patriarch of Moscow has had an opportunity to set foot on the Chinese land and to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at the very place where the Russian Orthodox Mission used to work and where the Russian Embassy carries out its lofty mission.

I have come here in the first place to see you all and to pray together with you. I have also met with the leaders of the country to discuss the Russian-Chinese relations and the life of the Chinese Orthodox Church.

I would like to wholeheartedly wish China and the Chinese people peace, well-being and prosperity. I am confident that the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian-Chinese relations will promote the cordiality of these relations, their sincerity and genuine friendship. Certainly, it will be helped by the historical fact of the existence of the Chinese Orthodox Church, which we consider to be the spiritual bridge uniting our peoples’.

Patriarch Kirill said that during the service prayers were lifted up for the victims of the flood which hit China: ‘Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by this disaster and lost their homes. Roads and bridges were ruined, fields bringing food were destroyed.

We prayed that the Lord may show his mercy for the Chinese people and bring an early healing of these wounds’.

Patriarch Kirill also thanked the Russian Ambassador A. Denisov, saying, ‘In the remote year of 1993, during my first visit to China, we inspected the territory of what was the Russian Orthodox Mission and what is the Russian Embassy today and came in the garage arranged in the church of the Assumption. Already at that time we thought about the need to restore this shrine in the territory of the embassy. Both Russians and Chinese covered a long way to lead to the consecration of the church of the Assumption and my today’s visit to the Celestial Empire’.

Patriarch Kirill presented the church of the Assumption with liturgical vessels. Every worshipper received as a token a small icon of the Risen Christ.

After the service, Patriarch Kirill and Ambassador Denisov made a tour of the embassy territory in which the Russian Orthodox Mission used to be and made a stop at the cross erected on May 4, 1997, in the Upper Garden to commemorate all the Orthodox people

‘who died and were buried in this country’.

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A Conversation with Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (+2003) granted the following interview – which was printed in Literator, an organ of the Leningrad Writers’ Organization, on September 21, 1990 – to M. B. Meilakh in London. Spoken on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladyka Anthony’s words have only gained relevance with time.  

Vladyka, perhaps the events taking place in the Russian Church in the homeland are better seen from a distance?

You know, something might be seen more clearly from a distance, but something else is completely invisible, because the Russian reality is so complex, and made up of so many different currents, that one can pick up on one thing, but overlook a great deal else. It seems to me that the Russian Church has survived thanks to the Russian people’s love for the divine services and for liturgical beauty, about which Nilus of Sora spoke. I am not talking about the specifics of the Jesus Prayer now, but about that communion between the living soul and the Living God that takes place within the divine services, and that does not even necessarily depend upon understanding them, but simply upon standing before the Living God and upon the Living God being among us.

What is lacking in the Russian Church, of course, is the education of ordinary believers in questions of faith. Already in the nineteenth century, Leskov wrote that Rus’ had once been baptized, but had never been enlightened. And, indeed, a Russian knows God viscerally, in his soul. As Leskov says somewhere, he has “Christ in his bosom.” But, on the other hand, he still needs to acquire a great deal of knowledge – nothing specialized, simply a deep understanding of the meaning, for instance, of the Symbol of Faith and the Lord’s Prayer. The result, it seems to me, is that in Russia there are very many people who would not be able to defend their faith were it attacked, or be able to defend it in debate, but who would die for it, because they know with their entire being, viscerally, that what they believe in is truth, verity, and life.

Therefore, today the Church faces the question of how to educate believers, of how to teach them faith. First of all, this means the Gospel, which for several decades was unattainable as a book. This book somehow needs to be distributed among the people in such a way that more people would read it and would begin to live by that living power, fire, and life-giving power of our faith, by the words and image of Christ the Savior Himself. On the other hand, it is essential that people understand the divine services in which they take part. Not because some kind of intellectual understanding of the services is necessary, but because the divine services are constructed in such a way as to transmit the essence and content of our faith; the more one understands the divine services, the deeper one can delve into the content of Orthodoxy. Therefore, we face two issues today, which we will likely have more and more opportunities to resolve. The first is the education of the laity: in small groups, public meetings, and catechetical courses. The other task, which today is likewise gaining significance, is the training of young clergy. Today there are four new courses for preparing clergy (not yet seminaries) and this is very important. Here, of course, we should add the proviso that theological education alone does not make one capable of becoming a priest.

