Now, THAT'S Joy!
_Aly Tapp shares the story of her family's first (and second) visit to St. John's and their journey to the Orthodox Church.
Our journey to Orthodoxy began when our oldest child enrolled in Sunday Church School at our Lutheran church. While the children played, we sat with other parents and talked about Christian parenting. As wonderful as our friends were in that community, we felt a lack of seriousness in the study of our faith. We yearned for hearty theological discussions. We also wanted our children to be excited about their faith, and we weren’t sure that the aging mainline church would hold their interest and challenge them to remain steadfast in a world that pulled them away from Christ. We were tired of hymns sung too slowly and of sleepy worship. Our fellow parishioners were dedicated Christians, and our pastors were trying to reinvigorate many programs, but we were increasingly detached. Parish life seemed to lack joy, despite everyone’s best efforts. We both felt that something was calling us to explore, but having been a member of the same parish for 33 years, this was daunting to me. Still, our pastor at the time encouraged us to follow where the Holy Spirit led us, and so we ventured out.
We were initially pessimistic. We feared that other mainline churches would be similar or even worse. We had misgivings about the Roman Catholic Church and its allegiance to Papal authority (most Lutherans have an inborn skepticism about Rome). We abhorred what we referred to as “PowerPoint Rock Band Worship” that was heavy on glitz and super-light on substance. We regarded Christ as our savior, but not as our good ol’ buddy, and the use of rock bands in worship made us feel manipulated, as if we were incapable of worshiping God unless He was presented to us in modern terms.
I had heard somewhere that the Orthodox Church was appealing to families that wanted serious theology and worship in a family-friendly setting. To this day, I have no idea where I heard that, but I simply announced this to my husband one Saturday evening. He asked, “Where is one?” I said, “There’s one somewhere up on Sherman Street.” We agreed to check it out for worship the next morning. My husband said, “Are you sure they’re Christian? And do they speak English?” We should have noticed the crosses on top of the building! I just said, “I think so. I have no idea what they are. Let’s just check it out.”
The narthex was subdued and quiet. We asked if there was a nursery (our children were then ages 5, 2, and not quite 1). When we heard there was none, we were dismayed. Wondering if this church was like the Roman Catholic Church, and not wanting to make a fool of myself, I asked, “Is there communion? Is it closed?” We learned that yes, there was communion, and yes, it was only for Orthodox. We were wary. This sounded quite Catholic. Still, we crept into the back of the nave and took our place in the last row. We noticed immediately that there was no organ. The music was…weird. People were crossing themselves quite a bit (we liked that), but we felt conspicuous and uncomfortable. When my daughter asked to go to the bathroom, I was relieved to take a break. When I came out of the restroom, my husband was standing in the narthex and said “This is not what we’re looking for. This is…weird.” With that, we decided to hustle to another Lutheran church to check it out instead. On the way out the door, I grabbed every pamphlet in the tract rack. Yes, I thought we’d never see the place again, but I at least wanted to try to figure out what Orthodoxy was, and how it fit into the American Christian community. We made it to the Lutheran church, and worshiped and communed. The service was lifeless, the organ was droning, the sermon was dull. We went home depressed.
That evening, I came down with a fever bug, and I stayed home from work the next day. That Monday afternoon, as I soaked in a hot tub, I read through those pamphlets one by one, and an amazing thing happened. The insufficiencies I had always sensed in Lutheran theology were answered. This was Truth. It would be a number of months before I heard it expressed in words, but my heart knew this: If the Catholic church had added to the faith, and the Protestants had subtracted from it, Orthodoxy had stood firmly. I had always been suspicious of confession – here, I was crying at the realization that it makes perfect sense. I had wondered how the Pope came to have such singular power; here I was surprised to learn that Orthodox Church authority was shared among Bishops and that no fast changes occurred. Indeed, the corporate membership of the church slowly ratified or rejected any challenges to the Faith. Moreover, I learned that the Pope had once upon a time been one of the Bishops of the ONE original Christian Church before the Great Schism. In these modest little pamphlets, History and Mystery came together for me that afternoon, and I just cried. I wasn’t sure what would happen next, but I couldn’t wait to tell my husband about the pamphlets. Pretty quickly, it became apparent that we were going to be heading back to that Orthodox Church.
