Orthodoxy in a Coffee Shop

I'm writing this from Java Cabana in Midtown. Today was a long complicated day, so I was thrilled to hear that Brandon wanted to eat a late lunch at Square Foods. After enjoying an oatburger we came here. When he decided to go to work I decided to stay here.



I said I would explain my move Orthodoxy. Last year I started looking for a new church. I knew I didn't want to be Baptist, although I didn't know what Christian denomination I wanted to be. At that point I was open to almost anything. I wanted to worship in the first church. Honestly I thought that would be some sort of low profile non-denominational church.



During this time Brandon and I started dating. He had been attending St. John Orthodox Church casually. We talked about religion quite often. All the while I was busy looking at more of the same, protestant denominations that is, and didn't see the ancient church I was looking for.



During this time Lent began. Brandon asked me to come to St. John's Pascha service (Easter.) He said I should probably visit the Church at least once before Pascha, since it's pretty different from what I was used to. The Sunday before Palm Sunday, I walked through the doors of St. John. Needless to say I was petrified, it's very different. (If you haven't read the link from my last post it explains a lot, check it out.)



I liked what I saw in the Sunday morning Liturgy. It was so deliberate and so timeless, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Crysostom has been around for more than 1,000 years. At first, my goal was to attend the Liturgy and understand everything that's going on. It's a lot (including incense, icons, candles, and much more.) I've heard that it takes at least 3 visits to an Orthodox church to get used to the Liturgy. It really does. There's lots of stimuli, especially compared to the minimalist protestant churches I was used to.

After a few weeks of attending St. John, and lots of reading later, I began to fall in love with Holy Orthodoxy.....

Ok, that's all my attention span will allow for now. I'll continue this story later. It'll probably be a few more posts.