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CHAPTER 7

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The methodology employed for this project is limited to an inquiry of attitudes toward the change of preferences in divine worship. The data was drawn from over twenty-two types of biological information inquiries and ten questions including forty-seven multiple-choice project options. The choices ranged from generation to method of distribution of Holy Communion. Ninety volunteer respondents provided over eighteen hundred pieces of biological data and nine hundred selected questionnaire responses that provided the data for this study.

The responses were solicited from five classifications of the people of Saint Nicholas Church in Virginia Beach: (a) Immigrants, (b) First and second generation Americans of Greek descent, (c) Third and fourth generation Americans of Greek descent, (d) Grammar school students and (e) High school students. A total of ninety persons volunteered for the project.

As expected, the information gathered by a carefully conducted inquiry proved to have been available from the time first generation Greek Americans fashioned families 19with spouses from other religious and ethnic backgrounds. However, there were some surprises. There proved to be some constants and inconstants as expected, and some not expected. The project demonstrates that a pastor must know his people if he is totally committed to effectively provide worship that is an authentic expression of those whom he leads in prayer. An instrument such as the questionnaire used in this experiment can be of immeasurable and rewarding help.

Table 6 encompasses the total number of responses cast in the questionnaire by all respondents. It is the composite of Tables 1-5 and provides a portrait of the total preferences in divine worship. The figures reflect the inclination of the respondents to preserve the practice of kneeling during worship as well as the use of incense. In the matter of acolytes, however, half the men and four out of five of the women desire that the little girls be included, at the altar or solea, with the little boys.

The most significant revelation made by the project is that the people are solidly and unwaveringly in favor of the traditional method of dispensing Communion, a surprise, indeed. We would have thought that, since most of our people are formerly from religious cultures in which Communion was distributed by intinction, they would have considered the λαβίς unacceptable. Not only is this not the case, but they also prefer this method for its simplicity and rapidity.

Worship in both languages, preferably in separate liturgies, appears to be a preferred change for providing more fulfilling worship opportunities to the young and old at Saint Nicholas. Few worshipers understand the Greek language or are fulfilled by it. The need to perpetuate tradition, to understand, to hear hymns according to custom, to learn another language, to foretaste and to anticipate the Kingdom of God, are fulfilling experiential settings offered to us by the Liturgy.[1] This is undeniably true for the immigrant generations as well as the generations of diaspora. When Paul brought his Christian thought to the Greeks, it was with their own Greek language he made himself understood.[2]

Similarly, half the immigrant women respondents, believing also that the liturgy's essential ecclesial function is to reveal the faith of the church,[3] stress the need for change to the English language. According to Contos,

As for the question of the influence of the Greek language, we can only point out that there is, after all, no way to make the abstract intelligible except through language. And, since the dominant language and thought during the formative centuries of Christianity was Greek, it was inevitable, not to say providential, that the Christian faith found its principal expression through that means (John 12:20).[4]

There appears to be an almost total preference to retain the completely see-through εικovoστάσιov. Respondents indicate that with the passing of time, it is becoming more and more acceptable even to male immigrants. Female immigrants likewise favor the see-through especially since their progeny prefer it. The advantages and benefits of the see-through εικovoστάσιov far outweigh whatever traditional value of the closed screen is sacrificed. They feel strongly that it provides a more reverent and worshipful atmosphere by exposing the sanctuary.

By providing exposure to the liturgical proceedings in the sanctuary, the respondents maintain that spiritual growth and understanding are enhanced. There is, additionally, increased participation that tends to integrate all into a body of worshipers more intimate in their relationships with one another and deeply committed to Christ our God together.

Change about where the priest should be located is generally preferred. Immigrant generations, however, prefer that the priest be stationed in front of the altar with his back to the people. It is the tradition of intercessory worship in which they grew up in their homeland.[5] Intercessory prayer and petitions on the part of the priest, who, with his back to the people faced the crucified Christ, were integral parts of the Lord's supper.

Yet, most people contend that they ought to be able to view those happenings that are the most sacred and significant of the Holy Eucharist. Their view is obstructed. They feel denied. If everything is in view,

the Eucharist is certain to provide a more meaningful and lasting occasion of worship.

Those, on the other hand, who prefer the traditional practice with the priest stationed with his back to the people, should not be denied. This is how they worshiped since childhood, and this is how they should worship throughout their lives. They resent any new form imposed upon them.

The major part, by far, of the Saint Nicholas constituency is non-Greek in ethnic background and custom of worship. None come from a religious culture wherein their clergy led the worship facing away from the people. They came to Saint Nicholas fully expecting to be spiritually nourished in the Orthodox church in a manner to which it would not be too difficult to adjust.

