Continued Correspndence with Bernard Bell.

Hi, Bernard.

I hope you had a relaxing Labor Day. You wrote so much in your email, and every word was so enjoyable thatI hardly know where to begin. But I must start somewhere. It seems only fitting that I start with thanks - thanks to God for spreading His love all over His creation. Thanks for PBCC and my years there. Thanks for the opportunity you have to fill the role of ascholar-in-residence. But mostly, I give Him thanks, for by His great power He who by nature is as impassible as He is unchangeable chose to suffer with me, and for me, by taking on human flesh and suffering as we suffer, in truth suffering in ways we can not even begin to imagine. And I thank Him for the hymn (I heard it often atPBCC.) that teaches this beautiful doctrine in four little lines:

"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be."

And I thank you for giving me so much of your time. My father, my grandfather, and two of my brothers are, or were pastors. I know from observing them that men in your line of work have very little time to spare, especially for someone not even in their church.

I think you are right about most evangelicals not having a theology of worship. But there is much the evangelicals do have that is beatifuland good. And some, such as yourself, even have a good theology ofworship. (I don't say that to flatter you. I am actually a very critical person.)

I remember the first time I read the liturgies of St. Mark and St. James. I was amazed. At the time, PBCC was trying to find a new worship leader and was worshiping in a different style almost every week. I immediately thought, "Wow! I wonder why we don't worship like that?" Eventually, as you know, I found a church that does worship like that. But, it seems, that in you and your Christmas Eve service, Ss. Mark, James, Basil and Chrysostom have some competition in liturgy writing! (Okay okay, a little flattery, but that was a really good service you put together. I am sure God was pleased. How was it received by the people of PBCC?)

One thing you said in your email I thought was funny. It is something that I have noticed a lot of Protestants do. You said, "In the ancient world this meant falling on your face and paying homage. Today we don't fall on our faces, but still we pay homage." Actually, the Orthodox do still fall on our faces. Quite often, in fact. By theend of Lent I am surprised that I have any skin left on my forehead. Similarly, I remember my Dad used to explain the passage that commands women to be silent in church by saying that in ancient times men and women stood on opposite sides of the buildings, and that women were disturbing the services by talking to their husbands. On Patmos, you and Sue saw that the Orthodox still do this today (at least in some parishes. Another friend of mine has a picture of himself standing in a lake wearing a white bathrobe. He told me that it was a picture of his baptism and that the white robe was something the ancient church used to do. At the time I didn't know it (I didn'tknow anything about Orthodoxy), but the Orthodox still put white clothes on the newly baptized. I also remember being told that in theearly church there were no pews, that everyone stood during the services. It was only when I discovered Orthodoxy that I learned thatChristians still stand through entire services. Time after time, I found that things supposedly only done in the early days of the church are still done by the Orthodox.

And that brings me to the theology of worship in the Orthodox Church. It is what most of our books are about. You will be hard pressed tofind many books on systematic theology, or even many books on dogmatictheology, (We don't think much of Aquinas or Barth. But Orthodox libraries are packed full of books on prayer and worship. If moreOrthodox knew about him they might like Tozer.) A lot of people translate the word "ortho-dox" as "right thinking". But in my very first catechism class I was told that it is just as easily translatedas "right praise". In fact, worship so permeates Orthodox theology that when we call someone a "theologian" we do not mean someone with advanced degrees who writes books about God. No, when we say someone is a theologian we mean that he has reached heights of prayer and worship that enable him to see the uncreated light of God. The first type of person, the one with advanced degrees and a lot of knowledge is merely an academician. True theologians are people who worship and see God.

When I said that we don't spend much time with Revelation, I should have been more precise. We don't read from it during the services like we do the other books of the Bible, but it is still read and studied, and incorporated into the services, (More than 90% of theDivine Liturgy is either quoting Scripture or alluding to Scripture,and a sizable amount of that is from St. John's last book.), and portrayed in Holy Icons. The feeling I get from reading Archbishop Averky's commentary on Revelation ('m reading it right now) is that it is a basic book that reinforces the message of the Gospels and leads one to worship as the Orthodox worship. In other words, we are already worshiping as Revelation teaches, and if you cling to theGospel and live in Christ, the most we have to worry about from theAntichrist is some temporary discomfort. It is much more important to keep our wedding clothes clean than to speculate about when the Antichrist will come or who he is.

I know you are reading Clendinin's book (I read his essay "Why I am not Orthodox" when I was a catachumen but have not read anything else by him.), and have a lot of work at PBCC, but if you want to get glimpse of the Orthodox theology of worship, you might want to buy a book titled "For The Life of the World" by Fr. Alexander Schmeman.You can buy this book (he wrote several books) of his at this website: http://www.svspress.com/index.php?cPath=62_71&osCsid=2302fc05a908d41b540a4654e394e5e0

If you are really interested in Orthodoxy, you might want to read "The Orthodox Liturgy" by an Anglican named Hugh Wybrew. He uses the tools of modern literary criticism to explain the development of theOrthodox liturgy. Sometimes, I think he is out in left field but still he is informative. The "Orthodox Church" by Timothy Ware (now BishopKallistos) is also informative, and for me holds some authority, since it is written by a hierarch of my Church. Bishop Kallistos was a Protestant and wrote this book for Protestant readers.

