By Fr. Andrew Jarmus
Director of Missions, Education and Communications
Winnipeg, Manitoba

The greatest act of Christian corporate worship is the Holy Eucharist, through which we achieve an intimate union (“communion”) with God and His People. So central is the Eucharist in the life of the Christian, that the first century Christian bishop and martyr, St Ignatius of Antioch, called it “the medicine of immortality and the antidote to death.”

The Orthodox celebration of the Holy Eucharist is called the “Divine Liturgy”. “Liturgy” literally means “the work of the people.” The Orthodox Divine Liturgy is a spiritual ascent. Like the rungs of a ladder, every litany, every hymn, every prayer and Scriptural passage of the Divine Liturgy takes us one step closer to God’s throne. For the person who is entering Liturgy with a receptive and attentive spirit, this mystical ascent is a powerful and life-changing experience.

The Divine Liturgy is not some kind of “holy operetta”, at which the congregation is merely an audience. As we study the prayers and hymns of the Liturgy, we find ourselves repeatedly encountering two words: “we” and “us”. The prayers of the Divine Liturgy are our prayers, the priest saying them on our behalf and the worshipping faithful giving their consent to them with their sung responses.

The Divine Liturgy has two major parts, the “Liturgy of the Catechumens” and “Liturgy of the Faithful“. The key elements of these two are as follows:

The Liturgy of the Catechumens

Before being received into the Church, adult converts to Christianity undergo a “Catechumenate”, during which they learn the basic beliefs and practices of the Faith. We find in the Liturgy of the Catechumens the teaching elements of the service: the Anthems (Troparia) of the Day, the Scripture readings and the sermon.

The Offering of Incense: Incense has been used in worship since the days of the Old testament. It is God Himself who says that offering incense is an appropriate way of worshipping Him: ”In every place incense shall be offered in My name. ”(Malachi 1:11)

Incense has two symbolic meanings. First, it represents our prayers ascending to heaven — as in the words of the 140th psalm: “Let my prayer rise in Your sight like incense.” (Ps. 140:2) Secondly, incense is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the “breath” of God who is “present everywhere, filling all things.” ( Prayer to the Holy Spirit)

“Blessed is the Kingdom”: From the very beginning of the service, the goal of our worship-journey is announced. We are called to make real the Kingdom of God — the place where God’s Will reigns supreme: within ourselves, in our parish community, and in our world.

“Lord, have mercy.”: The first major aprt of the service is the “Great Litany”, in which a series of petitions are made, followed by the response “Lord, have mercy.” No one can boast that he or she is “worthy” of God’s grace. We all miss the mark of holiness and perfection to which we are called by God. He continues to be gracious with us because He is merciful. God’s mercy is the starting point our whole life; it cleanses our sins, teaches us His will, and fills us with His life-giving presence.

We acknowledge the central role that God’s mercy plays in our life by repeatedly petitioning Him for it through the words, “Lord, have mercy”. Our prayers are not demands, but pleas made trusting in the Lord’s mercy towards us.

The Antiphons: The first three hymns of the Divine Liturgy are called “antiphons“. On regular Sundays, the first two antiphons are taken from the Old Testament Book of Psalms. The Third Antiphon, coming from the New Testament, is the Beatitudes, in which we are taught us what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

The Little Entrance: In ancient times, when the Church was persecuted, the holy objects used for Divine services, such as the books of Scriptures, were kept in hiding to protected them from Roman officials who would confiscate and destroy them. When the objects were needed during the services, they would be brought out in processions. The “Entrances“ in our modern liturgies are reflections of this ancient practice.

As the Gospel Book is taken into the Sanctuary — which symbolizes heaven — we are reminded that it is the Word of God which leads us up to Paradise.
When the people reverence the Gospel Book with a kiss, it is not the book itself they are honouring. They show their devotion to the One Whom the book proclaims — Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

The Thrice-Holy Hymn: The Thrice-Holy Hymn is taken from several Biblical visions of the angels worshipping around God’s Heavenly Throne. In the Book of Isaiah we read “And one (angel) cried to another, and said, ‘Holy, holy,. holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” (6:3) A similar account can be found in the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation.

The Thrice-Holy Hymn is sung twice and mentioned one other time during the Liturgy; each reference is at a key moment in our liturgical journey. As we join the angels in their eternal hymn we climb higher and higher, mystically approaching our final destination: the Blessed Kingdom of God.

The Scripture Readings: At every Divine Liturgy we hear two types of Scripture readings. First, we hear the “Epistle”, which includes all of the letters (episltes) of the New Testamaent and the Book of Acts. In these readings we hear the Good News from our Lord’s disciples. Next, we hear the Good News from our Lord Himself in the reading of the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John).

Before the Epsitle reading, a short hymn called the “Prokeimen” is chanted. “Prokeimen” means “that which comes before”, and is used as an introduction to the reading. Most “prokeimena” are excerpts from the Book of Psalms.

After the Epistle, the faithful sing a three-fold “Alleluia”, as a preamble to the Gosple reading. As with the prokeimen, during the “Alleluia”, the reader or cantor will chant short verses that are also taken from the Book of Psalms.

The Litany of Fervent Supplication: In the Great Litany at the beginning of the service, we prayed for the whole world, all people in all places. In the Litany of Fervent Supplication we pray specifically for those people who, either directly or indirectly, are involved in our lives: our Church and civil authorities, our brother and sister parishioners, our families and friends.

The Litany is called the “Fervent Supplication” because our response of “Lord, have mercy” is augmented by a fervent, a three-time repetition to emphasize how important these prayers are to us.

The Liturgy of the Faithful

In the Ancient Church, only baptized believers (the “Faithful”) were allowed to take part in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. In these times of Imperial discrimination and persecution, it was necessary to guard the Christ’s Holy Things from those seeking to defile and destroy them. When the Church was no longer under persecution the practice of allowing only baptized believers to be present for the Eucharist fell into disuse.

The Great Entrance: As with the Liturgy of the Catechumens, the Liturgy of the Faithful begins with an Entrance. The bread and wine offered in the Eucharist are brought forth and placed upon the altar.

During the Great Entrance, the priest prays for our Church and civil authorities, and our parish members, both living and departed, proclaiming, “May the Lord God remember (them) in His Kingdom.” This prayer is based on the words of the repentant thief who was crucified with Jesus: “And he said to Jesus, ‘Remember me when you come as King.’ And Jesus answered him, and said, ‘Very truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:42-43)

The Creed: The Creed was written at the first two Ecumenical Councils in Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381). This document contains the fundamental beliefs of the Christian Church.

The Anaphora: The Anaphora is a long prayer set up in the form of a dialogue between clergy and laity. In this prayer we celebrate God’s works of salvation for the world, which culminate in the saving mission of His Only-Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We also thank God for His great gift of the Holy Eucharist — in which Christ becomes physically present among His people throughout history, and is tangibly received into their lives through the transformation of bread and wine into our Lord’s Flesh and Blood.

The Lord’s Prayer: In response to a request to teach them to pray, the Lord gives His disciples this prayer. Throughout the service, we have called upon God with many names (“Lord”, “Master”, “Holy Mighty and Immortal One”). Now, though, for the first time, we call upon God as our Father. This shows that, as we draw closer to God in the Liturgy, we also enter into an ever-deepening intimacy with Him. This intimacy will be consummated in our reception of Christ into our lives through receiving His Body and Blood in Holy Communion.

Holy Communion: All of our prayers and hymns are to fulfilled in partaking of Christ’s Most-Holy Body and Precious Blood. Our spiritual ascent is then complete, and all that Jesus promises us in the Eucharist becomes ours: “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him to life on the last day. For my Flesh is real food, and my Blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my Blood lives in Me, and I live in them.” (John 6:54-56)

In Orthodox practice, participation in Communion is understood to be the main mark of membership in the Church. Consequently, only those who, through baptism and/or chrismation, are formally members of the Orthodox Church are permitted to receive Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church. Our intention in this practice is not to make anyone feel excluded, but to honour a centuries-old precept that has its roots in the earliest days of the Church‘s history. If would like to receive Holy Communion in an Orthodox parish, it is best to first speak with the parish priest.

By Fr. Gene Maximiuk

It is my honor to present thoughts for your consideration on the subject of “The Role of Laity in our Church”. This is a serious subject and one that you hear about every Sunday, every church meeting, fellowship gathering as well as in discussion groups led by the clergy, parish leaders and each other in your homes or in the local coffee shops.

