Hodge Podge Traditions
By KellyT | January 13th, 2009 | Category: Bringing Church Home, Featured, Side Features |
As a convert from evangelicalism, the biggest struggle I have with Orthodoxy is carrying the rhythm of the liturgical year from church to home. Not by any lack of desire…I simply often don’t know how.
The strange thing for many of us converts is that Orthodoxy is a faith that is so rich that it can sometimes be overwhelming. And so much of this richness comes from cultural experiences of Orthodoxy from throughout the ages that it can often just seem, well, foreign.
A dream of mine is that the Orthodox church in America will someday have it’s own unique expression of the faith. I do believe that when that day comes, it will be much easier for many of us to bring the rhythm of the liturgical year into our homes. Much more natural because it won’t seem foreign or new…it will be like putting on a comfortable pair of very old and cozy pajamas.
Until then, though, I have adopted a very hodge podge method of bringing the liturgical year home. Lots of research and lots of creativity makes for interesting, meaningful and fun expressions of the faith in our home.
Being married to a graduate student who specializes in Medieval and Byzantine cultural interaction, we decided to lean toward the middle ages for our Epiphany/Theophany celebration. A good breath of the west and especially appropriate as we are living in the heart of East Anglia right now.
Go ahead and take a look at our family celebration. May it inspire you to develop your own traditions and help pave the way for our own unique cultural expression of Orthodoxy in years to come.
Please feel free to link or share your own family expressions of the liturgical year at home. Let us help one another in this journey.
I hope you all had a wonderful Twelve Days of Christmas and I wish you a very happy Epiphany season!
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Part of what made me seek out “something else” besides my past-protestant faith was the fact that the evangelical, protestant churches I knew were very busy “doing their own thing” and making up their own liturgical practices and traditions. In the present day, everyone is doing something different and this leads to the divisiveness we now find in the church and Christianity in general. When I found the Orthodox church, it was a breath of fresh, ancient air, and I experienced great relief to be worshiping the way the Holy Apostles did, and following the traditions established by Christ Himself and by His followers. Part of the unity of the Orthodox faith is the fact that we ARE all following the same ancient traditions and practice of the faith, the ways established by our Lord and His Apostles. So while I understand your statement, “A dream of mine is that the Orthodox church in America will someday have its own unique expression of the faith,” I would urge caution that this not be misunderstood and that we Orthodox lapse into the same mistakes as our evangelical brethren.
On the other hand, there doesn’t seems to be a lot of historical evidence that helps us to ascertain that one, ancient way in which “Christ Himself and … the Holy Apostles” celebrated the liturgical feast of epiphany with their relatives and children. Each Orthodox Christian family I know incorporates the liturgical year into their home life in a particularly unique way; and almost always their particular celebrations are colored by their ethnic cultural background. As I have read this blog, that seems to be KellyT’s goal: to give expression to her family’s celebrations and provide a forum for others to share theirs. Interestingly, I have yet to meet a Jewish Orthodox Christian family who uses the sorts of traditions that Christ and the Apostles would have been familiar with, so it seems that it is actually the case that part of being an Orthodox Christian is to intentionally give “native expression” to the Ancient Traditions handed down to us. Indeed, most of the music that those of us who attend a Russian Orthodox Church find so moving is based on 19th century “western” harmonies! Those who convert from a “western expression” of the Christian Faith to Eastern Orthodox Christianity are not asked to renounce their nationalities and ethnicities. For a monastic expression of how one can be fully integrated into the Ancient Faith and still remain “very American” (for instance), take a look at the Monastery of St. John of San Francisco in California, where their choir director publishes the hope “that with time, an organic American Orthodox musical tradition will emerge that is rooted in the richness and variety that has been passed on to us.” As Orthodox Christians we submit to our bishops, adhere to the Tradition of the Church in Word, Creed, Liturgy, and teachings of the Fathers and so do not make “the mistakes of our evangelical brethren” (by which I believe you meant schisms); but there is, and historically always has been, great room for diversity of expression within Orthodox Christianity. To paraphrase John Moschos, God clothed the meadows in millions of colours of flowers and the diversity of those colours are pleasing to Him.