E
lena, John, and I went to Vespers at Eli’s local Orthodox Church the day before yesterday. It really is startling just how similar the Catholic and Orthodox churches are. The prayers were in English, so I knew that they were directly akin to many of the Catholic prayers we bring forward at every mass.
The space of the church is prehaps one of the biggest differences. The walls were covered in icons, and every space that didn't have icons bore murals. When entering, the parishioners would prostrate themselves before and honor a couple of important icons near the sanctuary, a ritual that I very much liked. Overall, there was a palpable sense of the closeness of the Communion of Saints, and the effect was very "homey". It's a very different take on "inviting" than so many ill-fated attempts at winsomeness in other churches. The gold-back peopl on every surface make the church feel very human.
The singing of the chants, in English, definitely put me in mind of a particularly deep and reverent Novus Ordo mass. There's a fairly large contrast between Orthodox chanting and Gregorian chant. The former is continuous throughout the whole of the liturgy, and indeed seems almost to be the liturgy, while the Latin style is more like the choir enunciating various parts of the priest's offering of the Mass. There's a good bit of silence and anticipation in the Latin mass that isn't there in the Orthodox (or at least in their vespers). While I appreciated the harmonies of the chant, I definitely walked away very grateful for the treasure Gregorian chant; its subtle complexity and otherworldly art are just unlike anything you can hear elsewhere, and for whatever reason, chanting in English always sounds a little off to me.
Both Elena and I walked away saddened by the separation between the Orthodox and the Catholic worlds. These two sisters are so clearly meant for one another, and could learn so much by being a family once again. I don't know how to surmount the difficulties of "indifferentism" between their doctrines, but I wish we could more easily join one another in prayer, and the sharing of wisdom.