I've been to Matins at a local Antiochian parish today. They celebrated their 100 years of the parish, so a lot of clergy and simply visitors from other parishes attended. The singing was... "magical" - 6 or 7 young men singing byzantine chants in Greek, Arabic and English. The church building is unusually - for me - big and has great acoustic properties, so the chanting filled it and sounded by the doors in the back same well as standing next to the chanters.
I noticed some parishioners/lay people wearing unusual - big and decorated - crosses suspended on wide bright red ribbons. I wonder what those signs are of. I did some research online and one version is that they are of a St. Ignatius' Order, but I'm not sure. Anyone knows what this is about?
When I arrived at the very beginning of the Matins there were only 20-30 people there, in addition to the chanters and the serving clergy. By the end of the service the church was full. The bishop also arrived at some point during the Matins. Too bad I couldn't stay for the Liturgy.
A person in the Order of St. Ignatius has pledged a certain amount of money to this fund. The money from the fund is used to help married seminarians pay for seminary classes and it is also used to pay the retirement for priests in addition to what the diocese gives.
ReplyDeleteThank you Emily.
ReplyDeleteSomehow it still seems weird to me - that people actually do put on some signs of doing that, instead of participating secretly. Why would one want to rob himself of the recognition from Above by inviting recognition from people? Weird.
I don't understand that part either. Our church was just consecrated and at the end of the service there was a special ceremony where the members came to the front of the church to receive their crosses from the Metropolitan. It felt a little awkward, to me anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think, being thankful and giving something like this as a sign of gratitude is normal and healthy. And rejecting the sign is sometimes against love. But after accepting it, one doesn't have to display the received sign.
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