Being a priest is an art. There are things that theological schools do not teach, because they are wholly focused on theological education. I have met many young priests who have been insufficiently prepared in many areas and who have not yet fully entered parish life. For example, they do not know how to say confession, how to teach others to say confession, how to confess others, or what sources to use in preparing sermons. Spiritual writers and spiritual fathers spoke about different topics, but a sermon is spoken from the heart – you speak it to yourself, in a way. If it has not struck you in the heart, it will never strike anyone in the heart. If it does not flow from your mind and experiences, then it will not be conveyed to others, either. Next comes a question I have already touched upon: how to learn to pray not only with words, not only in accordance with the rules, but profoundly, and how to lead others into the mystery of this kind of prayer.

Finally, there is yet another problem. Many people ­– bishops, priests, and laity – came to me after the Council and said something like:

“Look, we were raised under a totalitarian, authoritarian state. We have gotten used to doing what we are told – not to mention that many wait to be told even what to think – and now a new task lies before us. We need to learn how to make decisions and choices, but we do not know how to do this.”

One very well educated and refined man asked me just that:

“Tell me, how is this done?”

I replied:

“If I were to tell you how it is done, then you would still be doing it under control. You yourself need to learn how to think and act according to your conscience, to put yourself at risk (I do not mean on a mundane level), to take the risk upon yourself, of making a mistake. And then to think over what you have gotten right and what you have gotten wrong.”

That, of course, is the most important thing. But then another, related question comes up. It is obvious enough that the Church has been oppressed for many years, although it is unclear whether this period has really ended. But, at the very least, during perestroika, the Church is acquiring a somewhat different status. But does this new status not harbor new dangers of a similar kind? Is this new freedom, however limited, fraught with the danger of further unfavorable developments in terms of the Church’s cooperation with the state?

Political conformism has been a disease of the Russian Church for a long time. Even before the revolution, Church and state constituted, as it were, a single entity – moreover, one that was not always good for the Church. After the revolution the Church fell silent. During the period of oppression and extreme persecution, no one was able to speak out on political matters. And in order to learn how to think politically and to speak politically from within the Church, a long – or, rather, a profound – schooling is needed.

The Church cannot belong to any party, but at the same time it is neither non-partisan nor post-partisan. It should be the voice of conscience, one enlightened by the Divine light. In the ideal state, the Church should be able to say to any party or political current: this is worthy of man and God, and this is unworthy of man and God. Of course, this could be done from two positions: from a position of power and from a position of supreme powerlessness.

It seems to me, and I am deeply convinced of this, that the Church should never speak from a position of power. It should not be one power among others operating in one state or another; it should be, if you will, just as powerless as God, Who does not use force; Who only beckons us, opening up the beauty and truth of things without imposing them; Who is like our conscience, telling us the truth while leaving us free either to listen to truth and beauty or to reject them. It seems to me that the Church should be precisely like that; if the Church should gain the position of a powerful organization, one with the ability to coerce or direct events, then there will always be the risk that it will want to wield power; but as soon as the Church begins to wield power, it will lose its deepest essence: the love of God and an understanding of those whom it is called to save, not to destroy and remake.

Finally, Vladyka, this is an extremely general question, but inasmuch as we know from your books and sermons that you look very deeply at what is going on in life and in the world, tell us how you asses the situation of Christians in the contemporary world with regards to everything that is happening now?

This is a difficult question, because what I would like to say will probably offend many people. It seems to me that the entire Christian world, including the Orthodox world, is now terribly estranged from the simplicity, integrity, and triumphant beauty of the Gospel. Christ and His group of disciples created a Church that was so deep, so wide, and so integral that it contained the entire universe within itself. Over the centuries we have turned the Church into one human society among others. We are fewer than the world in which we live and, when we talk about converting this world to Christianity, we are essentially talking about making everyone, to whatever degree possible, members of this limited society. This, it seems to me, is our sin.

We should understand that the Christian Church and its faithful should be faithful not only in terms of their worldview, but in terms of their lives and inner experiences; that our role consists of bringing light into this world, which is so dark and sometimes so frightening. The Prophet Isaiah, in one of the chapters of his book, writes:

Comfort ye, comfort ye My people [Isaiah 40:1].

These words of God were addressed both to him and, of course, to us. “Comfort ye” means to understand what grief the whole world is in: materially, by its disarray, and spiritually, by its godlessness. This means bringing comfort, God’s kindness, God’s love, and God’s succor, which should envelop the entirety of the human person, into this world. There is no point talking to someone about the spiritual when he is hungry: let us feed him. It is no wonder that someone is mistaken in his worldview, since we have failed to share with him the living experience of the Living God. This, then, is our position in the contemporary world: we are the defendants. The world, in its rejection of God and the Church, says to us:

“You Christians have nothing to give us that we need. You do not give us God; you just give us a worldview, which is quite dubious if it does not have a living experience of God at its heart. You give us instructions about how to live that are just as arbitrary as those given to us by others.”