Armed with crayons and coloring books and a toy or two, we arrived at St. John Chrysostom Antiochian Orthodox Church on a bright May morning, not knowing that it was just one week after Pascha. Having read additional literature about Orthodoxy, we were pleased to see that what had been weird the first time around was now not entirely foreign to us. I actually recognized the structure of the service, since Lutherans still follow a liturgy based on the ages-old Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Close to the end, everyone sang with amazing zeal, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord, henceforth and forever!” My husband turned to me and smiled, “Now THAT’S JOY!”
Following the Divine Liturgy, a member came over and kissed us both on both of our cheeks. He offered to take our daughter to Sunday school. We asked if we could talk to the priest. Shortly thereafter, Father Peter joined us in the parish hall and offered to come to our home that week to sit with us and answer all of our questions. We were thrilled. Our daughter bounced out of Sunday school smiling from ear to ear. On the way to the car, I asked my husband what he thought, and he said, “Some dude kissed me – and it wasn’t weird.” We still laugh about that (especially since the man is his godfather now!).
From that Sunday on, we knew that we were home, and we embraced the life of catechumens for the next year. It was terribly hard to tell our old church friends and especially my parents, who still attend our former church. Time has eased some of that pain, and my parents rejoice to see their children and grandchildren grow in faith. Still, the initial months were difficult; they felt that we were rejecting the church that had fed us for so long. That’s tough stuff, but as Khouria Pam says, “God provides.” We continue to discover joy in the Orthodox Church, and as time rambles on, we are increasingly thankful for this steadfast Faith. We rely on the integrity of the church and find comfort and inspiration in the prayers and liturgies. We believe that God led us to Orthodoxy, and we trust Him and praise Him and worship Him now and ever and unto ages of ages! Amen!
Aly and her family were chrismated in 2008 on Lazarus Saturday.
Our journey to Orthodoxy began when our oldest child enrolled in Sunday Church School at our Lutheran church. While the children played, we sat with other parents and talked about Christian parenting. As wonderful as our friends were in that community, we felt a lack of seriousness in the study of our faith. We yearned for hearty theological discussions. We also wanted our children to be excited about their faith, and we weren’t sure that the aging mainline church would hold their interest and challenge them to remain steadfast in a world that pulled them away from Christ. We were tired of hymns sung too slowly and of sleepy worship. Our fellow parishioners were dedicated Christians, and our pastors were trying to reinvigorate many programs, but we were increasingly detached. Parish life seemed to lack joy, despite everyone’s best efforts. We both felt that something was calling us to explore, but having been a member of the same parish for 33 years, this was daunting to me. Still, our pastor at the time encouraged us to follow where the Holy Spirit led us, and so we ventured out.
We were initially pessimistic. We feared that other mainline churches would be similar or even worse. We had misgivings about the Roman Catholic Church and its allegiance to Papal authority (most Lutherans have an inborn skepticism about Rome). We abhorred what we referred to as “PowerPoint Rock Band Worship” that was heavy on glitz and super-light on substance. We regarded Christ as our savior, but not as our good ol’ buddy, and the use of rock bands in worship made us feel manipulated, as if we were incapable of worshiping God unless He was presented to us in modern terms.
I had heard somewhere that the Orthodox Church was appealing to families that wanted serious theology and worship in a family-friendly setting. To this day, I have no idea where I heard that, but I simply announced this to my husband one Saturday evening. He asked, “Where is one?” I said, “There’s one somewhere up on Sherman Street.” We agreed to check it out for worship the next morning. My husband said, “Are you sure they’re Christian? And do they speak English?” We should have noticed the crosses on top of the building! I just said, “I think so. I have no idea what they are. Let’s just check it out.”