I would like to approach the subject from 2 angles: One more ‘spiritual’ in nature and one more ‘pastoral’ in nature.

First of all we need to define the word ‘laity’. The word Laity comes to us from the Greek word ‘LAOS’. It means the ‘members of God’s nation’, those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. There is a sacred and priestly character that belongs to the laity. In governing the secular affairs of the Orthodox parish, the laity, men and women, have and exercise rights and responsibilities of a very important nature. They are elected to the executive board of the community, organize and carry out the religious, educational, and philanthropic projects of the community and look after its financial welfare. This secular role we understand, but it is the sacred role of laity that we have forgotten. When we ceased being real Christians, we forgot that we are a nation of priests and kings and prophets. This must be recaptured.

In defining the role of laity in our church, we must look to Christ and his Ministry. Christ had 3 ministries: The High-Priestly ministry, His Prophetic ministry and His Royal ministry. The common feature of the three ministries is that in the Old Testament the calling to these three ministries was accompanied by anointing with oil, and those who worthily passed through these ministries were strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This ‘anointing’ is important for us. Immediately after baptism, an Orthodox child is ‘Chrismated’, receives the gift of the Holy Spirit thereby becoming a layman, a full member of the people of God. All of us become a prophet, king and receive a share in the royal priesthood of Christ: All Christians alike, because they are chrismated (anointed ). By one Spirit we are baptized into one body and we are the body of Christ (the Church) and individually members of it.

We have seen that Christ is our High Priest, that is, the intermediary between God and us; that He is God’s spokesman and our advocate before God; and that this wonderful role is called priesthood. We have also seen that he makes His whole Body, the entire Church and all its members, a part of this priesthood. But the members of the Church must first be clothed in His sanctity. His priestly function must be transferred to them; they must become priests, inheritors of His Kingdom and future kings. St. John tells us in Rev. 1:6;5:10 that ‘He made us a kingdom, priests to His God.’ The church, you and I are a nation of priests; Chrismation transforms every Christian into a priest. This is what we now call ‘the royal priesthood of the laity’ through which Christians become a priestly and royal community.

We must rediscover this: The assembly of Christians bears the permanent responsibility of being the earthly representatives of Christ’s royalty, priesthood and prophethood. As a consequence of our baptism and Chrismation every Christian continues the saving work of Christ in some form. As St. John Chrysostom writes: “Thus you become king and priest and prophet in the washing (of baptism); a king in throwing down all evil acts and destroying sin; a priest in offering yourself to God and sacrificing the body and dying to yourself; a prophet in learning of the future and being filled and sealed with zeal. We are God’s supreme Creation, created in His image and likeness and given dominion over the earth as we read in the 1st Chapter of Genesis, we are all servants of God who participate in the sacramental life of the Church, and we are called to proclaim the Good News that has been revealed to us. Through our participation in the Divine Eucharist, through the love which should reign among us, through our kindness to our enemies, through our firmness in rejection the selfish compromises in which the wicked of this world seek to embroil us and through our witness of faith to all we truly are a priestly and royal community.

As was stated earlier through Chrismation each of us receives the Holy Spirit, a Gift which makes us members of this holy nation. This Gift is the source of all other gifts of the Spirit, which confers a specific responsibility to each of us. Thus the role of bishop, priest and deacon is simply a functional differentiation (functional priesthood) of the fundamental Gift of the Holy Spirit for we all equally receive the grace and energies of God. We all receive the one same Gift of the Holy Spirit(Chrismation), it is that we all have different functions and offices in the life of the Church. Peter Mohyla spoke of 2 priesthoods: one is spiritual and the other sacramental. We all belong to the spiritual priesthood, the sacramental priesthood is chosen from the ranks of the spiritual priesthood as the main agent in the work of the church. It is a functional role.

Just as the famous analogy of the different parts of the body compared to the different gifts of the Spirit used by St. Paul in 1 Cor. 12. We are all given various gifts and talents that are used together to help build up the Body of Christ, the Church. As various parts of a body have specific functions so do we in the life of the Church. Each member has a function and mission that helps the body function as a whole. We are all united then to each other. Just as the Church is ONE, so we are one, sharing in the same experience and reality of our condition before God. What is important to know is that we all have special gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit. For the Bishop, Priest and Deacon, our Ordination to the clergy is our gift given to us by the Holy Spirit. Our function as such is then is our ‘job’ in the Church. We then make up one of the many important parts of the one ‘Body’ of Christ.

One important factor in living the true Christian example is the will. Each of us is created with a free will to choose how we will live. We can try to program charitable acts as much as we want but the end result depends on each member of Christ’s Church constantly and willfully deciding that this is how they want to live. Without this constant assertion of will, no amount of programming in the Church will produce lasting results.

To summarize this section by virtue of our Baptism and Chrismation we are all kings and priests and prophets, it is time to be kings and priests and prophets. We must be the representatives of Christ in this world, continue His saving work. We must become His hands and feet. On the more pastoral level, the role of laity in Our Church is to reach out and minister to each others needs. A poem by Annie Johnson Flint helped me to realize what it means to be Christ’s ministers in the Church:

“Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today; He has no feet but our feet To lead men in His way; He has no tongue but our tongues To tell men how He died. He has no help but our help To bring them to His side.”

Through these words we see that the role of the laity in the Church is to be Christ’s representatives. We are to minister to each other and love each other as we do ourselves.

These next words I also find inspiring:

There’s somebody near you who’s lost on the way, Struggling, bewildered, alone; Somebody who’s tired and weary, to whom The love of the Lord should be shown; Reach out a helping hand.’

That is what we are called to do as our role in the Church: Reaching a helping hand. But the saddest thing about the hands of many Christians today is that they are withered. Yet withered hands, brought to Christ, are made whole. When Jesus saw the man with the withered hand He said,” Stretch out your hand.” And He restored it to wholeness.

Can we not reach out to each other? Can we not extend a non-judgmental hand to our fellowman as Christ did? I think we can, I know we can, and Christ commanded us to do so and we must if we want to attain the kingdom of God.

In Matthew 25:31-46 we learn what our pastoral role in the Church is. We are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and go to those imprisoned. We are urged by Christ to do this for each other, no matter who we are. When we serve each other in this way, we serve God. As the late Metropolitan Ilarion of blessed memory said: Slyzutu Bohovi, to slyzutu Narodovi. To serve God is to serve the people.

I truly feel that the role of the laity in the Church is to, with the clergy, together, create open, loving, and caring communities. Just as a healthy family nurtures and loves each of its members, so must we as parishes do the same. Getting involved in each others lives and making each member feel the Love of God in their lives is one of the most, if not the most important, mission of the laity in the Church. A parish is a family first, not simply an organization. And as one of my parishioners recently said to me: ” Things will not change until we begin to live outside of the church walls what we profess inside the church walls.”

I would like to finally illustrate the role of the laity in the Church by turning to nature. When we think of the role of laity in the church we can learn from geese about what is our role in the Church.

As this fall progresses, look to the skies and look at the geese heading south for the winter, flying along in ‘V’ formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in ‘V’ formation, the whole flock adds at least 71percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily, because they are traveling on the thrust of one another. We are all heading in the same direction in the church, towards salvation. Our role then is to work together and build a sense of community, helping one another to grow and reach their full potential in Christ. There is no room for personal agenda’s in the Church. The only agenda is that of Christ’s.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone- and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front. I f we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those people who are headed the same way we are. When we fall away, we feel how hard it is to go it alone, we can lose hope. We must realize that the only hope is in the Life of the Church, being members of a community that cares for each of its members.

When the head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs, whether with people or with geese flying south. We are all responsible for the life of the Church and must not hesitate to take an active role in leading where we can. The parish cannot grow if the work load is on only the same few people. We all must be active.

Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. What messages do we give when we honk from behind? Are we encouraging, supporting, caring, guiding, and helping? Or are we gossiping, criticizing, back-stabbing, demeaning each other? Are we building each other up or are we tearing each other apart?

Finally- and this is important- when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies; and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their group. If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that. We see the importance of ministering to the needs of each other, to stand by each other and help, reaching out a helping hand.

