The Hitchhiker's Guide

Orthodoxy and culture: what is the fullness of the arts?

There has been a topic on my mind over the past several weeks as I’ve started on this journey towards Orthodox Christianity and into a life of theosis — when I become Orthodox, what becomes of my artistic expressions and what is that supposed to look like within the context of being an Orthodox Christian? And I must forewarn you, that there are far more questions in this particular entry than useful reflections or things we can all learn from. Instead, I would hope that it might generate some significant discussion that would ripple into the arts community within Catholic and Orthodox traditions — especially the latter of the two.

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He is Risen!

Tonight was the night! At the Easter Vigil tonight I was welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church! My son also took his first communion with me. It was an amazing service (even though it was over 2 hours long) and I’m not too “manly” to admit that I had tears in my eyes as I saw the Eucharist consecrated for the first time for me. I felt such a huge feeling of release and comfort as I took the Lord’s Body and Blood for the first time as a Catholic Christian.

I’m home Lord, I’m home….

Fighting the passions

We all have great intentions — I know I do anyway. I have great aspirations of maintaining strict disciplines, like a rule of prayer, fasting from certain passions, and even cultivating some of the artistic gifts I’ve been given. But the problem is that my passions (as known by the Orthodox; different from a passion for music, for example) are not passive and do not sit back and allow me to just lay my stake in the ground and claim it done. Unlike Evangelicalism™ which generally professes a transactional version of salvation — an event that happens, and then you’re saved — I am finding that maintaining and working out this gift of salvation and becoming more like God is going to be a long, slow, and arduous process, requiring much patience, faith, endurance, and above all humility.

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Holy Week

This week is the culmination for me in my journey to the Catholic faith. Tonight begins the Triduum, the three holy days of the church year. It begins tonight with the commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist, then tomorrow night with a Tenebrae service where the lights are slowly extinguished. Then on Saturday night begins the Easter Vigil. This is a long (2.5 hours) service where the entire Salvation History is recounted and new members like myself are given the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion. I’m looking forward to this weekend, even if the services will end up being long. This is where it all comes together for me and I finally feel like I’m coming home.

The church is not a museum piece

In my previous posting, I had laid a spread of questions on the table regarding the arts and Orthodoxy and my frustration with no contemporaries to look to for guidance, inspiration, and fellowship. These frustrations are accentuated by the idea that there is a fullness of the arts that ought to be created, expressed, and shared with the world, a fullness that just isn’t that prevalent in America. And it’s the idea of that fullness that has put a desire in me to find answers, and God willing, be a part of the awakening of the arts in the Orthodox church in America.

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Why Rome

Many people have asked me why I chose to join the Catholic church, as opposed to the Anglican church or the Eastern Orthodox. There are some very foundational reasons that I made this choice, but I want to stress at the beginning one point. I’m not trying to put down a different branch of ancient faith practice, or say that one is better than the other. I simply want to present why I chose the place I chose, and why I simply couldn’t see myself going down the other roads (as parallel as they may be).
 

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First Scrutiny

Last night we had our First Scrutiny. At it’s core, the scrutinies are an exorcism. Asking for the power of God to bring us out of the power of sin and darkness and cast evil away from us. It was a neat little ceremony, and the priest delivered the prayers well. We have two more scrutinies and then it’s ready for Easter Vigil.

Wesley Brings me Home

At the beginning of 2006 I began my studies at a Lutheran seminary in town that was approved to train Methodist pastors. It was a seminary I had attended many, many years before and so I felt very comfortable there. I also enjoyed the fact that they had daily chapel and weekly communion, with a sense of some liturgical heritage. However, the one difficulty with this school was that it was not structured for working adults. Meaning that it was becoming harder and harder for me to find classes that fit into my schedule, since I couldn’t just give up my job to go to school.

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Various Rites

Don’t worry, I’ll be continuing my story, I simply wanted to pause for a moment to talk about some of the things that are happening right now in my journey to the Catholic faith.

In the Catholic church, you join by engaging in what are called the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). Although it’s not required for people who are already baptized, most parishes simply lump both catechumens (those who are not baptized) and candidates (those coming form other traditions) together for ease of instruction. The class runs for about nine months from Fall until Spring, meeting once a week. Every parish develops it’s own RCIA class, so there are no two churches that do it exactly the same way. However, one thing that they all share is various rites that happen throughout the course of the year. So far in our class we’ve had two different rites.

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The daily journey in prayer, reading and meditation

It seems that every time I walk out of St. George Antioch Orthodox Church — whether on a Sunday morning or at my catechumen class — I come home with more and more books to read. And anyone who knows me well, I don’t exactly finish books in a timely fashion (let alone at all). How I will manage to keep up is but a mystery… fitting as I am pursuing Orthodoxy and they’re all about mystery.

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