But they have difficulty understanding and adjusting to Orthodox worship in which the priest in his intercessory role faces away from the congregation. They consider this an indicator of indifference and unfriendliness. Many have left Orthodoxy for other more familiar and friendly worship environments taking the Orthodox member of their inter-church marriage with them.

The essential traditional structure of the service, nevertheless, remains to this day. Experimentation or modification tends to arouse serious reactions and, in some cases, causes violence. It appears vital that multiple forms of worship are required if more people's spiritual needs are to be filled.

The respondents indicated a strong inclination on the part of four in five persons to retain the traditional use of incense. Adults support their position strongly with the use of such terminology as "obligatory," "unequivocally essential," "moderately," "mandatory," and "less frequently." Whatever the conditions or limitations they suggest, the use of incense is imperative. For the children who feel just as strongly about the use of incense, the key words are "a more worshipful environment," "use sparingly," "mandatory," and "no preference."

Incense has been used in Christianity since the fourth century to the present time in connection with religious observances.[6] It was not used in the first centuries of the Church because of its association with pagan cults and Emperor-worship. Since the day of their churching (on or about the fortieth day after their birth), worshiping Orthodox Christians are exposed to the smell of incense.

All but two males and three females out of ninety respondents overwhelmingly prefer that kneeling remain as a worship practice. They prefer that, on the one hand, the present custom be retained and that kneeling be left to the discretion of people who alone are aware of their physical capabilities. On the other hand, they will continue to respond to the command of the celebrant in other infrequent select Orthodox ceremonies.

Much has been said, in principle, for kneeling during the Great Entrance of the prepared Gifts to the sanctuary,[7] the Consecration, or for special prayer on the Pentecost. It is well to remember, that "Let us pray," is not the same as "Let us kneel," and further, that crouching between seats is not kneeling. Reasons for standing and sitting at other occasions in the liturgical action include standing for praise in fellowship and for sitting to listen to readings, sermons, notices, etc.

Sitting was originally the privilege only of the bishop and the senior member of the congregation. Priests had seats alongside them around the apse. No other seats were provided in churches except for the infirm and the elderly.[8]

To this day, it is not customary for congregations to sit in many Orthodox Churches throughout the world as is done in American Greek Orthodox churches since the turn of the twentieth century. In some Orthodox churches in America, there are seats only for the clergy and for the aged and infirm. The Greek churches, however, in almost all cases, employ in their temples the western custom of pews for sitting and kneeling. According to Gilbert Cope:

It may be noted that there is no virtue in postural uniformity per se, and that in corporate worship the guidance of the Spirit is not to be resisted in the matter of standing, sitting or kneeling.[9]

The gender of acolytes remains a constantly debated issue. Respondents are divided 30 percent to 60 percent representing preference for boy or girl acolytes respectively. Only among immigrants and, quite surprisingly, among grammar school boys is there unconditional resistance to change. Although immigrants prefer boys only as acolytes, it appears that they would tolerate the presence of girl acolytes on the solea because it turns out that the little girls are their grandchildren. Perhaps they are too inflexible to express delight except perchance to the little girls themselves.

On the whole, people are very favorable to the idea of girl acolytes if restricted to the solea. Some feel this is a calculated move toward ultimate integration of girl acolytes into the altar. Others pray incessantly that little girls may someday be permitted to participate in active worship service rather than be told by parents and priest that only boys are acceptable at the altar of God.

Generally, the women of the church are hopeful that traditions of flagrant disregard for female dignity and humanness in the house of God are being more strongly challenged and may one day be addressed. They strongly contend that the Body of Christ ought not be an institution that, more than any other, is more reluctant to grant equal rights to women.

The demand for change in this category alone is unanimous among ninety respondents. With the exception of immigrant males who prefer the choir only to render all the responses in worship, the congregations of Saint Nicholas are virtually unanimous in favor of the congregation and the choir singing the responses together. The message underlying this response is that in some churches, the need for a chanter is diminishing. A brief glance into the historical origin of the chanter provides some insights.

From the exclamations on the part of the priest, it is obvious that, historically, the liturgy has undergone significant changes. Common actions have been transformed into exclamations.[10] When the priest, e.g., petitions several times during the liturgy, "Let us pray to the Lord," he is inviting the congregation to pray the designated prayer or sing the hymn that follows. It is not expected that persons devise individual prayers. Or, when the priest intones, "Let us love one another," which is a call to a certain condition, there is considerable evidence that describes a kiss being performed.

