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Attending a new Church for the first time can be a little intimidating, especially if you're not familiar with the way that particular Faith tradition worships.  When it comes to Orthodoxy, the worship is different than any other Church you've probably attended.  To help you prepare for your first visit, and give you a good idea of what to expect in this ancient Christian way of worshipping, here are 10 tips.

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1. What’s all this commotion?
During the early part of the service the church may seem to be in a hubbub, with people walking up to the front of the church, praying in front of the iconostasis (the standing icons in front of the altar), kissing things and lighting candles, even though the service is already going on. In fact, when you came in the service was already going on, although the sign outside clearly said “Divine Liturgy, 9:30.” You felt embarrassed to apparently be late, but these people are even later, and they’re walking all around inside the church. What’s going on here?

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In our Orthodox parish the church Divine Liturgy is preceded by a half hour time of chanting the Psalms called the Hours.  There is often no break between these services—one begins as soon as the previous ends.  So, don't worry if you get there at 9:30 and if feels like you're late.  You're not. 

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As a result of this state of continuous flow, there is no point at which everyone is sitting quietly in a pew waiting for the opening hymn to start, glancing at their watches approaching 9:30. Orthodox worshippers arrive at any point from the beginning of the Hours through the early part of the Liturgy, a span of well over an hour. No matter when you arrive, something is sure to be already going on, so there's no need to feel like you're late for the service.  

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Try to arrive before 9:30, as the parking lot tends to fill up pretty quickly.  We have a couple of spots for visitors, so they may still be available.  If the lot is full, there are places along the street to park. Please be mindful not to block any portion of the driveways of our neighbours.

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2. Welcome to our home!

When you enter the Church, a Greeter will be there to welcome you and give you a Visitor's Package (which contains information about our parish).  They will then give you a Liturgy book, and may even help you find a seat.  If you get lost in the book, don't worry about it; everyone does at first.  Just ask someone around you what page you're on.  Feel free to also put the book down and just listen, look around, and soak it all in. Dosteovsky once said, "Beauty will save the world."  During the Divine Liturgy, you will experience the beauty of the iconography, the singing, the liturgical movement taking place in the altar area, the aroma of the incense.  Take it all in.  It's very ancient, and very moving.  

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3. Stand up, stand up for Jesus
In the Orthodox tradition, we stand up for nearly the entire service. In some Orthodox churches, there won’t even be any chairs, except a few scattered at the edges of the room for those who need them. St. Herman's has chairs, and while most people stand for the entire service (sitting only for the short sermon), everyone is welcome to sit if they need to rest their legs.  Long-term standing gets easier with practice. We like to joke that it takes several weeks to acquire your "Orthodox legs". 

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4. In this sign
To say that we make the sign of the cross frequently would be an understatement. We sign ourselves whenever the Trinity is invoked, whenever we venerate the cross or an icon, and on many other occasions in the course of the Liturgy. But people aren’t expected to do everything the same way. Some people cross themselves three times in a row, and some finish by sweeping their right hand to the floor. On first entering a church people may come up to an icon, make a “metania”—crossing themselves and bowing with right hand to the floor—twice, then kiss the icon, then make one more metania. This becomes familiar with time, but at first it can seem like secret-handshake stuff that you are sure to get wrong. Don’t worry, you don’t have to follow suit. Just look around and take it all in.

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We cross with our right hands from right to left, the opposite of Roman Catholics and high-church Protestants. We hold our hands in a prescribed way: thumb and first two fingertips pressed together, last two fingers pressed down to the palm. Here, as elsewhere, the Orthodox impulse is to make everything we do reinforce the Faith. Can you figure out the symbolism? (Three fingers together for the Trinity; two fingers brought down to the palm for the two natures of Christ, and his coming down to earth.) This, too, takes practice.  As a visitor or newcomer you are not required or expected to be making the sign of the cross (although you are certainly welcome to if you want).

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​5. With love and kisses
We kiss stuff. When we first come into the church, we kiss the icons (Jesus on the feet and other saints on the hands, ideally). You’ll also notice that some kiss the chalice, the acolytes (altar servers) kiss the Priest's hand when they give him the censer, and we all line up to kiss the cross at the end of the service. When we talk about “venerating” something we usually mean crossing ourselves and kissing it.​

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6. Blessed bread and consecrated bread

While Communion is reserved for Orthodox Christians, you are welcome to come up in the line-up to receive a blessing.  When you come to the Chalice, you simply say "just a blessing, Father."  The Priest would then make the sign of the cross over you with the Chalice, asking God to bless you.  You are then welcome to kiss the base of the Chalice if you want to.  On the other hand, you may choose to not come up for a blessing at that time, and that is totally fine as well. Whatever you're comfortable with.

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After receiving this blessing (or receiving the Holy Eucharist, if you are Orthodox), you would then walk to your left or right (depending on which line you're in), and come to an altar boy holding the basket of blessed bread. This "blessed bread" is not the Eucharist, and guests are welcome to receive a piece.  People will sometimes take portions for themselves and for visitors and non-Orthodox friends around them.

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Visitors are sometimes offended that they are not allowed to receive Communion. Orthodox believe that receiving Holy Communion is broader than me-and-Jesus; it acknowledges faith and acceptance of the ancient teachings and faith handed down through Holy Orthodox Church during the past 2000 years, obedience to a particular Orthodox bishop, and a commitment to a particular Orthodox worshipping community. There’s nothing exclusive about this; everyone is invited to make this commitment to the Orthodox Church. But the Eucharist is the Church’s treasure, and it is reserved for those who have united themselves with the Church. An analogy could be to reserving marital relations until after the wedding.