If one was to summarize the role of laity in our church, I think that all that has been said can be summed up by these words from Christ in the Gospel of Mark 12:30-31. Our role in the Church is this:

‘And you shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.

And the second, like it, is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

A brother in Christ once asked what could be done to ensure that his children would stay with the Orthodox Church once they leave home. As a mother of three grown children, I shared things that worked for our family to help our children to keep attending the Orthodox Church once they left home. Our three children range in age between 30 and 20, all having attended university and college away from home and away from their home church. They all attend church regularly on their own and are involved with their churches, all Orthodox, in various roles and vocations. Mind you, they have not finished their journeys yet, but so far so good.

These are the things our family did that I could think of which seemed to help our children to stay with the Church after they left home. Maybe some of the ideas will not work for your family, but this is what worked for our children. You have to take the personalities of your children into account. What I describe has been the experience of our family in a very generalised form. The Lord has blessed what was done for the children’s benefit in spite of the mistakes that we made and the many places where we failed to do what should have been done. I hope that the sharing of our experience helps someone even in some ways.

It is such a blessing to see one’s children still in the Church when they leave home. May our Lord God Jesus Christ bless and keep the children in the One Holy Orthodox Church as they continue their journeys with Him!

A Parents’ Ministry To Children

1. Church and More Church: We took the children to church, Church school, and Church youth groups as much as we were able to from as early an age as possible. We were involved in our church, Church school, and youth group with them. If it is so important that parents put their efforts there; that says something to the children.

2. Home Lessons: If and when an Orthodox service was not available, we took the time and effort to teach the children ourselves at home. It is possible to obtain Sunday School materials and teach the children yourself under those circumstances. One doesn’t have to be a teacher by profession to use the Church School materials. It is laid out very clearly for anyone to use. When we spent one school year on one of the Gulf Islands, the nearest Orthodox church was hours away. I held church school for all three children at home on Sundays. The youngest was four then. When we came to the city for a weekend, we then brought them to church with us.

3. Teachable Moments and Communication: There are good children’s versions of Bible stories to familiarise them with the events and people of the Holy Scriptures. These made great bedtime story books. We read to them these and other appropriate children’s stories a lot. The children learned to love books and reading so that the Holy Scriptures were easier to read later on.

I watched for teachable moments when we could talk to them about God and His creation or about Jesus Christ and His love for us and all people. Going for walks with the children set the stage for this well. At varying ages, the children had different bedtimes when we could go and tuck them in for the night. This gave a wonderful opportunity to sit and talk with each one alone for a few minutes about their day. It was usually at the bedtime that their concerns or fears revealed themselves, and we could talk about these things then. This didn’t happen everyday, but there were times. Then it was a time to share with them God’s love and care for them, and their uniqueness in God’s creation. It also helped to develop a pattern of open communication with the children.

Eating meals together and also doing chores like dishes with the children also provided communication building opportunities. Once established, then the lines of communication can be maintained throughout their lives.

4. Sunday morning – no sports: When we enrolled our children in a sports program such as little league baseball, which often holds its tournaments on Sunday morning, we specified that we would only enrol our child if he would be allowed to miss games on Sunday morning when we have church services. The organisers were agreeable, and it was understood that our children would not play some Sunday morning tournament games. I remember us rushing home after church so that our son could then join his team and play the rest of the day’s games. It was sufficient for him, and he never complained. But this taught him that church is more important than games to play. His team always welcomed him back happily, and there was no problem with missing games.

5. Disciplined Attendance: If, for some reason, the family missed attending church, the children sometimes expressed resistance to attending the next time. They had tasted the freedom of a Sunday out of church, or some distraction was more fun. We discussed, gently but firmly, that they were a part of our family and stated that the whole family was attending church. We have experienced this with children aged 10 to 14 especially. Once they attended again, they always expressed gratitude for having gone back again. It was sooo easy to ‘get out of the habit’, to become distracted by worldly things. It was good to talk to the children about this, that they noticed ‘how good the Lord is when tasted’ again. It was something that was good to discuss after the refreshing return to worship.

Something to point out to older ones is that even adults struggle with this in their spiritual practices – whether attending church, building a prayer life, or building a devotional time with the Holy Scriptures. Miss a few times, and it becomes less important to go back, but when one does, oh, it is so wonderful to be back. It takes self-discipline, perseverance, patience with oneself, ability to prioritise (i.e. to learn to love Christ above all else), and to be consistent. One tries to do these things.

6. Train them up in the way they should go: We loved the children, disciplined them (tried not to spoil them), taught them to work hard and not to expect all their wants. We taught the children to love, to be self-controlled as much as possible, and to share. These things, learned at a young age, helped them with parallel spiritual lessons later. We taught them to play, to be creative, to appreciate different kinds of music, to know how to fill their own time without ready-made entertainment such as TV. We helped them to learn to be discriminating in their choices of ready-made entertainment. (Complaints about being bored were solved by offering them some work to do instead. It was amazing how soon the children learned to find something to fill their own time in a way satisfying to them when they were offered chores to fill their time! We checked to see what they had found to do and encouraged the solutions that they found. No more boredom! This was their first lesson in ‘redeeming the time’.) We played with the children, and they worked with us as part of the family.

7. Raise your own: When the children were in their most formative and impressionable years, 0 to 4, we didn’t give them over to someone else to raise (and to teach values, attitudes, etc.) That included baby sitters, day care, and play school. I know this sounds drastic today. There were times that we did use baby sitters for a few hours. But my husband was quite definite that we should take the children with us most places that we went, as much as I dreaded it some times! Getting a baby sitter would have been so much easier at times. But now I’m glad that we made the effort to keep the children with us as much as possible.

I didn’t work outside the home until our youngest one was in grade 4. The ideal would have been to stay home full time until all had finished high school, but life isn’t always ideal. Today’s economics practically demand that both husband and wife bring home an income, and, of course, single parents have no choice but to work. You do what you can. Since we were both teachers, we thankfully didn’t need to worry about latch key situations since one of us was always available right after school to be home with the children.

It was very important for the children to learn our values, beliefs, and attitudes from that young age. It is amazing how quickly children learn the things you don’t want them to learn when you give them over to day care or preschool situations. Mind you, there was a trade off. Our children did not have the more advanced social skills when they started school because of their relative isolation from other children. However, there really was little problem with catching up socially once school started. The problem of the social aspect is less pronounced in larger families where there are several siblings with which to interact. Looking back the first child could have benefited from a “Moms’ and Tots’” group where a parent could monitor and observe what is happening around the child but still provide social experience with other children.

However, having learned from an early age to be independent of the social group helped them to develop independence in their decision making. Their decisions were not as controlled by peer pressure. Two of the three children were very resistant to peer pressure through high school and into their college years. It wasn’t so important to them to be like the rest or to be part of the group if the group wasn’t doing what was acceptable. They weren’t socially dependent.

8. Quiet times: Another important aspect was teaching the children to learn to cope with time alone. While our children needed other children to play with from time to time, it was also important for them to learn to play alone. It taught them familiarity with silence, and this is a prerequisite to hearing God. Also they aren’t motivated by desperate loneliness. Those children who are constantly stimulated by sound and many people around them do not learn to appreciate quiet times alone as easily.

9. Sharing love in the Church: We taught the children to love and respect the older generation, other children, and other families in the church. Again by our own example and by discussion, we encouraged the children to pay attention to the elderly and lonely in the church to show them love. This taught the children the human context of love in the Church (in spite of human failings). All it took was going up to someone and saying hello, talking to the person a bit, and giving a hug or hand touch. The love the children received in return impressed them with the reality of the family of God in the Church, of which they became a recognised and beloved part.

10. Getting to know the priest: We invited the priest and his family to our home and the children saw how we interacted with the priest. We let the children spend some time talking with the priest in our home. We arranged for times when the priest was available to teach the children in some context, whether Church school or youth groups, or a youth/children’s day with the priest. We encouraged and arranged for older children to discuss spiritual matters with the priest on a private personal basis. They learned that the priest is someone who is approachable and willing to help them with their questions or problems.