With the passing of time, however, the action-response has been narrowed to the choir or to the sanctuary alone, as is present day practice.[11] In the vast majority of Orthodox churches, singing is left to the choirs and the reading of prayers left to the priest to do inaudibly (while the choir sings). In the Russian tradition, the people sing the hymns and responses. In some circles, it is conjectured that the choir has displaced the chanter in making the responses because of good taste, or in fact, to train or to lead the congregation in singing and to stimulate participation.[12]

White stresses that one of the chief jobs of a choir is to make itself altogether unnecessary.[13] Some who come from other religious denominations, and embrace the Orthodox faith, view the Orthodox worshipers as observers or non-entities, while the chanter or choir have become the indispensable components.

Congregational singing under the leadership of the choir is the unanimous desire and goal of the people at Saint Nicholas. Everyone is issued a hymnal and a Bible upon entering the church and continuously encouraged to participate in the responses. The Divine Liturgy Hymnal issued by the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America has as its foreword the following:

The objective of this Divine Liturgy Hymnal is to give all members of our Archdiocese congregations -- young and old alike -- the opportunity to participate in our Divine Liturgy in a way that will be edifying, as well

as spiritually uplifting. It is with this hope and prayer that we wholeheartedly recommend this Divine Liturgy Hymnal for use in both our church schools and our parish churches whenever the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated.

approximately half of the female immigrant population, the preference for reciting liturgical prayers, priest and congregation together, is enthusiastically supported. Young and old are of the mind that participating in reading the liturgical prayers increases understanding and causes people to feel they are an integral part of worship and not mere spectators. After all, they feel, is not the primary purpose for which people go to church -- to pray?

In reciting the prayers, worshipers are made aware that they are petitioning God for forgiveness of sins and membership in His heavenly kingdom. The accrued benefits are so great and readily available that to abandon worshipers to the aimless goal of bystander is to commit a grave sin against people who come to church to pray with others.

The Saint Nicholas congregations want their priests to lead the congregations in reading the liturgical prayers for a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the essence of the Divine Liturgy. Inevitably, the enhanced spiritual growth and development leads to salvation of souls. Alexander Schmemann declares,

And finally, they know that even if individual words or rites are unclear to them, the kingdom of God has been given to them in the Church: in that common action, common standing before God, in the assembly, in the ascent, in unity and love.[14]

Almost all men and four of five women have changed their habit of receiving Holy Communion two or three times a year as was their custom in their homeland. At Saint Nicholas they receive every time they come to church and they hear the invitation to come forth in fear of God, faith, and love.

It is not too difficult to take the immigrant Greeks for granted in divine worship when they join the congregations for the first time. They neither sing the responses, nor read nor recite prayers during the Divine Liturgy, nor come forth at the invitation to receive the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. The immigrant is, in the main, a spectator. To provide for the immigrants' spiritual worship needs is to provide the liturgy in the manner in which they have been accustomed, if the immigrants are to remain. In addition, a sermon in their preferred language, usually Greek, understandably, must be provided. Under these circumstances, with the preaching of the essential message of salvation and more frequent reception of Holy Communion, the Lord steps in to involve the worshiper in ways he has never experienced heretofore.

As the ensuing Orthodox inter-church generations mature spiritually and bring their children into the life of the church, increased participation in the liturgics usually results in more frequent reception of Communion. Some who are slow or reluctant to modify their worship habits are usually moved by their peers to increased participation.

As succeeding generations of Greek ancestry from multiple religious orientations and ethnic origins become active worshipers, they ultimately become the great majority of worshipers at Saint Nicholas. At present 85 percent or more of the people who constitute the Saint Nicholas congregations are of non-Greek origin. Most of them receive Holy Communion regularly. A perpetual effort is made to educate people concerning the Divine Liturgy and its origin and institution. Sermons and group catechetical instruction provide greater learning in this regard. Sunday school teaching and familiarity with holy scripture are foremost in this endeavor as children come to know God as their Savior, and the history of Holy Communion and its inaugurator.

As Table 6 figures indicate, 62 percent of respondents prefer some change in worship form and church decor. Although many of their preferences, drawn from practices in their former religious affiliations, are not viable in Orthodoxy in our day, this is, more or less, expected. What was not readily expected or anticipated in the least, is the almost unanimous preference for distribution of Holy Communion with the λαβίς, a practice totally alien to non-Orthodox.

The matter of distribution of Holy Communion in the Orthodox fashion is not the serious problem we had envisioned the respondents might indicate. We felt that because so many of our worshipers come to Orthodoxy from Catholicism and Protestantism through inter-church marriages or conversion, they would prefer that Holy Communion be distributed by the intinction method which is utilized by so many other Christian churches. Instead, the λαβίς method of distributing Holy Communion is almost unanimously preferred over any other.

The purpose of this project was not to prove Orthodox worship superior in some fashion over those of other religious denominations, nor has it done so. On the contrary, one of our goals was to authenticate the suspicions we fostered that non-Greeks who embrace the Orthodox faith prefer the worship forms they practiced in their former churches.

