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Participant-Observation of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church
by Greg Scheer

Since I was gone most weekends, I couldn’t observe consecutive Sunday services. Instead, I visited a Saturday wedding and a Sunday mass. This turned out to be a fortunate turn of events, as I was able to observe two very different moments in the same church’s liturgical life.

There was a remarkable difference between the wedding and the Sunday mass. The wedding was almost entirely in chant (in the same mode, often with a drone), while the mass was in a four part almost Russian style. More of the wedding was sung in Greek. There also seemed to be more intentionality on the part of the congregation. This may have been due to the nature of the wedding—it was the marriage of two prominent families, so there was a certain amount of pomp. Also, one of the priests may have been “imported” from the Greek Orthodox Church for the service.

The wedding was beautiful in its universality. In an age where many couples are writing their own vows and combining their favorite wedding elements like a liturgical Mr. Potatohead, this service stood out in its historicity. One got a real sense that the service was a worship service. Also, the liturgy served to not only join the individuals, but to join the couple to the larger community of married couples throughout history. It invoked the names of biblical (and fruitful) couples and doing so joined the couple to that heritage.

The Orthodox tradition was synthesized with modern culture. The chant, vestments, architecture, incense, and language bespoke a commitment to tradition (even an archaic commitment), but there were a number of concessions to modern culture. A particularly jarring example of this was the performance of Malotte’s “Lord’s Prayer” in the middle of the wedding. Also, the use of a sound system was a bit disconcerting in the context of an a cappella liturgy. In the Mass, the use of four part Western harmonies broke the mystery I had experienced the day before, and frankly raised the musical difficulty to a level for which the four cantors were not prepared. Finally, the lead cantor’s vocal style was informed more by Broadway than Byzantium. Periodically it was overly sensuous for the context.

High mass, evangelical fervor and a joyful coffee hour. It was interesting to note that the mass itself made almost no attempt to adapt itself to the people in the pews, especially the visitor. However, at a “debriefing session” after the service, two church members (one of whom was a convert from Calvinism) answered our questions in a warm manner, attempting to make us feel at home with what we had just experienced. The church’s community seems to wait until after the liturgy to participate, with lots of laughter, conversation and baklava.

Ethnicity. The general make up of the congregation was Greek. However, there were some Anglos. Interestingly, there were also some Africans, who I later found out were Copts and Ethiopian Orthodox who took part in this parish until their own churches formed in the area.

Communion. There was an interesting insider/outsider issue surrounding communion. Esther went up for communion, and only found out later that the Orthodox Church only accepts those at the table who have been baptized into their church. Often, the unity that we assume is not extended by others.

My shattered evangelical expectations. As an evangelical, I have strong expectations that individuals will invest themselves in their worship and faith. This didn’t seem to be the case at St. Nicholas. For example, I have an image in my mind of a young man returning from the Table, nonchalantly chomping on a chunk of bread. I understand that there is an issue of consecrated versus blessed bread, but this seemed a bit too relaxed. In general there seemed to be a lack of intentionality among those in the pews. Perhaps I shouldn’t expect such an emotional investment from the worshipers—maybe that’s just my worship culture. Perhaps there is a lot going on underneath the surface, or perhaps taking part in the ritual is truly forming their piety.

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