Welcome to TAW
1. As noted in the topic title, I am a diabetic. I know the Orthodox have fairly extensive fasting periods and due to my health I can not really fast to that degree and maintain my blood sugar at a healthy level. As a Methodist I have compensated during Lent by giving up something I enjoy, be it a particular food or activity. Is this sufficient for the Orthodox?
Your Spiritual Father will guide you in things like this and you will be fine. The most difficult part is not putting yourself first ie: I think that I should give up X because I really like it. Your SF might request that you do something entirely different. Don't approch this with a "I will do this because I think ...." That is egotism thinly veiled and is part of what you will go to war against.
Simply put. Talk to your SF. Tell him everything and follow his instructions.
2. As I previously stated, I was baptized about nineteen years ago. I know there are two forms of baptism (baptism and Chrismation) in the Orthodox church. Do I need to be baptised (and fully submerged three times) a second time as well as taking the Chrismation for fully entry into the faith? I have heard this may not be the case for all Western parishes but I am not sure.
There is only one baptism. Chrismation is a seperate sacrament but it is typically given right after baptism. This question is 100% dependant upon your parish priest / SF / Bishop. They will make the decision. Not something to worry about at all.
3. Do men and women stand separate from one another during service (men to one side, women to another)?
In some parishes yes. In most, no. Again - this is specific to your parish.
4. I understand that you stand during most of the service. Is it considered improper to sit for at least some portion of a service? In point of fact, are there any pews available to use during a service?
Depends. Many Greek parishes will have pews and will sit at intervals throughout the service. The more "Russian" flavored the church is the more they will stand and the less likely they are to have pews. IF you need to sit, you will be able to sit. You will be fine.
5. Could you help explain the actual order of service? I have read about Matins and Vespers and I am trying to understand it in simple (no disrespect intended here) Protestant terms.
Is there a correlating Sunday School and then acual service or...?
We do not ship the kids off. Our Sunday School is called Catechism and it is before the Divine Liturgy and typically happens during the Orthros or Matins service. Your kids will be right there with you during the main service.
The main service is the Divine Liturgy. At my parish it starts at 10:15 and runs until 12:-12:30. It is the most beautiful and reverent thing you are likely to experience this side of heaven.
IF you were only going to show up for one service, this would be it. If you want a little more to chew on you can go to the preceeding Orthros service and listen to the Psalms, the morning prayers and supplications and a Gospel reading. I find that if I attend Orthros the Divine Liturgy becomes much more alive and I get alot more out of it.
The Main part of the service is for the most part the same each week. The sound will change each day on a cycle of 8 tones so it does not get boring. In addition to that there is a yearly cycle of both Epistle and Gospel readings and themes that come into play during the liturgy to keep things a little different each time. You will not get bored with the Liturgy.
As far as the cycle goes:
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
What comes first here? The evening then the morning right?
Vespers is our Sundown service. It is not held in all parishes on a nightly basis. If your parish does have nightly vespers, be grateful. Most will only have the service on the eve of a big feastday.
Vespers begins a cycle of the "hours". Every 3 hours there is a similar service with the next at 9:00 being Compline. These are the nightime prayers. Next is Orthros then first hour, thrid sixth and ninth hour and then Vespers again.
You will likely never see the first, third, sixth, ninth or midnight offices unless you do them yourself as a reader's service. No real need to pay too much attention to them at this point. In other words - accept that these things exist and don't worry about them.
6. I know the liturgy calls for lengthy prayers and singing but is there an actual sermon? And I realize this varies but are the services (in America) in English or Greek/Russian/Slavic?
This will vary from parish to parish and priest to priest but in general there will be a "Homily" (what we call a sermon) given most likely on the topic of that day's Gospel reading. It might be 10 minutes long or it may be 45 minutes. Do not plan things with a hard and fast time after the Liturgy because it might be over in an hour and 15 min and it might take 3 hours. This is your time with God and you should be able to kinda go with the flow.
My parish is very conservative Greek Orthodox. We use more Greek in the Orthros than in the Liturgy. The Gospel, Epistle, Troparion, creed and Lord's prayer are all said(chanted...) in both Greek and English. The Homily is always in English only. All the Greek that you would ever need to know you could learn in a short time and about 80% of it you can learn right now:
Kyrie Eleison - Lord have mercy
Thoxa Patri kai Yio kai Ayio Pnevmati - Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Dogs up a tree...)
kai neen kai ayi kai ees toos aionas ton aionon amin - now and ever and unto agaes of ages amin.
