Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Church Search: Episode 3
This week we split squad, with Laura in Washington DC, visiting a Russian Orthodox church and myself...um...sleeping. Anyway, all I know about the church Laura visited is that the commute gets a 1/10 for being 5 hours away, and the sermon gets 2/10 for being in Russian (fun for Laura, but less fun for Steve). I guess the music was cool, and who doesn't want to hear Russians sing chant-like music in church? So the music gets a 9/10. Not having been there it is difficult to give a grade to the seating, but a lack of knowlege has never stopped me from making arguments before...so I imagine a Russian Orthodox church would have uncomfortable seating, so lets go with a 3/10, based entirely on my peculiar stereotypes about russians and orthodox types.
Well that is pretty good for not having talked to Laura at all about her experience, I better quick post it before she reads it and wants to correct my misconceptions.
This week we split squad, with Laura in Washington DC, visiting a Russian Orthodox church and myself...um...sleeping. Anyway, all I know about the church Laura visited is that the commute gets a 1/10 for being 5 hours away, and the sermon gets 2/10 for being in Russian (fun for Laura, but less fun for Steve). I guess the music was cool, and who doesn't want to hear Russians sing chant-like music in church? So the music gets a 9/10. Not having been there it is difficult to give a grade to the seating, but a lack of knowlege has never stopped me from making arguments before...so I imagine a Russian Orthodox church would have uncomfortable seating, so lets go with a 3/10, based entirely on my peculiar stereotypes about russians and orthodox types.
Well that is pretty good for not having talked to Laura at all about her experience, I better quick post it before she reads it and wants to correct my misconceptions.
Comments:
Alright, a few things.
First of all, the Eastern Orthodox Church gets two previously unused scales.
First, is the SMELL scale, for which the church gets an 8.5/10. The incense combined with the honeycomb wax of the candles made the place smell great. I'd give it a 9/10, but the smoke from the incense probably wouldn't have agreed with Steve, so for his sake I'll kick it down a half a point.
Second is "the number of languages mass is offered in" scale. There the church gets a 8/10 -- it has three times as many languages offered as any church we've gone to yet. There is the English mass, the Russian mass (which I attended) and the Georgian mass. I'd have given it a 10/10 if they'd added Macedonian or Bulgarian, and Greek.
Lastly, regarding seating... er... here my poor husband shows his true ignorance. In typical Orthodox fashion, there ARE no seats. (Well, there are maybe a dozen, but if you're under the age of sixty and over the age of four, and DARE to sit in one of those seats, you're going to get a scolding by some well-meaning babushka.) So, the dozen wooden seats give the church a 0.5/10 for comfort. Unless of course you enjoy standing for the entire church service, in which case the rating is a 10.
The service was beautiful, even though I only understood half of it. (The half that consisted of words like, "us," "Lord," "we," "you" and "and." :) ) I got that it was about Martha. That's about it. But it still SOUNDED pretty. :)
First of all, the Eastern Orthodox Church gets two previously unused scales.
First, is the SMELL scale, for which the church gets an 8.5/10. The incense combined with the honeycomb wax of the candles made the place smell great. I'd give it a 9/10, but the smoke from the incense probably wouldn't have agreed with Steve, so for his sake I'll kick it down a half a point.
Second is "the number of languages mass is offered in" scale. There the church gets a 8/10 -- it has three times as many languages offered as any church we've gone to yet. There is the English mass, the Russian mass (which I attended) and the Georgian mass. I'd have given it a 10/10 if they'd added Macedonian or Bulgarian, and Greek.
Lastly, regarding seating... er... here my poor husband shows his true ignorance. In typical Orthodox fashion, there ARE no seats. (Well, there are maybe a dozen, but if you're under the age of sixty and over the age of four, and DARE to sit in one of those seats, you're going to get a scolding by some well-meaning babushka.) So, the dozen wooden seats give the church a 0.5/10 for comfort. Unless of course you enjoy standing for the entire church service, in which case the rating is a 10.
The service was beautiful, even though I only understood half of it. (The half that consisted of words like, "us," "Lord," "we," "you" and "and." :) ) I got that it was about Martha. That's about it. But it still SOUNDED pretty. :)
Yes, from what I hear the best seats in town are at Bedside Baptist, second only to the Church of the Holy Comforter and/or Pillow Creek Church.
I'm sure eventually, if we stay here long enough, Steve and I will have the opportunity to visit all three.
I'm sure eventually, if we stay here long enough, Steve and I will have the opportunity to visit all three.
I would deffinately give the Orthodox church a 1/10 for seating. I have been to an Orthodox church with pews but they recently took them out.
I recently went to an Orthodox wedding and it was absolutely beautiful, even in English, despite the 250 people standing in a church the size of a large class room.
-Ashley
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I recently went to an Orthodox wedding and it was absolutely beautiful, even in English, despite the 250 people standing in a church the size of a large class room.
-Ashley
# posted by 
: 9/10/2004 3:47 PM
: 9/10/2004 3:47 PM