From Athens
May 14, 2009
Sitting in the Athens airport, waiting for my flight to Berlin that’s been delayed. I’ve spent the last week in Greece (Nafplio, Delphi, Athens—in that order), seen dozens of Byzantine churches and kissed even more icons. If I had stayed here for a year it would change me for life, I’m quite sure.
I’ve been struck with a surprised sense of relief from being in an Orthodox country where the faith doesn’t have that anxious quality which it did in the United States. The earthiness of Orthodox faith and practice is tangible here, especially in the jam-packed church of Agioi Isidoroi. Fr. Paul (a frequent commenter here and my host in Athens) and I attended Hierarchical Vespers there after a semi-arduous hike up the hill on which was the small cave-church. As I watched people mill about kissing icons and lighting candles by the bunches—well-dressed old ladies and sloppily-clothed teenagers—, as I squeezed my way through the frenzied crowd for blessed bread, as I rubbed my myrrh-doused hands onto my face, it occurred to me that Orthodoxy here is something like an old, lived-in Malaysian house—warm, homey and poorly-lit rather than bright, tidy and sanitized.
I think Germany will be, let’s say, “different”.
May 15, 2009 at 12:25 pm
“Orthodoxy here is something like an old, lived-in Malaysian house—warm, homey and poorly-lit rather than bright, tidy and sanitized.”
I think that’s why the Holy Sepulchre is my favorite church in the world… I also don’t know if any religious tradition in the United States possesses those qualities – it strikes me that you have to go places where an ancient faith is part of the fabric of life and culture to experience that, as it has simply never been a part of life in North America.
May 16, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I love your blog. I am descended from Byzantine Christians (my grandparents were actually from an area outside Constantinople (now Istanbul) called Forty Churches (now Kirklareli). I didn’t grow up Orthodox, because my mother, who is not Greek like my father, raised me differently, here in the USA. However, I am drawn to the Orthodox Church (with some hesitation, to be honest), and reading your blog is comforting. You seem so… Grounded.
May 26, 2009 at 5:09 pm
@ Joe: I look forward to going to that church some day. I hope you are in the middle of a relaxing home visit.
@ Karen: Thanks for your kind words. Being drawn with some hesitation toward the Orthodox Church, I think, is a good thing! I feel as though I’m slowly gaining my sobriety as the idealisms I had about Orthodoxy are dispersing. What remains, hopefully, is Christ, the faith of the Apostles, the cloud of faith-bearing witnesses. Peace on your journey!