11. Through Protestant Friends: Fortunately, we escaped the scenario where our children might have been tempted by Evangelical Protestant friends to go to their ‘more fun’ church times or Sunday School. Our children had Protestant evangelical friends who did invite them to come to their churches. Our youngest even attended an Evangelical Protestant separate school for several years. This gave us opportunity to discuss the differences in approach to worship and belief between Orthodox and Protestant evangelism. Parents of children with evangelical Protestant friends who make strong and appealing invitations to attend church with them instead of with the family definitely need to enlist the aid of their priest and church school teachers to make them aware of the situation. They also need to have the parish priest and lay educators actively involved in the teaching of the children about the differences “between our church and theirs” in a non-condemnatory way. (Our priest made the completeness of the Orthodox faith a topic of instruction for the older youth group.) After all, these are their valued friends who should not be harshly criticised for their beliefs. One good explanation that I was given is that the Protestant churches are not all wrong in what they believe, but their belief and worship is incomplete. The Orthodox Church has the completeness of belief and worship that we need to obey and worship God.

If the decision to allow a visit to the Protestant church is made, with the priest’s guidance, the parents should go with their children when they are invited. This gives a common base for discussion about what they see and hear there. Discuss the importance of the aspects of worship that were absent from the Protestant church and the errors in understanding about communion, if it is even served. We taught our children that there is an important difference and taught what is lacking in the Protestant setting, and that we do not lack in the Orthodox setting. Again, the priest and the Church school teacher should also be involved in this process of explaining to the children.

Also, the visit should be reciprocal as well so that the Protestant friends should come to our church in the exchange with someone to answer their questions about what they saw and heard.

Orthodox children need to realise that their baptism into the Orthodox Church makes them part of the Orthodox Church family. One worships with one’s family, not with a strange family. For younger children this is much like visiting family members with love; they visit their own cousins and grandparents, not their non-family friends’ cousins and grandparents for family celebrations. The Divine Liturgy is the celebration within the family of God, which they joined at baptism. There is a time to have fun with friends, a time to be with family at home, and a time to be with the family of God they belong to in the Orthodox Church. Above all, the family priest should be involved in helping the children to overcome the temptation of going to church with the Protestant friends instead of the family’s Orthodox church.

Firmness without proper teaching will not keep our children from wandering off from the Orthodox church. Don’t let the children be fooled by the over-emphasis on fun and emotion in Protestant youth worship group settings. Emphasis in Orthodox worship is the joy in the Holy Spirit which lasts. Fun is temporary and depends on the situation and entertainment only. There is a time for fun and play in children’s lives, but there is also a time to learn to worship, to respond to God with an attitude of giving of oneself rather than with the attitude of waiting to be entertained or only to take something away. Our children learned to experience peace and joy through learning how to reach out to our Lord in the ways provided within our Orthodox worship. They were guided in learning to participate in worship to become joyful worshippers, and that in the giving of themselves they received peace, joy, and more love for others as well as a sense of being loved by God. This happened in varying degrees at various times but they were able to experience worship and a living relationship with God. After this, they said that attending Protestant churches was a very unsatisfying experience not to their preference at all. They could sense the lack in the Protestant worship since they had been taught what to look for.

12. Consistory sponsored special presentations for youth: We also took our teens to presentations provided by our Church Office of Missions and Education and St. Andrew’s College about characteristics of cults and other topics. These are authoritative presentations for our youth, are well presented, and impress our youth while providing much needed information. It is well worth the time, money, and effort for youth to attend these.

13. Navigating the problem waters: When things became less than perfect on the church scene, we tried to speak lovingly and graciously about the people involved, to be an example of Christ’s love and forgiveness to the children. We didn’t leave the Church, cut back on attendance, withhold our financial support, show disrespect for the priest or other Church members, or refrain from helping in situations that were challenging to Christian love. Each of these actions would have taught the children a negative message about the Church itself. The children were watching us navigate the church waters and learned our attitudes and values in those situations, hopefully merciful ones. The children learned that the Church is something one doesn’t leave for any reason.

14. Active Church life for Children: We arranged for children and youth to have an active role in church worship and activities. They need to feel a part of the Church community. For example, when our ladies’ group felt overworked, the youth took over preparing, serving and cleaning up the fellowship lunches after Divine Liturgy. The women were relieved and the youth (with supervision from two mothers) did an important job very well. We welcomed children and youth to the choir, and youth had rotating Sunday duties in the services. Youth and children helped with church cleaning, gardening, did visitations to the shut-ins, went carolling at Christmas at Seniors’ Homes, member and adherent homes. We helped the children live an active, productive, sharing and caring Church life along with the adults. We let older children become mentors for children in the younger children’s group to interact with them. We encouraged our children to participate in the Eucharist by example and instruction.

15. The Cultural Context: Because our Orthodox Church has a strong Ukrainian cultural context, we also taught our children the culture and the language as much as we were able so that they would feel comfortable within that context. They also learned to love their cultural identity and cultural ways. We sent them to Ukrainian School, dance groups, and Summer Ukrainian Immersion courses later on. As parents we supported and were involved in helping with such cultural teaching groups that our children and others were involved with. However, cultural considerations alone are not the things that keep our children in our Church. It is the strong, living faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and a right understanding of our Orthodox Church that keeps our children faithfully in our Church whether they speak the language well or not. It is the strong faith that then supports the cultural aspects out of love. A strong dedication to the cultural aspects has not kept the baptised young people of our Church for the last two generations, and it will not keep children in the Church without a true and strong faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. How true are Christ’s words: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”(Matt.6:33)

16. Building a Support Network away from Home: When the opportunity arose, for the middle and high school age children, we arranged for them to meet with other Orthodox youth from sister churches to interact with them. We took them to summer church camp, to the church affiliated Institutes for summer Ukrainian language courses, conferences, youth jamborees and other gatherings. This showed the children that their church experience wasn’t just a local phenomenon and that others shared this experience with them. It reinforced the validity of the experience for them as well as providing new opportunities for them to share the Orthodox Christian experience with new friends. It provided opportunities for our youth to meet other priests, lay people, and youth from other locales so that they would have a ready network of people they knew to fall back on when they would leave home. Making visits to other sister Orthodox churches when we made family trips away from home helped to provide this, too. Going to church on Sunday or on feast days was on the holiday agenda. This modelled the behaviour for the children of attending a church other than your home church.

17. Prayer corners and all: When they were home and old enough, we provided them with an icon corner in their bedrooms, their own Orthodox Study Bibles, prayer books and other Orthodox reading material to encourage private devotional and prayer times. When they left home the icon corners, Bibles, prayer books and other books went with them.

18. College area contacts: When the children left home to college they had someone in their new area to contact them about attending Church, to give them a ride, to be a friendly welcoming face in another strange congregation. (They each chose a different city in which to study!) We contacted adults – some family, some friends – that the children already knew in the college area and asked them to contact our children to support their first experiences to a new congregation.

19. Living at the Home away from Home – a Ukrainian Orthodox Institute:Since they all stayed at one or other of the church affiliated Institute residences for Ukrainian Orthodox students, the contact adult sometimes was the rector at the Institute. Some of the institutes have daily morning and/or evening chapel services. Some arrange rides to the city churches on Sunday morning. Whatever form it takes, there is an Orthodox Church presence at the Institutes. It all helps. Being the independent, newly-free-from-home young adults, they usually found their own ways to church after the first few times.

20. College days follow-up: We weren’t afraid to ask the children about the frequency of church attendance they were practising and when they had gone to Communion last. We encouraged without judging misses. We reminded them of the feast days and sent or brought them things they needed to celebrate special church customs away from home (My mother mailed me the paska and babka when I was at university so I could make my own basket for Easter morning away from home. I did the same for my children when they needed it.)

21. Living our faith: To help the children, in general, we needed to be as consistent as we could in our own practice of Church life, including the children, including teaching them by word and example why this was important to our lives. It all worked together, everything and all that we did with the children. We lived our faith in front of the children and with them in as many ways as we could remember or knew to do (and this was not done perfectly or even very well by any standard!)

22. Pray, pray, pray for the children: I had to learn that the children were given to us by God and that our care of the children was for Him; we raise them for Him and His glory. I yielded the children to God’s care also in prayer. Like Hannah who gave Samuel back to God, I had to learn to yield the children to God’s ownership, care, and service.