We need to become Christians ­– Christians in the image of Christ and His disciples. Only then will the Church acquire not power – that is, the freedom to use force – but rather authority, that is, the freedom to speak words that will make every soul tremble upon hearing them, opening up eternal depths in every soul. That, it seems to me, is our position and status today.

Perhaps I am pessimistic about our situation; but, after all, we are not Christians. We confess the faith of Christ, but we have turned it all into symbols. Our Passion services always hurt my soul. Instead of the cross on which a living young Man is dying, we have a beautiful service that can be moving, but that stands between this crude, awful tragedy and us. We have replaced the cross with an icon of the cross; the crucifixion with an image; and the story about the horror that took place with a poetic, musical reworking. This, of course, touches people: one can easily take pleasure in this horror, even experiencing it deeply, growing astonished, and then calming down. However, seeing a living person being killed is something completely different. That stays in the soul like a wound; after seeing it you will never forget about it; you will never again be the same. And this frightens me. In some sense, the beauty and depth of our divine services should be opened up and breached, so that every believer could be lead through this breach to the terrible and sublime mystery of what is taking place.

Yes, that is a very deep thought. After all, the contemporary world is regulated and arranged in such a way that, in principle, it can exist without God and without spirituality. It flows along in its tired manner, allowing one to sleep successfully through one’s whole life and then die.

But what strikes me as more frightening is that one can call oneself a Christian, and spend one’s whole life studying the depths of theology, and never encounter God. One can partake of the beauty of the divine services as a member of the choir or a participant in the services, but never break through to the reality of things. That is what is frightening. The unbeliever still has the chance to start believing; but for the pseudo-believer this opportunity is quite dim, since he already has everything. He can explain every detail of the divine services, of the Symbol of Faith, and of dogmatics ­– but then it suddenly turns out that he has never encountered God. And he is comfortable.

In Leskov, again, there is a passage in which it is said about someone:

“Just imagine! He’s read all the way up to Christ!”

And his interlocutor says:

“Well, in that case, there’s no hope in changing him.”

If only you could “read up to Christ” through the divine services, through the Gospel, through everything that we have, and not remain on this side… I became a believer through the Gospel and through a living encounter with Christ. Everything else came later, and everything else for me remains either transparent – not obscuring from me what I once experienced – or else I react to it with sharp pain. How, for example, during the Passion services can one easily sing certain things that are tragic? How is it possible, for instance, that during the consecration of the Holy Gifts we listen to the music of “We praise Thee,” but do not allow ourselves to be borne away by this singing into those terrible divine depths where the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is taking place? I am not a musical person: I simply cannot understand how it is possible to sing during these moments; it seems to me that everyone should freeze in contemplative terror. And when the words “And make this bread” are heard, I do not even want to repeat the words of consecration. But this, of course, is my reaction; I do not want to say that it is correct, because I know people who are one thousand times more spiritually conscious and gifted than I am who are not concerned about any of this; who, to the contrary, are borne to those very depths. But I also know many people for whom all this [singing and words] is the whole point.

It takes enormous experience of prayer during the divine services for the services to stop existing in and of themselves and to become simply unnoticeable, just as fish do not notice the water in which they swim. I remember an old deacon in Paris, Fr. Evfimy, with whom I once sang and read on kliros. He read so quickly that I could not catch a single word. After the service – I was then nineteen, impudent and self-assured – I said:

“Fr. Evfimy, today you robbed me of the whole service. And what’s worse, you yourself could not have experienced it, reading and singing the way you did!”

He then burst into tears, saying to me:

“Forgive me, I wasn’t thinking about you. But I was born in a terribly poor family in a pauper’s village. When I was seven they gave me to a monastery. Now, for sixty years already, I have been hearing and singing these words. You know, when I see a word, and even before I pronounce it, it’s like some kind of hand is pulling a string in me and my entire soul begins to sing!”

Then I understood that his soul had become a sort of instrument and that the very smallest touch of these words – like the Aeolian harp, which would sing with a touch of the breeze – would make him respond, so that they did not even pass through his mind, heart, or consciousness. These words were already a song, already a religious experience. But, in order to get there, you have to become like that Elder, Fr. Evfimy, whom people laughed at because he had lost his voice and drank too much, and who did not stand out in any way – but his entire soul sang before God. May God grant this to everyone!

So, if anything I have said will be of use to anyone – wonderful!

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