You might be right on that.. Maybe we threw 'the baby out with the bathwater'.
Maybe some of this IS cultural like the kissing of a hand. Nope.. I am not there with that yet lol
It's ok. You don't have to be.
God knows the heart and knows how He is leading us.
I merely offered it as an illustration.
I think there are some things I am not convinced about but are not stumbling blocks to me but the icons.. that's a big block
It was a big one for me too. But that's why I prayed a great deal about it, and it took a little time.
Another big stumbling block for me was the Theotokos. Ironically perhaps I suddenly understood honoring those who had been heroes of the faith, like the ones mentioned early in Hebrews. But somehow I STILL had resistance to including Jesus' own mother in that category. That was obviously a deep-seated bias against Catholicism (and I do believe what I see there often goes into excess, and frequently find myself at odds with Catholics over this, so I'm not defending everything associated with the Virgin Mary).
It's funny, but that took much longer and much more prayer (and study to understand exactly what we mean as Orthodox) to settle this issue for me, but that demonstrates I was biased, since she is clearly among the Saints and actually most highly honored by God Himself.
(By this I refer to what an honor and sacred trust it would be to be charged with bearing God Himself within her, and being the person He took human flesh from. It is an unspeakable honor.)
I guess also just the 'foreign ' feel that I see but.. that video someone posted didn't look quite as strange. I have mostly watched (countless) youtube videos of Orthodox services but they were fairly large.
I can understand that too. I've had a lot of various multi-cultural experiences so perhaps it was easier for me. But I have on more than one occasion walked into a parish full of people who were all Greeks, or Russians, a stranger among them, known to no one, not understanding a word they said, or able to identify any of the food they gave me lol, and have felt very much a cultural outsider. I understand it can be difficult. I was very joyful to find a very welcoming parish of nearly all American converts once, and REALLY enjoyed the atmosphere in that case, though it was also identifiably Orthodox.
(I should also add that those ethnic parishes, without fail, welcomed me warmly and treated me like an adopted child by the time my visit was over.)
Do women have to wear a head covering? Dresses only to church?
That varies a lot depending on where you are. Some are pretty strict, others are not. Most Greek parishes are probably at one end of the spectrum, with few or possibly none wearing head coverings, and most Russian parishes are probably at the opposite end, with some having scarves available to lend even because they must be worn. Dresses may be more widely worn than head coverings, but it's more habit than requirement if head coverings are also optional.
In our parish (Greek) there are a few of the Greek ladies who wear head coverings (some only when receiving Communion), a number of Russian, Romanian, and an Ethiopian who do, and me (being an American convert, but I used to belong to another fellowship where women covered their heads to pray and I developed that conviction. Most of the women never do. Most women wear skirts and shirts, but no one raises an eyebrow if a woman wears pants, and they sometimes do, myself included - especially if I'm going to work after. In the winter iirc it is quite common for women to wear pants.
Modesty is important (though even so, sometimes you see people who might seem not to be dressed so) but it often doesn't focus on particular rules. But in some ethnic parishes it might.
