my first Orthodox service

for reasons that defy my comprehension I've decided to create a blogger.

I attended my first Orthodox service yesterday morning. I was generally impressed. I liked the fact that congregational worship was integrated into every aspect of the service. I liked the fact that the music was fairly easy to sing and comprehend. the Biblical text was intoned, and although a little jarring at first, didn't take THAT long to get used to. there was a nice variety of texts (from Scripture, from old prayers, and the like).

the two aspects I didn't particularly care for go as follows:

it was exceedingly long. in fact, I'd wager they picked the longest possible way to do everything in that service.

my second complaint was the utter lack of a 'sermon' or 'lecture'. perhaps this reflects my profoundy Protestant upbringing, but the lack of a sermon means that these services are not for new converts or the unitiated Christian. from what little I've seen and heard from the congregation most of these people have been life-long Christians as, to put it quite plainly, Orthodoxy is not exactly a hospitable environment for new converts of the Modern persuasion!

I would have enjoyed the service more if I had been able to look over the specific texts and music being used in that service (kinda like reading a musical score along with a live-performance or audio recording)

all in all, I enjoyed myself. I did make the effort to stand through nearly the whole thing (there was a portion where we kneeled, which was the only real exception).

the people in the congregation were friendly and gracious as I rather expected them to be. the priest(s) had a good (and dry) sense of humor that displayed itself throughout the service.

[I suppose I should have mentioned this earlier, but I had family members getting baptized at the service, so this particular occassion was probably significantly longer than usual. and, oh yes, it happened yesterday--on Saturday morning]