The Feast of St Luke - an Orthodox celebration

As part of life in the Cambridge Theological Federation we have fortnightly Federation Worship led by the various institutes that make up the Federation (I realise that was probably a slight over use of the word 'federation'!). This evening was the turn of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. This was the first time that I had ever been to an Orthodox service, and it certainly was an interesting experience. There were some aspects I found challenging, standing up for an hour and a half being one! However, there was also the lack of involvement by the members of the congregation. This was very much something that we watched as the priest and a few others participated on our behalf. Added to that there was the lack of singing and the fact that only members of the Orthodox Church were able to take Communion. This did help me get clear in my mind some of the things I value about Methodism.

Having said that, there were a lot of things that I found useful and inspiring. The theatre of the whole service as the priest moved around from the altar, down into the nave, around the church built a sense of drama and anticipation. Maybe it didn't reflect the meal between friends that I like to think of as Communion, but it did portray something of the wonder and awe-someness of God. Their repeated prayers for themselves, their church, their community and those in authority was also something that made me think. While I don't believe that we need to repeat our prayers over and over, Paul does tell us to pray without ceasing, and this was a great expression of that. The homily was short and to the point - we are part of an unbroken chain of witnesses going back to Luke and beyond. It was uplifting and done in about a dozen sentences - do we really need to always have great long complicated sermons when a few well chosen words will do? Finally, there was the point where the congregation said the creed. It was a long way through the service and was the first point for the congregation to speak. At first people were unsure, then gradually it built up and up as more people expressed their faith together. The sound of so many people, from so many different denominations and traditions, professing together a shared faith, for me, is a sign of what ecumenism is all about. We may have gone our separate ways after, but we did so having reminded ourselves of the things that unite rather than divide.