Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 March 2006 11:14:18
I had another one of those moments when having just walked into church, I felt like going straight home. The order of service thing had a little explanation of what to do for forgiveness Sunday, (otherwise known as Cheesefare Sunday which is a lame name me thinks as far as religious days go.) Mention was made of prostrating before and venerating an icon, then kissing the priest and asking forgiveness.
The more I thought about it, the cooler I thought it was to say "Forgive me a sinner" to the priest. And he says the same back. It really forces home that, yes, I am a sinner, and I'm nowhere near as perfect and blameless as I sometimes assume myself to be. Saying "Forgive me a sinner" out loud to someone else makes real my need for forgiveness from Christ. It's a good focus in the weeks before Easter.
As for the prostrating: I wasn't sure what was involved there, but it didn't sound good. And venerating an icon: so far I've got out of doing that.
At the end of the service we had a little demostration. The icon was a Crucifix. Phew. I can handle kissing a cross. That's Jesus. I know Jesus. The prostrating though. It was worse than I thought. Stand infront of the icon, cross yourself, get down on your knees and touch your forehead to the ground, then stand up and do the whole thing twice more. Then prostrate before the priest (people seemed here to just touch the ground, or bow a bit - the last a bit more Australian) ask for forgiveness, and then kiss each other three times, once on one cheek, then the other, and back again.
A prayer was said, as it each night, of lent Ian has it here with prostrating, those visiting our church from other established Orthodox churches, probably people who have grown up Orthodox, were down on the floor, prostrating during the prayer. Those new to the Orthodox church were making very half hearted attempts to touch the floors while still standing between the pews.
Then a few brave souls went up for the forgiveness ritual. And I spent a considerable amount of time, having already decided at the beginning of the service that whatever I had to do I would do, saying, "come with me, I can't go by myself, there's a big queue now, we'll just blend in with all the others who don't know what they're doing."
We did it. Then I sat down and thought, now I feel like a Muslim. I see quite a few similarities with Islamic services.
It sounds like Ian's church does quite a bit of the kissing thing, but we don't. I think maybe the ethnic (Greek, Russian, Serbian etc.) Orthodox at our church may kiss each other three times when they meet, but no one else. As I've said before, kissing is a big deal in the Orthodox church.
It's all strange, it's all weird, but it's all good. Doing something physical, a bit of peer pressure to do it too, really helps make Christianity real. There's no point in hearing a lovely challenging sermon, and then going home to ponder it, or being one of a few to go down the front for an altar call to be singled out to ponder things a bit more.
I wished today (before all the prostrating bit) that I'd love to bring all the wibbloggers along to an Orthodox service one day. Maybe one day, we can all go to a service on the same Sunday. Now that would be cool.
In the meantime, let me greet you with a brotherly kiss or three...