On October 11, 2015, I visited the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, it looked more like a temple than a cathedral church. The first part of the service was prayers, as I walked further into the sanctuary I could hear the prayers being recited almost in a chant like way. The priest who was doing the ceremony had on a robe just the priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Now I was brought up complete different when it came to Christianity, I was taught there is only one god and that you serve him know matter what; nonetheless, I was not taught to pray to saints or the apostles. Therefore, this was a major shock to me because of the way that this church prayed, and how they conducted their service. While I was sitting in the pews, it almost …show more content…
The prayers lasted for about forty five minutes, it was awkward because my husband and I stood out in this congregation. There was not many people there for prayers, except the older generation. Throughout the prayers there was a lot of standing and sitting, and I also noticed that the sign of the cross was being made. At one point I notice that the priest had an incense burner with bells and he was shaking it around the altar, but there was no smoke coming out it the first time. On the platform there was eight stained glass doors of saints or apostles on the front of the doors. Once the priest was done with his prayer to the altar, he came through one of the doors and started to shake the incense burner in front of the doors. After he was done with that he went through another glass door to place the incense burner back. The priest remand behind the glass doors for the most of the …show more content…
The priest explained what his garments meant to the church and why he has to wear these special clothes. After he was done explaining what his clothes meant, it was time for the children to come up and receive their first communion. This is a very traditional service for the Greek community, however, most of the time I saw the congregation making the sign of the cross three times in a row. Most of the time the priest spent his time behind the doors with his back towards the congregation, nor did he really engage with the congregation until he spoke with the
I found this part to be very interesting. Everyone stood while the censing was taking place and the offered up prayers and crossed themselves as the Priest and Bishop walked by. The service concluded with the bishop standing and speaking to the people for a few minutes; he spoke on the importance of the service and he shared some scripture and personal stories. After the service, Father Constantine invited everyone next door for refreshments, and stayed in the nave to answer any of our questions, this time was very helpful to me since this was my first time at an Orthodox church. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience, I learned a lot about the Orthodox tradition.
In its doctrine statements, "the Greek Orthodox church strongly affirms that it holds the original Christian faith, which was common to East and West during the first millennium of Christian history" (Meyendorff 18).
The Catholic Church in the novel is very traditional. Antonio’s church practices old rituals, such as the children attend catechism classes before their first communion. Antonio and his friend Florence are late to one of the classes. This causes Antonio to receive a warning and Florence, a punishment. Florence is required to hold his arms outstretched in the middle of the aisle for the entire class. “”Let us pray,” Father Byrnes said and knelt. We followed suit, kneeling on the rough splintery knee boards of the pew. Only Florence remained standing, holding the weight of his arms, which would become numb
The church external appearance was quite different than other churches that I have seen. It was basically a big white stucco block with a gold dome on top and four decorated spikes on each corner of the building that surrounded the dome. The people of course were all Greek and were very well dressed. Most of the men and boys all wore suits, and If not they had some kind of vest on. I don’t know if this was some kind of rule or tradition, but it mostly seemed as a respect to God. The women all wore the basic dresses, and all the skirts fell down below the knee. Everybody was proper and ordered. As I walked in the church I entered a lobby of some kind. What I saw hear was something like social hour. Everybody was in there. They were all speaking Greek, and I felt as if I was in a family reunion party. The children were all together; the adults talked together and the young adults all were together. The way they all socialize is when someone comes up to say hello, they give each other a kiss on the cheek and a hug. These people are all very close to each other. It seems as if the church is the center of their lives. I admire that trait as well. To enter the auditorium you must enter this little room, which has a piece of garment from St. Constantine and St. Helen. Also there were candles lit. As they walked through this little room they lit a candle and knelt down for a moment to pray, and then touched each garment and made a cross over their chest.
John Neumann Catholic church on Sunday with my friends. The outside of the church has a big cross hanged on top of the building, which is similar to all the Christian churches I saw before. Without mentioning this church is a catholic church, I would not be able to distinguish the difference between Christian and Catholic churches. When I first walked in the church, the interior was beautiful, but I was shocked when I saw a lady kneeling down pew kneeler. Then a group of people who were wearing whites vestment walked with a big cross on their hand, and there was one person who wore green vestment walked in the middle. The mass starts with a song, then a speech, then they talk about the book section. However, I have always heard the rumor that Catholics discourage Bible reading. This mass has proven this stereotype was incorrect. Catholics actually do read the bible and they also discuss about it during the mass. For the most of the time, they discuss the bible reading and sing. Also, as you can see in my Cultural Plunge picture #3, there is a photo of the mass schedule where listed the bible reading assignment for each mass. Towards the end of the ceremony, the priest told people to hold hands and pray, and they also ask everyone to introduce themselves to the people around them. Towards the end of the mass, there were people pass a basket around to collect money. I was a little to confuse about this process, but I believe this basket would be use for some good
Once the service started, my friend showed me where the schedule for the service was and what each number meant. There were different colors of numbers in the book and those indicated what section the reading or song was coming from. This was different from the church that I attend because we have a choir and a band that plays the songs and if you wish to join in you can but for the Catholic Church there is, no choir and the members of the church are the ones who sing. After some singing, the priest came up to talk and this is very different from what I expected. I was used to flipping through the channels and seeing the catholic churches with the priest who were a ...