We discovered, however, that this is not entirely true. There are some practices in prayer and worship, individual and corporate, that people learn as children and love and retain throughout their lives. And there are some practices they learn from others with which they enrich their prayer and worship practices and their spirituality as well.

More and more we are gaining the assurance that what we have learned is far more than what the statistics and responses tell us in so many words. Hidden beneath the words is the message that tells us there is much about our people we need to learn if we are to respond to their perpetual appeals to teach them and help them to pray in a more satisfying manner. We have learned that we can help provide a direction in which people can develop an awareness of self in an active relationship with God in whom they can find acceptance and confirmation as to what they are and to what they can become.

This instrument with which we planned and carried out this enlightening project has been, and will continue to be, a medium of immeasurable help in our endeavor to shepherd our flock at Saint Nicholas. This we do in accordance with the Will of God and His mandate to go forth unto all nations.

Study of the responses indicates that church decor, language, participation, the role of the priest, acolytes, incense, frequency of reception of Holy Communion, and more, are all matters of vital concern. They need to be examined in depth when seeking to provide meaningful Christian worship in a constantly changing American environment.

In the past, we have experimented with worship purely on a notional basis. We are persuaded, however, that experimentation has to be conducted in the context of specific people, places, and times. This may lead to innovations that would widely vary with conclusions drawn in other parishes, under widely varying circumstances, with different types of congregations.[15]

(1) In formal worship, all that happens at the altar should be exposed to the congregations. Worshipers are convinced they have a right to know what is happening there.

(2) In formal worship, a dialogue is intended and, therefore, people are a tangible and incontrovertible party to that dialogue.

(3) The language utilized in worship should be the language of the people if they are to understand what the Lord wants them to know.

(5) No changes in the system of thought and practice of a religious community can be too great or too sacrificing if they serve to keep its membership intact and in allegiance to Christ.[16]

(6) The most accurate and genuine sources of information helpful to the clergy in providing spiritually, linguistically, liturgically, and environmentally suitable

(7) In the long run it does not help for people to act in church as if they are deeply immersed in meditation and prayer when, in fact, they are not! And, great is the tragedy when the clergy are oblivious to this truth.

(8) If priests were authorized to celebrate more than one Divine Liturgy on any given day, increased opportunity for communal worship would result. It does not seem expedient for any mixed group of Christians to have available to them only one scheduled divine worship service, on any day,[17] in which to worship.

The value of this project. This project has accomplished far more than was anticipated toward teaching us to provide more adequately for the worship needs of our people, young and old, while assuring us that we are doing as much as we can for the time being.

Church memberships change continually, especially in Virginia Beach, which, together with Norfolk and the whole Tidewater Area, constitute residences for the people of the largest Naval Base in the Western Hemisphere and, perhaps, the largest in the world.

There are 250,000 uniformed men and women of all branches of military service in the area. They comprise much of the membership of many churches of all denominations. In some instances, the total membership is made up of active-duty and retired personnel and their families. Since Navy personnel are constantly being ordered to and from the Tidewater Area, membership of Saint Nicholas changes also. In addition, families from other parts of the country come to Virginia Beach to reside. A project such as this enables the pastor to stay abreast of the needs of a changing constituency.

Aims for the future. In the future, the interviews will be conducted by carefully selected bilingual persons, male and female, from among the members of the parish. Perhaps being interviewed by priests was the more appropriate approach for this first interview. It may be, also, that people who were interviewed would have had much more to say had the interviewers been members of the parish or persons from outside the parish.

Rewards. Rewards are continuous and abundant beyond our expectations. We hasten to recommend this project to colleagues and seminarians.

[1] Schmemann, Liturgy and Tradition, 143.

[2] Rev. Leonidas Contos, Ph.D., "Introduction to the Orthodox Church," A Companion to the Greek Orthodox Church, ed., Fotios K. Litsas. (New York: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, 1984), 5.

[3] Schmemann, Liturgy and Tradition, 138.

[4] Contos, "Introduction to the Orthodox Church," 4.

[5] White, New Forms of Worship, 53.

[6] Jones, et al., The Study of Liturgy, 433.

[7] Patrinacos, Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy, 157.

[8] Davies, ed., The Westminster Dictionary of Worship, 318.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Schmemann, The Eucharist, 134.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid., 126.

[13] White, New Forms of Worship, 129.

[14] Schmemann, The Eucharist, 47.

[15] White, New Forms of Worship, 9.

[16] Patrinacos, The Orthodox Liturgy, 233.

[17] Young parents, with infant children, who wish to attend church on Sunday morning, are often reluctant to do so because they fear their children will disturb the worshiping congregation. If there are two liturgies, one parent could attend the first while the other attended to the children. The other parent could then attend the second liturgy. Many parents do not attend church in the early years of their child-rearing.