23. Journeying to God with your children: Mind you, we never started with this ‘program’ planned out ahead of time. Some parts of it were done intentionally, and others just happened. It was a learning experience for us – a most challenging one at that! It is much easier to look back now and see what we did do and what effect it had on the children. In general Christian home life, Church life, and prayer were the three keys that I believe helped our children to stay in the Church. When I say Christian home life, it was rather minimal compared to what could have been done. We were beginning our own spiritual journeys learning about our own lives with Christ while we were raising the children. We did not regularly pray before meals or pray together as a family or read the Holy Scriptures together as we could have. These were done in a very haphazard manner usually singly and more privately. The children watched the constant reaching forward toward God as we were learning to strengthen our own relationships with Christ.

24. By the Grace of God: I feel that it was really the Lord Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit that had most to do with the spiritual development of the children. As parents we led the children to the Church and nudged them in the direction of the Church. It was more the case of setting the stage for the children to learn that they are in God’s presence, to learn to worship Him, to learn to respond to Him for themselves. After all, these were baptised children who bore the seal of the Holy Spirit, who were attended by Guardian Angels. (At the same time we were setting the stage to learn these things more fully for ourselves as parents!)

There is a mysterious way that children have communion with Christ and learn from Him. In general, I think we don’t give children enough credit for their capacity for spirituality. In many ways they are more sensitive to the Holy Spirit than most adults, before the children have yet had the chance to learn how to be insensitive to holy prompting. It was important to provide the right setting for the children to respond to the love of Christ when they were able to do so more easily as little ones. Children have a great hunger for a spiritual life. Guidance and teaching helped them to maintain the progress as they grew in a setting that helped them to continue their journeys with God in the Church, by the Lord’s grace, love, and mercy. They learned to love Jesus Christ and His Church, and the people in it along with the cultural context in which the faith was expressed. One doesn’t leave what one truly loves.

– A sister in Christ

Among the BISHOPS, The Ecumenical Patriarch (Patriarch of Constantinople — the First Among Equals) is addressed as “His All-Holiness (name)” in writing or reference, and as “Your All-Holiness” in direct address.

• The Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Romania are addressed as “His Beatitude (name)” in writing or reference, and as “Your Beatitude” in direct address. The Patriarchs of Moscow, Serbia, Bulgaria and Georgia are addressed as “His Holiness (name)” in writing or reference, and as “Your Holiness” in direct address.

• Primates of Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches are addressed as “His Beatitude,” or: “Your Beatitude”.

• Metropolitans and Archbishops are addressed as “His Eminence, The Most Reverend Metropolitan” or “Archbishop (name), ” or “Your Eminence”.

• Bishops are addressed as “His Grace, The Right Reverend Bishop (name),” or “Your Grace”.

All PRIESTS are addressed when speaking as “Father (name)”.

• Among the monastic clergy, Archmandrites and Ihumen (Abbots) are addressed in writing as “The Right Reverend Archmanclrite” or “lhumen (name),” or, more rarely, as “The Very Venerable Archmandrite” or “lhumen (name)”.

• Among married clergy, Protopresbyters and Mitred Archpriests are addressed in writing as “The Right Reverend Ptrotopresbyter” or “Mitred Archpriest”, and Archpriests (Protopriests) are addressed in writing as “The Very Reverend Archpriest” [or Protopriest] (name)”.

• Other Priests are addressed as “The Reverend Father (name)”. Hieromonks (monastic clergy) are addressed in the same way, or, more rarely, as “The Venerable Father (name)”.

DEACONS are addressed as: “Father Deacon” or “Father Protodeacon” (married clergy) or as: “Father Hierodeacon” or “Father Archdeacon” (monastic clergy).

• In writing, Deacons and Protodeacons (married clergy) are addressed as “The Reverend Deacon (name)” or “The Reverend Protodeacon (name)” Hierodeacons and Archdeacons (monastic clergy) are addressed as “The Reverend Hierodeacon (name)” or “The Reverend Archdeacon (name),” or, more rarely, as “The Venerable Hierodeacon (name)” or “The Venerable Archdeacon (name)”.

In general, when addressing Orthodox clergy, we use their first name, not their surname. In writing, we may write their name and surname. If the person is a Monk or a Bishop, then the surname has to be put into parenthesis.

by Rev. Fr. Andrew Jarmus,
Director of Missions and Education, UOCC,
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Ask an Orthodox Christian what the difference is between Orthodoxy and other Christian Churches and you will probably hear as many answers as people you approach. While it is true that our Faith differs in many ways from Western Christian systems of belief (worship, spirituality, doctrine, etc.) there is one major difference that sets us apart from all the rest. Actually, this unique characteristic of Orthodoxy was present (and perhaps still is to some degree) in all of Christendom. However, in our modern, humanistic, and relativist society, it has been all but forgotten by most of the so-called followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This characteristic is the quality of servitude/obedience. In every divine service we attend, we are called to follow the example of the Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and all the Saints, in committing “ourselves, one another and our whole life to Christ our God”. The key phrase in this proclamation (or rather instruction) is “our whole life”. The Holy Scriptures and Tradition of our Church has a unique and uncompromising challenge for us — a complete dedication to our God, Jesus Christ.

This call to devotion flies in the face of the Western concept of individual freedom. In our society we are taught that all people must decide for themselves what is right or wrong, productive or unproductive, functional or dysfunctional. Most of the Western Christian Churches have gladly hopped on the “relativist” band wagon. The acceptance of practicing homosexuals into ministerial positions; the solemnizing of gay and lesbian marriages; the belief that marriage is simply an option for those who wish, while cohabitation is acceptable as well, and the complete lack of direction (or even concern) in matters of spiritual growth and doctrinal truth are all symptoms of mainstream Christianity’s embrace of secular relativism. “Do your own thing,'” the call of the societal fringe in the 1960’s and 70’s has become the basic precept for life in the western world in the 80’s and 90’s.

This is not to say that Orthodoxy does not hold personal freedom and as an important trait and unique of humankind. However, the Church understands that we are in a world contaminated in its very fabric by sin and death. These two maladies maintain such a tight grip on humanity that they even effect our very judgment of what is right and wrong. The Holy Fathers and Mothers of our Church teach us that, in an attempt to avoid the pain of death and the desolation of life without God, people panic and cling to whatever they can find that floats in the sea of spiritual and interpersonal turmoil that the world is today. More often than not, they find themselves clinging to the remains of systems of belief that have long since taken on water and sunk into the depths of the chaos and confusion. Floundering along, without direction or nourishment, they often ask themselves, “How much longer can I hang on?”

There is hope, though. In this sea a ship, an ark, cruises. This ark is the One True Church of Jesus Christ, driven by the wind that is the Holy Spirit of God, and kept on course by the Rudder that is the Holy Tradition of the Faith. This Ship searches out those ho are floundering, ready to throw them a line and lift them us to where it is dry, safe and warm. The key, though, is that we must be willing to get into the Ark. Too many times, afraid of committing our “whole life to Christ our God”, we choose instead to just hang on to the line and be dragged along in the water. Again, eventually, we ask, “How much longer can I hang on?” Tragically, some of us even choose to let go, instead of making the climb to the deck.

We are afraid to make the climb because it means rising up out of the water; it means turning away from the delusions, fads and fancies that society calls “civilized” living. Particularly, it means giving up on the notion that I know what is best for me, what is right for me, and therefore I can “do my own thing”. Taught from childhood that we are the primary locus of determination in our lives, the idea of giving up, even to the Will of the Omnipotent and Omniscient God, is foreign and even frightening. Nevertheless, this offering up of the self is the primary move in becoming a true disciple Christ. In fact, it is the pivotal event that offers us a chance at finding true meaning and purpose in our existence.

This is not to say that we no longer think for ourselves; rather, in all our plans, hopes and situations, we add the phrase “God willing” — “God willing, we will buy a new house;” “God willing, I will finish University next year;” “God willing, we will be married next month.” If something is God’s will, the Christian has complete assurance that it will happen; if something is not God’s will, he/she knows that it is for the best that it did not happen, and asks the Lord for guidance in making the next step in life. The Holy Mothers and Fathers of the Church speak of the great spiritual and emotional serenity that comes with this conviction. No longer does one lose sleep over the outcome of an endeavor; one simply does the best job one can, and leaves the success or failure of the work in the Lord’s hands, knowing that either way, the result is part of God’s providential care for the world.

