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View from the Pew  Mary Adamski |
Party of 5
Five Oahu Orthodox Christian
congregations gather for a Lenten
celebration unlike any otherPrayer, song, reflection and refreshments -- the Wednesday meeting at a Punchbowl church was similar to Lenten services in many Christian churches.
But this was a first.
Church folks familiar with ecumenical efforts to share good will and common ground with people with differing beliefs would have felt right at home.
But this combined service by five churches was such a rare occasion that the crowd brought cameras to capture the confluence of clergymen for posterity.
"For me this is wonderful, it is exciting," said Marianna Klimenko, who snapped pictures of every combination of people Wednesday night at Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific. "This is a big step, for us to get together."
Outsiders wouldn't understand her excitement at the first occasion that different Oahu Orthodox congregations have gotten together to pray.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Pastor Aleksy Santos, left, the Rev. John Frederick, the Rev. Nicholas Gamvas, the Rev. Isaiah Gillette, the Rev. Anatole Lyovin and the Rev. Anastasi St. Anthony gathered for a ceremony celebrating Lent on Wednesday night at Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific. The event brought together five different Oahu Orthodox congregations.
People in the 500-plus other Christian churches in Hawaii know very little about Orthodox church: They're the old-fashioned Christians, right? Ethnic and kind of exotic? They have icons, mysterious rituals and lots of saints?
Orthodox Christians would say "yes" to all of the above. They claim to hold the original form of Christian belief and worship, unchanged since the Scriptures were written and traditions were set in the first three centuries after Jesus lived. Church councils, scholars and saints from that period of history are their source for prayers, liturgies and interpretation of the Bible.
"I like the sense of being in touch, in the most authentic way, with the church Christ established," said Jim McCoy, president of the Sts. Constantine & Helen parish council.
"In my reading of history, the Orthodox Church has the best claim to holding onto the traditions," said McCoy, a retired Navy captain and former Catholic who converted to Orthodoxy in 1998. "The liturgy maintains the sense of mystery that is at the heart of the faith," he said of their worship service that centers around receiving Communion.
Ironically, disputes that date back to those ancient days are also the reason there isn't a one and only Orthodox church. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, which evolved with a hierarchic superstructure, Orthodox authority rests in the bishops. Way back when, church leaders sorted out according to political entities as the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria ... and later into Russian, Armenian, Greek, Syrian and other distinctions that remain to this day.
The Rev. Anastasi St. Anthony, left, greeted pastor Aleksy Santos prior to a ceremony celebrating Lent. The Rev. John Frederick, right, greeted the Rev. Anatole Lyovin on Wednesday with a kiss to the hand. Parishioner Gregory Malick, left, greeted the Rev. Anatole Lyovin at Sts. Constantine & Helen cathedral. Other disputes spun around interpretations of theology.
"There were two cultures talking past each other," said the Rev. Isaiah Gillette, an Army chaplain and pastor of the St. Paul Antiochian Mission at Fort Shafter, describing a fifth-century split.
"The differences are really in the linguistics," said the Rev. Anastasi St. Anthony, pastor of St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church in Kaimuki, about the divisive theological debate about the nature of Jesus: Was he human, divine or both?
The Coptic presence was part of the excitement Wednesday because the church is not considered "in communion" with others of the Byzantine rite.
Neither is the Russian Orthodox Church as it exists outside of Russia, which was represented by the Rev. Anatole Lyovin, pastor of Holy Theotokos of Ivron parish in Moiliili.
And even further out of the fold were guests of the Eastern Catholic Church, which originated in Persia, represented by the Rev. John Frederick, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel parish in Waipahu, and his associate pastor Aleksy Santos.
Sensitivity to the differences led the host pastor, the Rev. Nicholas Gamvas, to hold the first ecumenical event in the parish hall rather than the sanctuary.
"We focus on sharing what we have in common, rather than doctrinal differences and politics," said Gamvas, who has organized "pan-Orthodox" services in previous assignments in New England and the Southwest. He said there are about 500 families that attend services at the Oahu Orthodox churches.
"We hold the same faith, the same spirituality," Gillette said. "Our worship is virtually the same." The liturgy he uses was written 1,500 years ago, he said, but he uses an English translation.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Parishioners Dionisios Nicholas and his wife, Keiko, sang a song based on a Coptic hymn Wednesday at Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific.
Affirmation of their common ground came as a chorus of nods from the crowd of about 100 as St. Anthony said: "When we read the Bible, it is like a hammer that crushes sins. We read not for knowledge's sake only, no. The Bible is for our lives."
The pastors led a prayer written by St. Ephraim the Syrian, who lived in the fourth century, that asked God to "grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother."
The baked treats shared at the reception reflected another common belief. They contained no dairy products, eggs or oil, which are proscribed during the 40-day fast with which Orthodox Christians prepare for Easter. They also abstain from meat, fish that contains blood, and wine.
"The way the world calls fasting is just something physical, to get skinnier," St. Anthony told the crowd. "We are not just refraining from food; we do this to abstain from sins. We want our souls in control of our bodies. It has to be a deeper fast, filled with prayer and repentance."
The "Spiritual Journey through Great Lent" will continue at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Michael Klimenko, University of Hawaii professor emeritus, will discuss a famous 15th-century Russian iconographer, Andrei Rublev, who was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church for his genius in the religious art form. The lecture at the social hall at 930 Lunalilo St. is free and open to the public.
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Religion Calendar
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
