Orthodoxy?

The Eastern Orthodox Church. Turns out this is a part of the Christian Church that actually exists! I've read about it, but I don't think I actually realized it existed and millions of people are a part of it.

Romania is almost entirely Eastern Orthodox. In some ways it's like in America, where most people would say that they are Christian...or that they believe in God...but way more-so in Romania. It has yet to become popular or really even accepted to not believe in God. Not everyone actually goes to a Cathedral on Sunday, but most all will claim Christian Eastern Orthodox belief.
Here's a little background on the Eastern Orthodox Church: If I have my Church History correct the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church split around 1000AD over a few issues...one of them being a detail in the Nicene Creed about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from just God the Father or BOTH God the Father and God the Son... I think the other issue was that of Icons. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses a ton of icons in their worship...and pretty much everyday life too. (Icons are like pics of Jesus and Mary or of one of the many saints throughout Church History). I believe that's the gist of the reason they split...but I would need to study some more before I took a test on that or something. Dad, do you want to double check that? :-)
So this is very interesting. But the Church's (Capital "C" Church, as in Christ's body) situation here in Romania is also kinda disturbing. The protestant Church here is quite young. And they are viewed as a sect - almost like a cult - by the Orthodox Church. There is tremendous tension between the Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church. They pretty much see eachother as the enemy. Somewhat how Protestants and Catholics stereotypically interact with eachother in the States.

Yesterday the servant team visited an Orthodox Church here in Galati, with Josh and Robin (the servant team leaders) and Joel and Monica (a word made Flesh couple who have become members of the Orthodox Church since coming to Romania 7 years ago...or so). So we went with some pretty who are pretty knowledgeable of the Orthodox Church in order to experience what it was like and understand much more about the Romanian culture etc... It was very different. and cool.
I'll try to paint a little bit of a picture...but I won't cover everything. Part of the problem that leads to much disagreement and fighting between Protestants and Catholics and Orthodox I believe is not so much based on an accurate understanding of their theological differences, but from premature judgments and biases, reacting to that which is different and not understood. Something looks different, so we condemn, often at the expense of legitimate understanding. So, I don't write this so that we can all establish our judgments about the Orthodox Church. I write this to describe my experiences as I BEGIN my understanding of this historic Church and it's carefully crafted theology.

So we walk in to this cathedral at about 9am. We're here for the 2 hours of prayer that precede the actual liturgy. The place is packed with people. There are no seats. Everyone is standing or kneeling or are maybe even closer to lying down face to the ground. The smell of incense is in the air. This amazing choir is singing from a loft 100ft above us. We can't see them at all. The walls of the Church are Completely 100% covered with art - it's pretty much one giant painting. Seems to be of Jesus - different pictures from His life -and of saints and other things from Church History. The Priests and choir are leading the people in prayers. The priests are busy doing things and reading from books near the altar/stage area of the cathedral. I'm sure they wouldn't call it a stage, but that maybe communicates the image better than "altar". We can't understand the romanian, so bummer, but Josh and Robin have a book that gives the liturgy in English, so we'll be able to read about that and actually see what it says for next time. The liturgy that they use today is the liturgy that St. John Chrysostem used back in 400ish AD. Icons of Jesus and Mary and several of saints are placed along several walls and one in the middle of the room. People are pretty much free to do their own thing throughout the worship time. People are crossing themselves, kneeling, kissing icons, singing, looking around, listening and thinking (I'm assuming here lol). It's really interesting. Eastern Orthodox theology believes that worship is a full body experience - thus they try to incorporate all the senses in their worship. I really enjoyed the freedom to kneel and stand up and do whatever with my hands. I felt very free in that regard.
So anyway, there is so much to understand about what they do and why. But apparently in Orthodox theology, there is a reason for everything.
That was exciting. I'm sure understanding Eastern orthodoxy will really help me be a better critic of my own Church experience. This is certainly the hope.
It will be hard though too. There is so much animosity between the protestant and orthodox churches here that I already feel like I'm disappointing and frustrating people that I would even want to look in to understanding orthodoxy.
Please pray for me in that. May God use this to genuinely teach me about Himself - who He is. How He desires to be worshiped. The truth and lies that exist in both orthodoxy and protestantism that I haven't been aware of. Pray for my relationship with my friends here and abroad who might not understand my desire to understand the Orthodox faith.

I'll write more as I know. :-)
I must go eat some of mama lenutsa's good food :-)

ryan