This conviction, that in all things we must rely completely, implicitly on God’s Providential care, is not a new idea to Christianity. But, for the most part it was forgotten long ago in the West. The mistrust in God’s Will and activity in the world lead Western Christian scholars to come up with quasi-scientific theories on how bread and wine can (or in some cases cannot) become the Very Body and Blood of Christ. It lead some Christian factions to give up infant baptism — the greatest gift parents can give a child, next to its very existence itself. In recent years it has turned Christian ministry and ordination into a political issue, a lever of power, instead of looking at it as the life-calling to one of a myriad of forms of ministry in the Church. In most of Christendom the politics of power, personal and societal, has taken the place of the call to selfless love and service of God and neighbor.

Our Holy Orthodox Church, however, has never let go of this all-important Christian precept. To be a Christian is to be a disciple (an imitator of Christ). In all things Jesus taught that He did not seek or carry out His own will, but the will of the Heavenly Father (see the Gospel of St. John 5). We too must seek not our own will, regardless of how good our intentions are, but the Will of God for us. This is the great point of divergence between Eastern and Western Christianity, and a great challenge of all Orthodox women and men. To “commit our whole life to Christ our God” is not an easy endeavor, but then, our Lord never said following Him would be easy. Without this complete dedication to God, we cling on to drift wood in an endless sea of corruption and fallacy. Difficult though it may be, our total devotion to Christ is the one Truth pathway to authentic meaning and peace in life.

By Fr. Andrew Jarmus
Director of Missions, Education and Communications
Winnipeg, Manitoba

In our modern world, one of the most debated topics is the state of the family. Generally, if we listen to the radio or watch television, we find two opposing groups represented with their respective views on family.

First, we have those on the left of centre, generally represented in the media by those who would minimise the importance of family, if not “deconstruct” it altogether. For these, the individual reigns supreme. Those who embrace the concept of family are looked upon with either contempt or pity (depending generally on their gender), as either the protagonists or victims of an oppressive, out-dated, “patriarchal” societal institution.

On the other side of the discussion, we find the right-wing, who present their highly-specified image of the “ideal” familial situation. Listening to these people, or reading their literature, one would surmise that all families — to truly be called families, should consist of “dad and mom” (both in their first marriage and preferably high-school sweethearts), a couple of kids, a dog or cat (preferably both), a house with a picket fence and a station wagon or mini-van. People who do not, or cannot, fit this model are looked upon as “okay” people, who are destined to make do with what they have, pining to fit in.

Not everyone who sits left or right of centre holds these extreme views. However, if we base our opinions solely on what modem media reports about the family, we cannot help but surmise that all liberals want to tear the family apart, and all conservatives want people to be clones of the Cleavers or Cunninghams. Left without any perspective from their own tradition, modern Orthodox Christians are left to pick from one of these sides.

The tragedy for us is that both of these opinions do not capture Orthodox Christianity’s understanding of the definition, role and responsibility of the family. Left with secular ideas alone, the whole Orthodox concept of marriage and family gets left on the wayside. This, in turn, leads to the kinds of misunderstandings and negligence towards the Mystery of marriage and family life that we hear of so much in our parishes. Here is an example of what I mean:

One day I was meeting with a woman and her mother about preparations for the daughter’s wedding. The mother, born and raised Orthodox in the “old country”, said to me: “Father, we want to have a traditional wedding. ”

“That’s great,” I said, pleasantly surprised, since I usually have to work through a number of misunderstood issues (such as why we do not allow doves to be released during the service).

“Yes,” she said, “we would like my husband to walk her down the aisle, and then you ask the couple, ‘Do you take her to be your lawfully wedded wife?’ and the rest, you know.

If our Orthodox people do not even understand the rite of Marriage, which takes a little over an hour, how can we expect that they embrace the “Great Mystery” of matrimony and family life which unfolds over a lifetime?

In this article I would like to discuss the Orthodox Christian understanding of family from a very special and important perspective: the understanding of the family as the bearer of tradition.

The Family as Tradition-Bearer

Put very simply, the concept of family as tradition bearer, defines a family as a group of people who embrace and pass on a common story. This “story” can also be called the family’s “tradition.” The very word ‘tradition” comes from a Latin term meaning “to pass on” or “to pass down;” we find similar terms in Creek (“paradosis”) and Slavonic (“peredania”).

Here we must make a cautionary note. In the West, the concept of tradition is popularly seen as something static, archaic, monolithic. In the East, tradition is a living, responsive thing. Put simply, while Western Christianity generally sees tradition as a noun, the Christian East sees it as a verb.

Thus, when we speak of the family as bearing a tradition, we are not speaking of something that is imposed upon family members, whether it fits or not. Rather, we are speaking of a living message, a dynamic witness of: (1) who we are; (2) how we came to be; (3) where we are going; and (4) how we get there.

Taking the example of the Orthodox Christian Church Family, our Holy Tradition bears witness to our belief that: (1) we are the Church, the Bride and Body of Jesus Christ (2) we became (become) Christ’s Bride and Body through the Holy Trinity’s saving actions (its grace) in the world; (3) as the Bride and Body of Christ we seek an intimate union with our Head and Bridegroom in His heavenly Kingdom; and (4) we achieve this union through the struggles of “purification”, “illumination”, and “deification”.

The First Mark of a Family: We Embrace a Common Story

In this understanding of family as tradition-bearer, we see two aspects. The first is that a family is a group of people who embrace a common story or tradition, highlighting its identity, goals (i.e. “telos”), and responsibilities. This idea echoes the words of the Holy Apostle Paul: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by our epistle” [2 Thes. 2: 15 ].

For a family to be complete, all members must identify themselves as embracing the common story. This does not mean that one has to know the whole story, or have a complete intellectual understanding of it, to be identified as part of the family. Rather, one has to be receptive to the story, as a child who is always receiving messages about behaviour and attitudes.

In the liturgical life of the Church, the vehicle “par excellence” through which we identify ourselves as the family of God is the Creed. In the Creed we identify ourselves as children and creatures of God the Father, we speak of all that God the Son did “for us and for our salvation”, we affirm our anticipation of the Second Glorious Coming of Christ “and life of the world to come”, and we acknowledge the importance of participation in the Holy Mysteries “for the remission of sins”.

It is in this spirit that the Symbol of Faith (the Creed) is understood as an integral part of the Baptismal service. These words would have been particularly profound for our forebears, who would have first uttered them the day of their Baptism and Chrismation. By these words, the candidate declares his or her affirmation of the story of God’s People of the New Covenant. To embrace the story, then, means to believe in it, and to live by it, to let it form us.

The Second Mark Of A Family: Passing The Story On

Embracing the story, though, is only part of what it means to be identified as a member of a family. The act of embracing is an introspective movement; it is directed towards ourselves. If we are left only embracing, we are not members of the family, but consumers or parasites of it. The second element of the Orthodox definition of family leads us out of ourselves, and brings us into our relationship with the world. This is the importance of sharing the tradition with others.

The familial responsibility for passing on the story, the “tradition”, to others is grounded in the Holy Scriptures. In the New Testament, when Jesus sends the Twelve Apostles out on their first Evangelistic mission, He exhorts them: “Freely you have received, Freely give” [Mt. 10:8 ]. Likewise, that which we have freely received from those who have come before us, we are called to freely give to those who come after us.

We find a similar understanding of family as a bearer of tradition in the Old Testament. One of the primary devotional tools of Judaism is the Shema– which is a compilation of Scriptures speaking of God’s Covenant with Israel; it is the Old Testament equivalent of the Creed. Part of the Shema is taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter six, verses four to nine. This Scriptural passage clearly shows the importance Israel placed on families passing on their story to subsequent generations:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, anti with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and your shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and where you rise… And you shall write them on the door posts of your House and on your gates. ” [RSV]In a similar fashion, the Church Fathers teach that this idea is at the very heart of God’s command to Adam and Eve: “increase and multiply” [Gn. 1:28]. St. Gregory of Nyssa said that “increase” in its very essence meant “grow in perfection,” and “multiply” meant “share the way of perfection with all humanity: “Let not the knowledge regarding God be confined to only one person. Rather, let the Gospel of salvation be declared to the whole earth”.

Likewise, St. John of Damascus says: “The command “Be fruitful and multiply” certainly does not refer exclusively to multiplication through marital union. It is necessary that we understand the lawful commandment more spiritually. For there is a spiritual seed and a conception which takes place in the spiritual womb through the fear and love for God, and it labours and delivers a spirit of salvation.”