Got it? Those are repeated over and over and if you can catch onto that you will pick up the rest in no time. For me it really adds a depth to the service that you can not find elsewhere.
7. Are there actual hymns that are sung while in service? I cannot express to you how important music is for my personal worship and how the hymns of Charles Wesley from my Methodist upbringing have always left me feeling closer to God. I can not imagine that hymns from Wesley would be used in a service and to be honest that would be a considerable sacrifice on my part to lose them.
Our hymns are amazing and varied. They do not sound like Amazing grace or river of life - they are more sacred sounding. It is very different but it is deeper. I almost always have some hymn going through my head. For an example of a Greek Hymn click the little speaker near my name to hear Agni Parthene. Amazing.
I sang in a travelling methodist youth choir in my teens and I now chant and sing in the choir at my GOArch parish. I now actually have a strong preference for Byzantine music. You will just have to "taste and see".
8. I am not an iconoclast but the veneration of the saints confuses me. I understand the belief is that the living on Earth are the living in Heaven and that one prays to the saints to ask for intercession or aid. How exactly are the saints capable of listening to those entreaties?
Of course it confuses you. It confused me too. I was a Methodist with a fundamentalist bent myself. When the whole Beth Stroud thing happened I freaked and would never go back to the Methodist Church. I am now forever grateful to Beth because she helped lead me to Orthodoxy....
At any rate... how are they listening.....
I don't know. They might be sitting in the very same room you are. They might be informed by Angels. They might be on some quantum plane of reality where things are simply known.
Questions like this are not answerable. They are a mystery. What we do know is that Saintly intercession is real and produces results. It works. I don't know HOW it works, I just know it does. IF you experience it firsthand you will know.
As far as ANY practices - do not worry about them one bit. Don't go in your first time and think tat you have to kiss this or cross yourself at that or anything. Ignore all of it. Just focus on what it happening up front.
9. Does the Patriarch have any "infallibality" powers? Does the Patriarch of Constantinople have a higher authority than the Patriarch of the other Orthodox faiths?
No. Also - it is just one faith. It is not a group of faiths - just one.
10. I must confess that the idea of attending a "High Church" service is something I feel anxious about attending. I remember how uncomfortable I was as a child when the reciting of the Apostles Creed, the Doxology, etc. in the Methodist Church was done around me and others noted that I did not follow along with it. I have heard that some Orthodox parishes are closed to non-specific ethnic peoples and that coupled with a foreign service has me, well, concerned.
We do no keep up with what others are doing. If you are not crossing yourself or chanting or whatever, don't expect people to notice. They are focused on God - not you.
The downside ot this is, when you are a visitor and don't know anyone - the people are focused on God - not you.
Do not expect anyone to even speak with you before coffee hour. Orthros is preperation for the liturgy. The Liturgy is preperation for Holy Communion. The people will likely be focused to the point of exlusion. I saw this as very very cold initially. I attended my parish for weeks and no one ever spoke to me. I wondered what what going on... Then I went to the coffee hour. Big difference there. The service is over and people can socialize.
Tips:
1 - fill out a visitor card and place it in the candle basket (you will see what I mean)
2 - Go to the coffee hour.
General tips:
WEAR COMFY SHOES.
Do not expect "Brother Charles" to run up to you and attach himself to your hip like he would in a protestant service. Do not take this as coldness. Take it as a chance to check things out before you have a salesman come and follow you around.
If possible, attend the Orthros service before the liturgy. You will see the whole thing. The congregation grow and swell to a peak. You will hear the chanting and the wonderful Psalms and prayers. etc.... Many reasons to go to Orthros...
Do not even touch the service book. Leave it alone for the first few weeks. You only get one "first time". Do not ruin it by sticking your nose in a book and missing everything. Accept that you are not going to know what is happening and just go with it. You will enjoy it far more if you take this advice.
Do not worry that the YiaYia (grandma) next to you is crossing herself 3x or that the man next to her is bowing or doing backflips. Don't worry that you do not know what to do. Accept that people will be doing "stuff" and do not pay attention to it. IF you do it will take your attention off of God and you will miss soomething.
Sit right up front. 1st or second pew is the best place for new people. IF you have small kids - look for an area that might have coloring books near the back for an easy escape if one cries.
People do wander in and out. This is ok.
No one will be on time. This is also ok. This does not mean that you should come late either. Get there on time or 10 min early if you are just going ot the Liturgy.
Most importantly - just go.
