Caleb Odell - Church Visit #1

Caleb Odell - Church Visit #1

Church name: Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church

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

Date attended: 10/16/16

Church category: Orthodox

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

            The Orthodox service was very different than the worship services that I am normally a part of. The service was very liturgical and scripted. As I walked in I was given a book that had the liturgy in it but even that was hard to follow because they read different parts depending on the number that the choir director held up. It was a very small church and it had a very intimate feel. At times during the service it almost felt like the priests and the rest of the congregation were involved in two different services. The priests were constantly walking around the altar, praying, and spreading incense while the rest of the congregation was singing or reciting liturgy. Also, besides the homily, everything in the service was sung, even the scripture readings. The homily was also very short compared to most sermons that I am used to.

How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?

            After the service I was given the chance to talk to several of the congregation. One thing that several of them told me was that their service was the exact way Christians have been worshiping since the early church fathers. One lady told me that they believed that those closer in time to Christ and the apostles have a better sense of what the Scriptures were saying than we do today because those Christians were closer. This is why the Orthodox has a set view of interpretation because they think that the Christians that came before us have a better understanding of scripture than we do today. In their service they also repeatedly referenced the Theotokos which I found interesting because I now knew what that meant since we had gone over it in class.

How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?

            The Orthodox service seemed more reverent than many of our Protestant ones. It lacked many of the things that we feel normally draw people into church. So the members of the congregation seemed to be there more for the sake of worship than for any outside reason. One thing our class really gets you thinking about is what the truth is and who actually are the church. The Orthodox Church was very different from most Protestant churches and they have many views that we would disagree with, but they do seem to truly love God and hold on to Jesus as their hope for salvation. The church is very divided today and a question we have to ask ourselves is how can we fix that and in order to do that we must decide which are the lines that we cannot cross. Which theological views of God are serious enough that we should no longer associate with a person? This question does not seem to have an easy answer.