True “fruitfulness” then, is not based on whether or not one is married, or whether a married couple can have children. Rather, “fruitfulness” is based on how faithfully and how well one is able to pass on the tradition one embraces down to others. In a similar vein, when we speak of “fatherhood” or “motherhood” in Orthodoxy, we speak not only of biological or legal states, but, in their very essence, we speak of those who faithfully pass on the story to others. It is in this fashion that we speak of the priest as “father,” and likewise call the Saints our holy fathers and mothers.

On the other side of the relationship, our “children” become all those who receive from us, and embrace, the story we are passing on. It is for this reason that it is not inappropriate to include the petitions for healthy children in marriages of older believers. Their “children” might not be the product of biological reproduction, but they can be the product of proclaiming the Gospel through Christ-centred living.

What Constitutes a Family?

Having said this, we now come to an interesting and important conclusion. Based on the definition of family as tradition-bearer, we can say there is wide scope in the Orthodox Christian vision of what a family is. Indeed, the most familiar definition of “family” would be mother, father and children. But in Orthodoxy a family can be any group of people that embrace and pass on a common story of who they are, how they came to be, where they are going, and how they got there. Thus, for example, a monastic community is a family; this is why we speak of monks and nuns in “familiar” terms — father (“abba”), mother (“amma”), brother and sister.

Another example of this can be found in the history of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the 17th and 18th centuries in Ukraine we find the emergence of groups of married Faithful who dedicated their time and effort to the enrichment of Church life. They would give financial and material assistance to the Church, and organise Christian philanthropic efforts in their local communities. These groups called themselves “Brotherhoods”.

A modem example of how Orthodoxy views the family can be found in response to a debate which has emerged on the Internet about the ancient Christian rite of “Bratotvorennya” (“The Making of Brothers”), which is referred to in a book by the historian John Boswell (Same Sex Union in pre-Modern Europe.) Boswell’s assertion is that this service is an ancient Christian rite of same-sex marriage. Needless to say, this idea has created a fair-sized stir among both homosexual and homophobic Orthodox Christians. We cannot agree with Boswell that this rite constitutes a same-sex marriage service, because it does not contain the acts of Betrothal or Crowning, which are essential in the Orthodox Mystery of Matrimony. However, based on the idea of family as tradition bearer, we can accept that, through it, two men or two women become “family”. That is, united in bearing a common tradition, they became “brothers” or “sisters,” and take with them into this new relationship all of the implications of these terms. This calls to mind Jesus’ assertion that His true mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.

A final, modern example of how the idea of “family as tradition-bearer” is manifested in Orthodoxy is the “Rite of Adoption,” which is found in some English-language Orthodox Service Books. Through this rite, adoptive parents and children offer their relationship to Christ, asking for that which has been effected legally through the civil adoption also to be effected spiritually by Divine blessing. The Prayer at the Bowing of the Heads for this service states:

“Master, Lord our God, Maker of all Creation, through Adam You forged the first bond of natural kinship in the flesh. Through Christ Jesus, Your Beloved Son, You, O our God, made us Your kinsmen by grace. To You, to Whom all things are known before they take place, these Your servants have bowed their heads, asking Your blessing. As they enter into this bond of parent to child, grounded in Your Fatherhood, may they know the hoped for blessings, discharging their duties in a manner worthy of this new state and of their adoption in You. So that in this, as in all things, Your all-holy name may be glorified, with that of Your only-begotten Son and of Your Holy Spirit, now and always and forever and ever [sic]”By stating that the relationship of the adoptive family is “grounded in the Fatherhood of God,” we acknowledge the common Source for who we are, how we came to be, where we are going, and what we need to do to get there. It is this grounding ultimately that makes any group of like-minded believers family. Thus, in the “Lords’ Prayer” we call upon God as “Our Father” and not “My Father.”

What Does this Mean for Us?

We can see, then, that the idea of tradition-bearing is central to the identity of the family. The way in which we personally embrace our story, and our effectiveness in passing it on to others, greatly influences the way we live in our families and how we teach our “children” to live in a family. To conclude then, let us now discuss what the idea of family as bearer of tradition means for us, in our families.

The first thing we must accept is that every family has a “tradition.” This idea is supported in social sciences in the “System Theory” of family dynamics and therapy. Family Systems Theory states that, in our families, we all learn certain “rules” of behaviour. These rules govern both our actions and our inner attitudes, teaching us about who we are, how we got here and where we are going, which we can identify as the “tradition” which each family bears.

Related to this reality that every family bears a tradition is a second, very important point. The “tradition” which we embrace and bear is not always a healthy one. Family “tradition” can be, and naturally should be, life-affirming. The ultimate example of a life-affirming tradition, of course, is the Gospel. However, a family can also bear life-taking traditions, such as cycles of abuse or addiction. It is not unusual to hear of a person swearing as an adolescent never to fall into the same kind of dysfunctional relationships they saw their parents have, only to follow exactly in the footsteps of mother and father as they themselves get married.

As parents, godparents, grandparents, spiritual parents, we must keep in mind that we are always “traditioning” attitudes and actions on to others, both verbally and thorough non-verbal signals. I recall once, when I was a seminarian, a young priest with two young children asked me, as the son of a priest, what the most important thing I thought a priest could do for his family. I told him that there must be a consistency between what his family hears him preach at the Divine Services and what he “preaches” by his words and actions at home. If there is no consistency, then the message is that our “Church life” and our “real life” are two separate things.

This awareness of our tradition-bearing must shape how we live our lives, both in our immediate family, and in the greater family to which we belong. As Christian family members, we must take on the responsibility of doing two things. First, we must embrace whole-heartedly the Orthodox Christian Tradition with which we identify ourselves. This involves holding and learning the Tradition unconditionally, without compromise. If we look upon even certain elements of the Faith as “up for negotiation,” then we are traditioning the idea that all Faith is up for negotiation.

Secondly, we must share that which we embrace in ways which are tangible and meaningful for our family. Modern psychology agrees that ritual increases family cohesion, the family’s sense of “we-ness”. Some of the means by which we embrace and pass on the tradition are general — such as attending worship together, having a family rule of prayer, keeping fasts and feasts. Other means will be more unique; these can include both cultural expressions of the Faith (such as Paschal eggs, for example), and unique family-specific rituals (for example, a tradition of helping out at a soup kitchen every Thanksgiving).

Also, as Christians, we must remember that we belong to a wider family as well; consequently, we must apply these two precepts which we mentioned, to our wider understanding of family. We embrace the story of the family whole-heatedly, then, not only for ourselves, not only for our kin, but for our parish family, and also for the “family” of the whole human community and the whole of created nature. This is why, for example, the Eucharist is so all-encompassing; that is, we offer the gifts “on behalf of all and for all” (this is especially evident in the Eucharistic Prayer of St. Basil the Great). This is because the Eucharist is the ultimate proclamation and affirmation of who we are, how we came to be, where we are going and how we get there.

Likewise, we must be willing and ready to share the Tradition with all those who seek it out, in ways that will be meaningful for them. This is where language and an awareness of cultural values are of utmost importance. In North America, this work has a two-fold characteristic. First, it involves maintaining those expressions that are meaningful for those who already identify themselves with the family. Secondly, this work involves forming meaningful expressions for those on the outside of the historical Orthodox cultures, who are seeking entrance into the Orthodox Christian family. This work involves a polarity between the spiritual treasures of our “ancestral homelands,” and those potential treasures of our new home; this is the delicate balance the Orthodox Church in North America finds Herself seeking to keep, in our day and age.

In our world we find the family is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted of all entities. We are boldly told that it is both politically incorrect to use words such as “father,” “mother,” and that those who live outside of the “mom, dad, and the kids” model are either pining to get inside, or spiritually faulted. Often we will hear both messages in the same periodicals or television shows.

Orthodoxy, as usual, provides a refreshing balance in the midst of these extremist views. First, we fervently assert that families are not just those people related to us through genetics or legalistic contract. A family is those who identify themselves as one by embracing and passing on the common story. For Orthodox Christians, this “story” is the Gospel, as expressed through Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition.

Moreover, we maintain that, at its very core, the family is a God-given body, based on the Fatherhood of our God Himself. For this reason, families can have many “appropriate” forms. And in the end, sharing the same Fatherhood, we are all called to live as brothers and sisters, maintaining the Tradition of healing and peace handed down to us by our God and Father.

