Surprise, you're Orthodox

[Hermit76]

In another thread I was jokingly acting like I had never heard of Lent. Anastasia replied:

Wouldn't THAT be a rude awakening for a new convert that never expected it!?

That would be a major awakening for a new convert!
As a convert or a cradle who came back as an adult, what was your greatest surprise or challenge?

 

[Anhelyna]

Liturgy in English - every word in English !!

 

[mothcorrupteth]

I mean, nothing really shocks me on an intellectual register anymore, but from an experiential standpoint... I'm coming from a background that is so hardcore Puritan Covenanter that the church covers up crosses in the Primitive Baptist building they rent, because use of the symbol of the cross is not present in the Scripture. And when I went to an Orthodox church for the first time last year, the biggest culture shock was seeing an elderly Russian lady who could barely speak English crossing herself before she even entered the building. I almost chickened out right there and then. Because I was just so conditioned not to have anything to do with that.

 

[ArmyMatt]

for me it was the experience of the risen Christ in the services, where I did not have to fit God into some intellectual box.

 

[Halbhh]

I was thinking how the structure can be helpful, even freeing, but that also many people will being doing lent at times without any structure and doing it well, in that they are doing it inside, and also we remembered how Christ instructs in Matthew about how to do fasting (middle of Matthew chapter 6). So, it's all about the inward doing, and it does seem the outward structure in a church can be freeing and helpful.

 

[FenderTL5]

[challenge]
pre-Liturgy routine.

Having coffee and doughnuts in the church corridor(s) pre-service was rote in the church I left for Orthodoxy. At home, an early mocha and soft-boiled egg was my usual Sunday morning self-indulgence before leaving for church.

 

[~Anastasia~]

It's hard to pin down my biggest challenge. I think because they hit in different ways.

In thought before becoming Orthodox, it was the very idea of a Nativity fast (I've got to GIVE UP the season of treats and parties before Christmas?!?!?) ... though the last time I happened to actually attend a Christmas party was maybe about 8 years prior? But we USED to go to parties, have cookie exchanges, etc.

Theologically is was a toss-up between veneration of icons/Saints and veneration of the Theotokos. Which should have been the same thing, but understanding for the Saints came easily and early, while the Theotokos specifically was a huge struggle. Anti-Rome bias drilled into me.

In actual practice early on maybe the not being able to drink water when I woke up during Saturday night. Funny - I have to remember to drink and can easily often go 14 hours or more without drinking water and never realize it or miss it, but tell me I CAN'T and suddenly I'm dying lol. I have to take medicine every morning with a full glass of water at least, so that fast has gone by the wayside. I miss fasting of all kinds, because everything is so prescribed for me now.

So most recently - being told to chant in front of the Church when I planned only to read and didn't know how. I would have DIED before doing it before. But I think maybe ... Orthodoxy has done just a little work on my pride. Funny, but it actually didn't affect me inside as much as I thought, and I'm still concerned to do a decent job but ... if you'd have told me a few years ago that I would stand in front of a congregation and use my voice in singing a thing I didn't know the expected melody for ... well you might as well tell me I would climb the Empire State Building on the outside with no safety gear - and I'm afraid of heights.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

So most recently - being told to chant in front of the Church when I planned only to read and didn't know how. I would have DIED before doing it before.

Chuckles, my introduction to chanting. Chrismated in March 2002 I think the 3rd week of Lent. Arrive for the Descent service for my first holy week EVER. Priest looks around and says in thick Greek accent, "Brian, no one else is here yet. You're chanting." Wellllll.... baptism by fire! I think I chanted about half the service on my own, and the few people there were impressed that enough that, 15 years later, I'm still chanting in Tone 9 but at least I'm ordained as a Reader.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Chuckles, my introduction to chanting. Chrismated in March 2002 I think the 3rd week of Lent. Arrive for the Descent service for my first holy week EVER. Priest looks around and says in thick Greek accent, "Brian, no one else is here yet. You're chanting." Wellllll.... baptism by fire! I think I chanted about half the service on my own, and the few people there were impressed that enough that, 15 years later, I'm still chanting in Tone 9 but at least I'm ordained as a Reader.