I do not know much about the Anglicans (other than their birth in King Henery's marital problems and their recent recent troubles with homosexual clergy. Hmmm. Not too very seemly bookends on that church. ) but St. Benedict is an Orthodox Saint, and his Rule, as he wrote it, is entirely Orthodox. I've been told that some Orthodox monasteries still use his Rule, but generally, Orthodox monks and nuns follow a daily cycle of 9 services (coresponding in number to the 9 ranks of the angelic beings). I live in the world so my prayer rule is different from that of a monk, but I think this is what mostOrthodox monks and nuns do:

Vespers
Compline
Nocturns
Matins
1st Hour
3rd Hour
6th Hour
Divine Liturgy
9th Hour

The liturgical day begins, as it does for the Jews, at sundown. So intheory the first service of each day is Vespers. But in practice, the 9th Hour from the preceding liturgical day is prayed at the beginningof each days Vespers service.

There isn't much I can tell you about Compline and Nocturns. I've never been in one of those services. At least, I don't think I have. (Sometimes, during Holy Week I am not exactly sure which service we are doing. It seems like we are in the church more than we are out of it. ) But the Hours are short services that can be prayed in about 20 minutes time. Occasionally, I will pray the 3rd or 6th hour, but it is not part of my Rule. For your convenience, I'll put the text of one of the hours services at the end of this email.

It is the practce of the Slavic churches to meld parts (or all) of 9thHour, Vespers, Nocturn, Compline, and Matins into one long and coninuous service. These are called Vigil services. They can last any where from two hours to all night long, ending with the DivineLiturgy.

At my parish (www.holytrinity.org) the Vigil service on Saturday nightis about 2 hours long. If you are interested, you might want to comethe Vigil service on September 13. It is a special type of Vigil,called a Festal Vigil. The festal vigils are probably my favoriteservices (not including Nativity and Holy Week services.) Unlike the Liturgy and some other services, there is no part of it in which you may not participate. Also, I don't think there is anything in it thatwould make you, a Protestant, uncomfortable. (I am assuming that youknow we do not adore Icons.)

Anyway, if you'd like to come try to be there between 5:30 and 6 PM. The services are in English.

My prayer rule is very different from that of a monk. It consists of:
Evening prayers (http://www.antiochian.org/evening-prayers)
Morning prayers (http://www.antiochian.org/morning-prayers)

and these two prayers said at the end of evening prayers:

PRAYER OF PARENTS FOR THEIR CHILDREN AND FOR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS:
O God, our heavenly Father, who lovest mankind, and art most mercifuland compassionate, have mercy upon thy servants (Name those whom youwish to remember) for whom I humbly pray thee, and commend to thygracious care and protection. Be thou, O God, their guide and guardianin all their endeavors, lead them in the path of thy truth, and drawthem nearer to thee, that they may lead a godly and righteous life inthy love and fear; doing thy will in all things. Give them grace thatthey may be temperate, industrious, dilligent, devout and charitable.Defend them against the assaults of the enemy, and grant them wisdomand strength to resist all temptation and corruption of this life; anddirect them in the way of salvation, through the merits of thy Son,our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the intercessions of his Holy Mother andthy blessed Saints. Amen.

A PRAYER OF MARRIED PERSONS:
O merciful God, we bessech thee ever to remind us that the marriedstate is holy, and that we must keep it so; grant us thy grace, thatwe may continue in faithfulness and love; increase in us the spirit ofmutual understanding and trust, that no quarrel or strife may comebetween us; grant us thy blessings, that we may stand before ourfellows and in thy sight as an ideal family; and finally, by thymercy, account us worthy of everlasting life: for thou art oursanctification, and to thee we ascribe glory: to the Father, and tothe Son, and to the Holy Spirit: now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Of course, many other prayers are said as needed, these are just the 4formal prayers I say each day before the Icons.

As for your discussion of latreneuo and proskuneuo: I agree with youbut I do think we should be careful not to define them to rigidly.For instance, the honor Abraham gave to the men from whom he boughtSarah's grave was proskuneuo. And Orthodox will call the honor theygive to Icons proskuneuo. And the honor given to the bread and winewhen the Holy Spirit comes upon them and changes them is alsoproskenuo. But in the case of Abraham and Holy Icons, the Orthodoxwould not admit that either is latreneuo. But in the case of the HolyGifts, that worship is both latreneuo and proskuneuo. It is hard tosay, at least it is hard for me to say always what the differencebetween the two types of worship are. I know the difference betweenthe worship I give to God, and the lesser honor I give to every otherthing, when I am offering one or the other of them, but I do not knowthe langages well enough to know what to call the various worshipfulacts.

I'd love to hear more about your trip to Patmos and the 7 churches. Although, I understand that Christ was faithful to His word of judgement against some of them, and they no longer exist.

Let me know if you want to come to the Festal Vigil on the 13th, or any regular vigil on a Saturday evening.

Your servant,

Matt

(In the email to Bernard the 1st Hour Readers service was appended here)