In fact, Orthodoxy maintains that there is only one True family — the family of God, the “House of Israel,” and all other families are iconic representations of this Family. This reality is a profound and powerful one, leading us to be able to embrace even those who hate us, calling them brother, as we sing during the Paschal Matins. Because, at our core, we all share the common Source of who we are, how we came to be, where we are going and how we yet there — God the Father Almighty, the Maker of all things, visible and invisible.

by Rev. Fr. Andrew Jarmus,
Director of Missions and Education, UOCC,
Winnipeg, Manitoba

When one hears the word “family” the first thing to come to mind, probably, are those people to whom one is related by blood or marriage. The Church, though, presents us with a wider understanding of family. A family is any group of people who embrace and pass on the same story of their identity, their beginnings and their ultimate goal or destination.

It is in this respect that we call all of the components of the Orthodox Church a family. Parishes, monasteries, dioceses, local Churches, and the world-wide (or “Ecumenical”) Church are all families. We all share a common understanding of who we are — or rather, to Whom we belong — in bearing the name “Christian”. Likewise, we all confess a common origin, or Originator: God. Finally, we all express hope for a common goal: everlasting life in God’s Kingdom.

Of course, each component of the Ecumenical Orthodox Family also has its specific identifying factors. Ukrainians, Greeks, Arabs, Russians etc. all have their own specific self-expressions of the Orthodox Faith. These “specifics” make each Orthodox nation or jurisdiction an Orthodox “Nuclear Family” in the world-wide Family of Orthodoxy. Likewise, right down to the parish level, we find nuances of difference among Orthodox communities. While we have a tendency to automatically judge these differences as threats, they should rather be celebrated as signs that the Holy Spirit is still breathing life into them–as long as these differences do not compromise the fundamental doctrines and practices of the Orthodox faith.

In the end, however, regardless of the nuances of difference among us, we all share one common vision of Who it is that we follow, how we came to be, and where we hope to end up in the age to come. It is this that unites us as a family. Whether I am looking at an Orthodox Christian from the other side of the planet, or one from my own parish who holds differing opinions about Church politics, I am not looking at some foreign usurper. I am looking at my brother or sister in Christ.

In a world in which we can become so fractionated as Orthodox (we need look only as far as our ancestral homeland Ukraine for an example of this), it is vital to remember that it is Christ Himself who calls us to unity. That Orthodox Christians of all political stripes and historical backgrounds regard each other as members of one Body — of one Family — is not based on someone’s political agenda: it is the very will of God Himself.

From material supplied by Reverend Fathers
Taras Makowsky,
Gene Maximiuk,
Bohdan Hladio,
and Andrew Jarmus.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)

The Origins of Death

From the Book of Genesis, we find that human beings were not created to die. Living in intimate fellowship with God, humanity was to live forever by God’s grace. When we became unfaithful to God, disobeying His will through sin, our relationship with Him was severed. Since sin cut us off from Him who is the very Source of our life, with sin, death came into the world. [Genesis 3:19, Romans 6:23]

The pain we feel concerning the death of a loved-one stem from an awareness deep within us that we were made, not for death, but for life. The experience of death is not “natural”, but is a part of the fallen world. However, though the loss of a family member or friend is painful, we have the promise that this condition is not permanent.

The Resurrection of the Dead

Because of Christ’s death on the Cross, and His victory over death by His Resurrection (see Romans 5 & 6), we need no longer see death as the absolute end to our existence. Rather, death, in the light of Christ’s glorious resurrection, is viewed as a time of repose (“resting”) in the Lord.

Knowing deep within us that death is not part of the world as God intended it, we understand that these situations are worthy of our tears. However, we do not weep as those who have no hope [1Thess. 4:13-17]. We weep for the loss of the relationship we had with the departed, but in our hearts, there must be a certain peace—and even joy!—that our deceased loved-ones have gone to be at rest with the Lord. Moreover, our faith in our Savior assures us that He will resurrect us once again, reuniting body and soul and granting us transformed or “transfigured”/”spiritual” bodies that will no longer be vulnerable to pain, sickness and death. [see 1 Corinthians 15:35-44].

Why pray for the dead?

From the time of the Apostles, Orthodox Christians have offered prayers for the dead. They are offered because the Church is one, consisting of members both on earth (called the “Church Militant”) and in heaven (the “Church Triumphant”). Since, as members of the Church, we are obligated to pray for each other, there is no reason why we cannot pray for the dead.

The effect of our prayers for the dead is neither to “communicate” with them as in some kind of “seance”, nor to “send them to heaven,” but to provided spiritual comfort for both the deceased and for the grieving survivors. Our memorial prayers also reminded us of our own eventual death and our responsibility to prepare for it and to be ready for it. Trusting that God in His mercy will hear our supplications, we repeatedly offer up prayers for our beloved dead.

The Funeral Rites

The Open Casket: In the order of the funeral service is the remains of the deceased are to be blessed with holy water, the absolution prayer is read and then placed in the hand of the departed, and at the end of the service all the faithful are to proceed forward to give a final kiss to the departed. None of this is possible with the casket closed. These are all very powerful statements of our belief. To make all of this impossible by having a “closed casket funeral” is to impoverish our faith.

Even secular grief therapists, who have no religious background speak of the importance of the bereaved seeing the body of the departed loved one, and getting closure by saying their good-byes. Such a practice has been part of the wisdom of the Church for two centuries.

The Psalms: Integral to the funeral service is the chanting of Psalms, hymns found in the Old Testament. The introductory chant is Psalm 90 (91), which speaks of God’s firm promise of blessing and protection for all who have placed their trust in Him. Three sets of verses with refrains from Psalm 118 (119) speak of God’s great goodness and our utter dependence upon Him and His Law, which guides us through all the days of our life. Psalm 50 (51), a prayer of repentance, appeals to God’s steadfast love, compassion and gracious mercy for cleansing and forgiveness.

The Saints: As well as praying to the Lord directly, we petition His Saints to intercede for our departed loved-ones, entreating the loving-kindness of Christ, Who seeks us out and saves us. We ask God to grant rest to the soul of the departed “among the saints, where there is no more pain, sorrow, or suffering.”

The Prayer of Absolution: This is a prayer that the priest reads over the deceased in church, asking God to forgive every sin which the person has committed in his/her life, known and unknown, whether committed out of malice or weakness.

Fruit and Braided Bread (Kolach): Jesus said: “I am the bread of life” [John 6:35]. We express this reality by the use of bread during the funeral service. This bread is made in the form of a circle which symbolises eternity. A candle is placed in the loaf (the top loaf, if there are three) as another symbol of Christ, the Light of the world.

The fruit reminds us of our calling to be Christians not only in belief, but also to in producing the fruit of good works.

Kolyvo—boiled wheat and honey: Wheat is used as an expression of death and resurrection. Jesus said: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit” [John 12:24]. The honey or candies that are mixed into the Kolyvo are reminders of the sweetness and bless of eternal life that will follow our resurrection.

“Memory Eternal”: This hymn is taken from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion. The Lord is crucified with two thieves—one mocks Him with the crowd gathered to see Jesus on the cross, but the other repents of his sins and says to Jesus, “Remember me when You come in Your Kingdom.” [Luke 23:42] Jesus replies, “Very truly I tell you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.” [Luke 23:43] As we sing “Memory eternal” for our departed loved-ones, we are saying, “Remember them, Lord, when You come in Your Kingdom”.

The Last Farewell: Also known as the “Last Kiss”, this is the time for the people to say farewell to the mortal remains of the departed. Again, not denying the reality of death, the funeral rite invite everyone present to come and personally say farewell to the deceased.

Alive in Christ!

In its essence, the Funeral rite is a service of the resurrection. The hymns and prayers of faith and hope speak of life in Christ—eternal life bestowed because of faithfulness to god throughout our earthly pilgrimage. They are of profound spiritual beauty. In them, we encounter the awesome holiness of God who has established both us and the departed on the firmest of foundations—the rock of faith. In many respects, the funeral service may be properly called a service of thanksgiving for final liberation—the passage from physical life into the fullness of spiritual life and entry in the Promised Land.

Blessed is the way in which you walk
today, O soul; a place of rest has been
prepared for you. (Funeral Prokeimen)