LOL I don't know the numbers of the tones. I think I probably know most of them by sound ... if someone starts chanting I know what it's supposed to sound like generally. If that makes sense. But if you ask me to chant in Tone 2 I have NO idea which one that is. They are printed on our choir material and we use (at least a few of?) them but ... I do everything by sound/memory and rarely use books or sheet music. Problem with chanting is it's essentially new every service, so I never know it, like the changeable hymns in the choir.

 

[All4Christ]

Services not just on Christmas Eve but also Christmas morning...probably because of the reaction of my family

 

[Mary of Bethany]

Challenges: getting used to the amount/strictness of fasting - I had never fasted before, even as an Anglican. I do miss Sunday breakfasts with the family before church (even thought it's just hubby & me now).

It's old hat now, but when I first started singing in the choir, I couldn't believe we had to learn how to sing the Tones just from text with markings - no music! And even after 11 years, I still can't always tell which Tone is which (especially 1 and 3!)

Wonderful surprises: the joy I feel when the Priest intones "Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"! Those are the sweetest words in the world!

 

[Hermit76]

Wonderful surprises: the joy I feel when the Priest intones "Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"! Those are the sweetest words in the world!

This is one my favorite things. It is an instant calm to my hectic world.

 

[prodromos]

for me it was the experience of the risen Christ in the services, where I did not have to fit God into some intellectual box.

Experiencing the events of the Gospels made present in the services of the Church during Holy Week!

 

[~Anastasia~]

Experiencing the events of the Gospels made present in the services of the Church during Holy Week!

Oh, that's a good one too!

That and being suddenly in the presence of heaven during the Cherubic Hymn - unexpectedly! - and knowing a deeper meaning of "awe" than ever before!


Sometimes I wish I could relive my first weeks in an Orthodox Church - though I couldn't receive the Eucharist yet.

My first Divine Liturgy was Palm Sunday.

 

[All4Christ]

The depth of emotion and hope when I first had a trisagion for the departed for a loved one...and the joy present at funerals...the procession to the cemetery right outside the church...the singing of Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death...the joy in the midst of sadness...the knowledge that death no longer can hold us - and that we aren’t just “gone” after death.

 

[Hermit76]

I have been giving it a lot of thought. The thing that surprised me the most was the presence of relics in the church. This is so strange to an old Appalachian Baptist kid!! Lol, my public school students often ask me about my faith. Something came up about relics one day. Those mountain kids couldn't wrap their heads around it.

 

[Lukaris]

I just attended my first liturgy out of the blue. The very morning I did this (2004), I was supposed to become 4 Square Pentecostal ( it was a decent church actually). For some reason the thought about having never attended the church of my Syrian grandmother ( I never knew her) bothered me and I just attended & never looked back. Of course much more developed from there.

 

[Halbhh]

It's fun to imagine pentecostals in the Orthodox church. We happened to move near a pentecostal church when I was about 8, and went for several years, so at least I feel I know kinda what that is like. It wasn't the only church influence in my youth though, so I'm not at all purely from any one church background. The other church I attended hundreds of services (both were 3 per week) was a very opposite in many ways church with much decorum. That was good in that it helped me not get stuck in thinking things have to be a certain way.

I feel and think we are all Orthodox. We are all Catholic. We are all Christian. All believing in Christ, risen, our Savior. I don't need anyone to agree, but to me it's evident.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

It's fun to imagine pentecostals in the Orthodox church.

Well, at least they would be happy we speak in tongues. As a chanter we can do a mix of English, Greek, Romanian, Slavonic and I can stumble my way through some French and German phrases.

 

[All4Christ]

Former Pentecostal here. Multiple members here were Pentecostals.

Ironically, the Holiness part of the Pentecostal faith helped me transition much easier than some others. I also was glad that Orthodox Christians are not cessationists, though the speaking in tongues today has some obvious differences.