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We also handle the Eucharist with more gravity than many denominations do, further explaining why we guard it from common access. We believe it is truly the Body and Blood of Christ. We ourselves do not receive communion unless we are making regular confession of our sins to a priest and are at peace with other communicants. We fast from all food and drink—yes, even a morning cup of coffee—from midnight the night before communion.

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This leads to the general topic of fasting. When newcomers learn of the Orthodox practice, their usual reaction is, “You must be kidding.” We fast from meat, fish, dairy products, wine and olive oil nearly every Wednesday and Friday, and during four other periods during the year, the longest being Great Lent before Pascha (Easter). Altogether this adds up to nearly half the year. Here, as elsewhere, expect great variation. With the counsel of their priest, people decide to what extent they can keep these fasts, both physically and spiritually—attempting too much rigor too soon breeds frustration and defeat.

 

Nobody’s fast is anyone else’s business. As St. John Chrysostom says in his beloved Paschal sermon, everyone is welcomed to the feast whether they fasted or not: “You sober and you heedless, honor the day…Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast.”

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The important point is that the fast is not rigid rules that you break at grave risk, nor is it a punishment for sin. Fasting is exercise to stretch and strengthen us, medicine for our soul's health. In consultation with your priest as your spiritual doctor, you can arrive at a fasting schedule that will stretch but not break you. Next year you may be ready for more. In fact, as time goes by, and as they experience the camaraderie of fasting together with a loving community, most people discover they start relishing the challenge.

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7. Where’s the General Confession?
In our experience, we don’t have any general sins; they’re all quite specific. There is no complete confession-prayer in the Liturgy. Orthodox are expected to be making regular, private confession to their priest.

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The role of the pastor is much more that of a spiritual father than it is in other denominations. He is not called by his first name alone, but referred to as “Father Firstname.” His wife also holds a special role as parish mother, and she gets a title too, though it varies from one culture to another: either “Khouria” (Arabic), or “Presbytera” (Greek), both of which mean “priest’s wife;” or “Matushka” (Russian), which means “Mother.”  At St. Herman's, the priest's wife is called Matushka.

 

8. Music, music, music
About seventy-five percent of the service is congregational singing. Traditionally, Orthodox use no instruments.  At St. Herman's a choir leads the people in a cappella harmony. 

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This constant singing is a little overwhelming at first; it feels like getting on the first step of an escalator and being carried along in a rush until you step off ninety minutes later. It has been fairly said that the liturgy is one continuous song. What keeps this from being exhausting is that it’s pretty much the *same* song every week. Relatively little changes from Sunday to Sunday; the same prayers and hymns appear in the same places, and before long you know much of it by heart. 

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9. Peter, Paul ... And Mary!

While the Orthodox Church has always honoured it's Saints (heroes of the Faith) throughout history, we have a special love and honour for Mary, the Mother of our Lord.  We often address her as “Theotokos,” which is an ancient Greek word meaing “Mother of God.” In providing the physical means for God to become man, she made possible our salvation.

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But though we honor her, as Scripture foretold (“All generations will call me blessed,” Luke 1:48), this doesn’t mean that we think she or any of the other Saints have magical powers or are demi-gods. When we sing “Holy Theotokos, save us,” we don’t mean that she grants us eternal salvation, but that we seek her prayers for our protection and growth in faith. Just as we ask for each other’s prayers, we ask for the prayers of Mary and other Saints as well. They’re not dead, after all, just departed to the other side (and much closer to God than we are). Icons (paintings of Christ and the Saints) surround us to remind us of all the Saints who are joining us invisibly in worship.​

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​10. Where does a Canadian fit in?
Doing a Google search for Orthodox Churches in Edmonton will provide you with about 15 different options: Greek, Romanian, Antiochian, Serbian, Ukrainian and so on. Is Orthodoxy really so tribal? Do these divisions represent theological squabbles and schisms?

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Not at all. All these Orthodox churches are one church. The ethnic designation refers to what is called the parish’s “jurisdiction” and identifies which bishops hold authority there. There are about 6 million Orthodox in North America and 250 million in the world, making Orthodoxy the second-largest Christian communion in the world.

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The astonishing thing about this ethnic multiplicity is its theological and moral unity. Orthodox throughout the world hold unanimously to the fundamental Christian doctrines taught by the Apostles and handed down by their successors, the bishops, throughout the centuries. One could attribute this unity to historical accident. We would attribute it to the Holy Spirit.

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Why then the multiplicity of ethnic churches? These national designations obviously represent geographic realities. Since North America is also a geographic unity, one day we will likewise have a unified national church—an American Orthodox Church. This was the original plan, but due to a number of complicated historical factors, it didn’t happen that way. Instead, each ethnic group of Orthodox immigrating to this country developed its own church structure. This multiplication of Orthodox jurisdictions is a temporary aberration and much prayer and planning is going into breaking through those unnecessary walls.

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The liturgy is substantially the same in all, though there may be variation in language used and type of music.

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At St. Herman's, while we have people from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds (Kenyan, Filippino, Russian, Mexican, Ukrainian, Greek, Moldovan, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Chinese, British, etc.) all of us worship together in the common language of English.  In fact, St. Herman's was specifically started in 1978 to be the first all-English Orthodox Church in Edmonton.  

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Orthodoxy may seem very different at first, but as the weeks go by it gets to be less so. It will begin to feel more and more like home, and will gradually draw you into your true home, the Kingdom of God. I hope that you will come visit us at St. Herman's soon. 

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Each Sunday, after the service (the Divine Liturgy), we always have a coffee hour, either downstairs or outside.  Please stay to have some coffee and food.  It will give the Priest a chance to meet you and your family, and you can ask any questions you might have.

 

SUNDAY SERVICE 9:30 am

 

9930-167 St. (Edmonton, Alberta)

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adapted from an article by Frederica Mathewes-Green, entitled "12 Things I Wish I'd Known"