Meagan Jackson - Church Visit #2

Church name: Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Christian Church

Church address: 28W770 Warrenville Rd, Warrenville, IL 60555

Date attended: 10/11/2015

Church category: Orthodox Christian Church

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

I attended an Orthros at Holy Transfiguration, which is a worship service focused on the psalms and prayer. The service started as the priest moved throughout the room with incense. There were two chanters who periodically read from Scripture or chanted parts of traditional liturgy. Six psalms were read, and throughout this time the congregation would chant “Lord have mercy” and “Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and into ages of ages.” There was a short reading from the gospel about the women who visited Jesus’ tomb after he had risen from the dead, and a time of remembering saints, councils, and when different icons were made.

This entire worship service was centered around liturgy, which is different than my usual context. It was also different that the priest was behind the iconostasis and usually faced toward the altar.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

The most interesting part of the service was how differently it reflected the divinity and majesty of God. Because of the incense, the gold, the chanting, it was as if you were standing before a king that you must approach with humility. The content of the liturgy also contributed to the contemplation of God as Majestic and completely other, as the most common idea was about our need for God’s mercy. Because the priest was always facing the altar and focused on Jesus, who is depicted on the altar, the focus of all the action was on Jesus and worshipping him, not on how to encourage Christians to do more or believe the right thing.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

The most challenging part of the service was the prayer to Mary the mother of Jesus. I grew up attending several Catholic masses, and I always ignored the parts of Catholic theology that worship Mary as one without sin. As I went to this Orthodox church wanting to participate in their worship, it was challenging to come upon a prayer that I did not feel like I could participate in because I did not understand the Orthodox theology behind this prayer. This experience made me wonder whether there was any discussion about this worship of Mary in the early centuries. If there was so much emphasis on how to worship and speak about Jesus correctly (and so much debate about how divine Jesus was), it seems like there would have also been debate about Mary. So I want to learn more about this.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

This service very clearly expressed the connection of the church to churches of the past. This connection was expressed through continuing the use of traditional liturgy. The liturgy does not seem to have changed much since it was initially established, and I heard a lot of the phrases and words that we have talked about in Christian Thought (“theotokos,” “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” etc.). The service also acknowledged all of the thought and work that went into forming these traditions. They thanked God for calling people (such as Basil the Great) to his church in order to help people find truth. Overall, the service as a whole reminded one that the communion of the saints is a large group of people from many centuries, and we must all come together as people in need of the mercy of God. God is so other that without the help of many Christians, we are not able to worship him correctly, in spirit and truth.