Entry #1.5 - Exploring Orthodoxy

To be honest, before my boyfriend brought up Orthodoxy I didn't really know what it was, nor did I care what it was and therefore never researched to understand more about it. For all I know my Greek Yiayia (Grandma) and her family were Greek Orthodox until her mother decided to leave and attend a Foursquare church (she was 12 years old at the time). Then eventually she received an honorary pastor recognition at the Foursquare church she continued to attend.

Growing up, my Yiayia was your typical Greek Yiayia. She lived in a room downstairs, she spoke Greek, she sang beautiful songs downstairs, and she really knew how to eat... A lot. And she really liked her white wine! Not only that, but she was the funniest Yiayia I ever knew. When the whole vine stuff happened she stole the show on my vine multiple times and by the time of her death, many reached out in the comments sharing how much she meant to them, and that was beautiful. She lived a long, healthy life with the Lord and is goals to the max. I could tell she really loved me by the way she would shuffle over to her Buick, hop in the car and stalk me outside as I was playing with my friends until I got back in the house because it was dark. She's also who I practiced all my cringe jokes on before I took them out into the real world. Not only that, but she was one of the first people who encouraged me to be free with my humor. She always told me I reminded her of her cousin Janet who was a movie star and I didn't know who Janet was, but I always felt like we would've been good friends. Overall, she was Yiayia goals and I would've given anything to spend a few more years with her. If only she met my 6 foot 5 inch boyfriend, she'd nearly have a heart attack from shock. She loves blondes and loves squeezing muscle just as much as I do, so it would've been a great time. And yeah, if I only had a little more time I would've asked her more stories about Greece, about her life, about her journey with Christ, but what's done is done, and now I can only speculate.

So my interest in Orthodoxy came with these curious questions: What was my Yiayia a part of? How did it impact her life? Was the church part of their culture? What even did they do in there?

So Peter asked me if I wanted to check out Vespers with him, which is just another name for the Greek Orthodox churches prayer service. When I got there, I was so fascinated by the reverence they hold and how they treat each other and come before God. These people stood almost the whole entire service (2 hours) and at the very end we were all on our hands and knees bowed before our Creator. It was a service full of healing. I admired the love I could witness between the members and how tight-knit this group was. This was a church with maybe 15–30 people who attend, so it was pretty small from what I'm used to experiencing (mega-church culture). I appreciated their ancient liturgy, which they testify that it stems back to the oldest church service we know of. I appreciate the choir, the incense, being surrounded by beautiful portraits of the saints who've gone before us. It reminded me that we stand on the shoulders of those who've gone before us, and we're fighting the good fight just like they did. I appreciated how Biblically centered their prayers were. There wasn't anything strange that made me feel uncomfortable and question where it came from (like some past churches I've gone to). And what was cool was that most of the Orthodox prayers were literally straight from Psalms and other parts of the Bible, so that put my mind at ease. I'm not one to normally get emotional in services, but it did manage to make me get emotional. I really felt God's presence while worshiping and praying with the others. If a church can make you aware of God's presence, then hat's off to that church.

Anyway, it was cool to explore this church with Peter, and I feel like I'm learning about my roots. Even though my great-great grandma decided to leave, and my mother never went and my Yiayia left at an early age, I can't help but appreciate these Christians and their expression of faith. The more I learn about history, the more I'm shocked about how the Orthodox Christian's had to suffer such brutality from the ottoman Turks, and the Catholic Church. The crusades by the Catholic Church declared by the Pope were not only for the Muslims, but also for the Orthodox. The Catholics sacked Constantinople and brutality killed innocent Orthodox Christians in the name of God by the Pope's orders. The Orthodox didn't fight with hatred and wars and bloodshed, they endured as martyrs, and that can be seen in history over and over again. So I encourage you to read this history of Christianity. It's remarkable and if you're a Christian and you attend church, it's part of your history too and you should know it.

So where does that put me now? Well, I am learning. I personally don't ever want to stop learning. I don't want to just read about something, I love to understand from their perspective. Maybe that's partly because I'm an actress and that's how I prepare myself for the characters I play, but I feel like it also helps save me from ignorance. I'm learning about the church history, I'm challenging myself to grow, and I appreciate the journey of growth I'm experiencing as I continue to learn from so many different Christians. I appreciate my heritage. I appreciate my Yiayias church and I hope I can learn from them as I've learned from so many other churches.

I still attend College Avenue Baptist weekly, and I don't plan on changing that. That's my community, that's my family, that's my home. That's where God has me, and I don't feel called to leave it behind. But that doesn't stop the fact that I'm still on a journey of learning, realizing that I don't know everything there is to know about how to worship, how to pray, etc. and so that's why I'm open to learning and not closed off.

We all have something to offer, to help, to learn from, and I'd be ignorant to think I didn't need to explore more. Being content with only what you know doesn't seem like a very fulfilling life to me. I want to be challenged. I want to be questioned. I want to consider with others and not be afraid to have my concepts broken down. I want to see life through other people's perspectives and take the good and leave the bad. I want to keep this child like mentality until God calls me home. Life is so much more interesting when we challenge all we know instead of accepting it blindly. To be free to educate and understand from different viewpoints is liberating and in my personal opinion, frees us from personal bias, racism and sexism.

I believe it's essential for all human beings to work on developing empathy for others, and a very important way of accomplishing that is by exploring a life that is lived differently than yours.