Brady Woods – Church Visit #1

Church name: St. George Cathedral

Church address: 917 North Wood Street, Chicago, IL 60622

Date attended: Sunday, October 04, 2015

Church category: Russian Orthodox Church

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

The formal elements of the worship were much different than my regular context. The cathedral itself was nearly overwhelming in its beautiful art, candle lighting, smell of incense, and surprisingly casual atmosphere. Through the service, the congregation would move around and intermingle, kissing and crossing themselves before the Icons throughout. The Liturgy was beautifully sung in both English and Russian, and consisted of a series of creeds, confessions, prayers, and blessings. Though I was not used to having nearly the entire worship sung, in terms of content it was remarkably similar to a Wheaton church I often attend. The only significant differences I noted were the lack of the filioque clause and the veneration of Mary and the Saints. The Archimandrite (a high-ranking celibate priest) gave a brief exposition in English on Matthew 7:12 that sounded indistinguishable to the sorts of sermon I would hear in my usual church context. However, the intimacy of having the priest move through the congregation and speak knowingly into the personal lives of his congregants was both refreshing and something that was novel to me.

How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?

The Cathedral itself is modeled off of another Cathedral in Kiev, sot the architecture immediately reminded me that this was, despite the content of the service, a quite different expression of Christianity than Protestant Evangelical churches I have attended. Nonetheless, the long series of similarities in terms of content continually reminded me that it was, largely the exact same Christianity that Protestants hold to, especially in both doctrine and how it is that parishioners live their day-to-day lives. The congregation itself reminded me of the union which is present in the church: there were a number of people who clearly knew only either Russian or English, but they were still extremely friendly with one another. This illustrated for me the universal nature of Christian love: Christians love one another in different contexts to the best of their ability, as gifted by the Holy Spirit.

How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?

One significant illumination which came to mind was the significance of our place and time in determining how it is that we worship God, while also noting that there is a great deal of continuity on core issues. For instance, the doctrine of the Trinity was nearly constantly being brought up in the service, but in much different ways: the parishioners would cross themselves and bow every time the Trinity was brought up, and the Trinity was never mentioned without some sort of worshipful saying attached, usually something along the lines of: “Father, Son, Holy Ghost: God, worthy of praise.” The way the congregants showed deep reverence through joy in church made me question how I approach worship: often with either a somber or a (unfortunately) flippant mood. In contrast, these Christians worship in a seemingly paradoxical fashion; with cheerfulness and awe, informality and gravity.