The narthex was subdued and quiet. We asked if there was a nursery (our children were then ages 5, 2, and not quite 1). When we heard there was none, we were dismayed. Wondering if this church was like the Roman Catholic Church, and not wanting to make a fool of myself, I asked, “Is there communion? Is it closed?” We learned that yes, there was communion, and yes, it was only for Orthodox. We were wary. This sounded quite Catholic. Still, we crept into the back of the nave and took our place in the last row. We noticed immediately that there was no organ. The music was…weird. People were crossing themselves quite a bit (we liked that), but we felt conspicuous and uncomfortable. When my daughter asked to go to the bathroom, I was relieved to take a break. When I came out of the restroom, my husband was standing in the narthex and said “This is not what we’re looking for. This is…weird.” With that, we decided to hustle to another Lutheran church to check it out instead. On the way out the door, I grabbed every pamphlet in the tract rack. Yes, I thought we’d never see the place again, but I at least wanted to try to figure out what Orthodoxy was, and how it fit into the American Christian community. We made it to the Lutheran church, and worshiped and communed. The service was lifeless, the organ was droning, the sermon was dull. We went home depressed.
That evening, I came down with a fever bug, and I stayed home from work the next day. That Monday afternoon, as I soaked in a hot tub, I read through those pamphlets one by one, and an amazing thing happened. The insufficiencies I had always sensed in Lutheran theology were answered. This was Truth. It would be a number of months before I heard it expressed in words, but my heart knew this: If the Catholic church had added to the faith, and the Protestants had subtracted from it, Orthodoxy had stood firmly. I had always been suspicious of confession – here, I was crying at the realization that it makes perfect sense. I had wondered how the Pope came to have such singular power; here I was surprised to learn that Orthodox Church authority was shared among Bishops and that no fast changes occurred. Indeed, the corporate membership of the church slowly ratified or rejected any challenges to the Faith. Moreover, I learned that the Pope had once upon a time been one of the Bishops of the ONE original Christian Church before the Great Schism. In these modest little pamphlets, History and Mystery came together for me that afternoon, and I just cried. I wasn’t sure what would happen next, but I couldn’t wait to tell my husband about the pamphlets. Pretty quickly, it became apparent that we were going to be heading back to that Orthodox Church.
Armed with crayons and coloring books and a toy or two, we arrived at St. John Chrysostom Antiochian Orthodox Church on a bright May morning, not knowing that it was just one week after Pascha. Having read additional literature about Orthodoxy, we were pleased to see that what had been weird the first time around was now not entirely foreign to us. I actually recognized the structure of the service, since Lutherans still follow a liturgy based on the ages-old Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Close to the end, everyone sang with amazing zeal, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord, henceforth and forever!” My husband turned to me and smiled, “Now THAT’S JOY!”
Following the Divine Liturgy, a member came over and kissed us both on both of our cheeks. He offered to take our daughter to Sunday school. We asked if we could talk to the priest. Shortly thereafter, Father Peter joined us in the parish hall and offered to come to our home that week to sit with us and answer all of our questions. We were thrilled. Our daughter bounced out of Sunday school smiling from ear to ear. On the way to the car, I asked my husband what he thought, and he said, “Some dude kissed me – and it wasn’t weird.” We still laugh about that (especially since the man is his godfather now!).
From that Sunday on, we knew that we were home, and we embraced the life of catechumens for the next year. It was terribly hard to tell our old church friends and especially my parents, who still attend our former church. Time has eased some of that pain, and my parents rejoice to see their children and grandchildren grow in faith. Still, the initial months were difficult; they felt that we were rejecting the church that had fed us for so long. That’s tough stuff, but as Khouria Pam says, “God provides.” We continue to discover joy in the Orthodox Church, and as time rambles on, we are increasingly thankful for this steadfast Faith. We rely on the integrity of the church and find comfort and inspiration in the prayers and liturgies. We believe that God led us to Orthodoxy, and we trust Him and praise Him and worship Him now and ever and unto ages of ages! Amen!
Aly and her family were chrismated in 2008 on Lazarus Saturday.