At last I arrived, unmolested except for the rain, at the hefty decaying doors of the church. I pushed the door and it obediently opened, then I slid inside closing it surreptitiously behind me. No point in alerting others to my presence. As I turned my shoulder, my gaze was held by the magnificence of the architecture. It never fails to move me. My eyes begin by looking at the ceiling, and then they roam from side to side and finally along the walls drinking in the beauty of the stained glass windows which glowed in the candle light, finally coming to rest on the altar. I slipped into the nearest pew with the intention of saying a few prayers when I noticed him. His eyes were fixated upon me. I stared at the floor, but it was too late, because I was already aware that he wasn’t one of the priests, his clothes were all wrong and his face! It seemed lifeless. I felt so heavy. My eyes didn’t want to obey me. Neither did my legs. Too late I realised the danger! Mesmerised, I fell asleep.
They have services on Fridays and Saturdays. I decided to go to their Friday service. The service in its entirety lasted about an hour and a half. The place was beautiful. The place that the service was held, called the sanctuary, was a rather large room. On the sides of the room they had these huge stain glass windows. The seats were positioned in a semi-circle around the stage. The stage was centered in the front of the room. On the stage, towards the back was the ark, which holds the Torah scrolls. I was told at the service that the Ark is placed in a certain area so that it faces Jerusalem. Towards the front of the stage were two podiums where the Rabbi and the Cantor stood. There was a small little table in the center that held 2 candles and 2 loafs of special bread called challah. There were less than 20 people at the service. Everyone was dressed pretty casually. All the men wore Yakamas on their
On Sunday March 12th and 19th, my husband and I attended Holy Trinity St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (HTSN) in Finneytown, Ohio. The church conducts Orthros (Matins) at 8:15 am and Divine Liturgy from 9:30-11:30 am. I chose to attend HTSN for two reasons; first, they host the annual Panegyri Festival and two, learning about the 1054 split intrigued me given the current state of the Methodist Church.
Living in a non-denominational Christian home, I never had the opportunity in experiencing a very formal act of worship such as an Eastern Orthodox Liturgy. With the non-denominational church services being more liberal with worship processions, I was a bit overwhelmed by the formality of the service and the conservative views of the church. I personally did not fall in love with the hymnal chants in comparison to modern gospel songs. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the visual and theological beliefs and traditions of the church. The constant reminder of the spiritual icons in the portraits, vestments worn by the priest and altar boys, incents, and eastern architecture tremendously increased my concentration on worshiping Christ, and made me feel as if Christ’s actual presence was among us. I believe that some churches in America could use more reminders of worship such as portraits, incents, and more strict order in services to gain a more intimate connection with Christ during worship and communion. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the Orthodox Church, and now have a better understanding and respect for other Christian
Proper church décor is necessary for proper worship. Anyone who witnesses an Orthodox liturgy for the first time will be struck by its appeal to the senses. The central actions of the Liturgy are the consecration and distribution of the bread and wine that make up the Lord's Body and Blood, but the images everywhere around are not mere embellishments. Holy icons are an essential aspect of the whole liturgical event. They enhance the beauty of a church. They instruct us in matters pertaining to the Christian faith. They remind us of this faith. They lift us up to the models that they symbolize. They provoke us to imitate the virtues of the holy figures depicted on them. They help to transform and bless us. They serve as a means of worship and veneration (Cavarnos 30).
Everyone was seated on the floor as the ceremony commenced with the blowing of a conch shell, then the curtains were drawn back and the statues of the deity’s appeared. One of the statues was of “Vishnu” and another of his avatar “Rama” and his wife “Sita”, the last one was of “Krishna”. The ceremony was led by a Hindu priest, wearing a white cloth robe and to my surprise was of Caucasian decent. He held an oil lamp in front of the statues of the deity’s, which he moved in a circular motion while chanting the “Hare Krishna Mantra”.
I also thought that I would instantly start doubting my practices and beliefs after attending this church. To my surprise, after this experience was over I still felt the exact same way about beliefs. The most enjoyable part of my experience would have to be the scenery of the church, from the marvelous baptismal font to the paintings in the windows. My least favorite part of my experience would have to be the sermon, and maybe it is because I am not use to listening to a short rushed through summary. It actually felt weird being outside of my comfort zone and being a “foreigner” at a different church. I cannot really say that this visit to this Catholic Church really affected me in any way, but I will say that this was a pleasurable experience to have in my
Our observations took place at Newman’s Catholic Church. In particular, we observed the interactions of a priest for an hour and thirty minutes. We began by observing how he interacted with members of the church for the first fifteen minutes before service began. Then we focused on his interactions with the assembly during service and finally, we witnessed how he interacted with others after mass. During this time a few noticeable differences occurred.
I attended Mass at my local parish, the Parish of St. Francis de Sales, on Sunday, October 9th, in order to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This also happens to be the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time because the priest of the parish, Father Phan, wore green in order to symbolize life, anticipation for the coming of Christ, and hope. The liturgical season of Ordinary Time is also significant because it focuses on the fruits of Jesus’s three-year public ministry, his educational parables, and his extraordinary miracles. The season of Ordinary Time also serves as a reminder that the Church’s mission, our mission, is to not only share the life and hope of Jesus