Challenges and Signs of Unity
Originally published January 14, 2011
More Reflections from Bossey (The Ecumenical Institute for the World Council of Churches) 2010:
My courses are challenging and eye-opening, but I think the day to day living with one another is just as much or more enlightening…
My studies are going well. Each day I experience new blessings and become aware of more challenges as all of us here journey together in pursuit of unity. I think I had this fanciful idea that in order to achieve unity we just needed to gather the gumption to live into the various exhortations throughout Bible that tell us to do so. However, you can't just go and do that if your definitions of unity are different, if the criteria for achieving unity entail completely different doctrinal and ecclesiastical beliefs and practices, and if your definition of what church "really" is even differs.
Ha. Wow. It is daunting and discouraging at times. Though, I am encouraged when I remember although all those divisions exist at least we have made it here. We have made it to this time and place which testifies to the fact that we have taken the first steps toward unity. Here we are engaging in conversations, living in community and hoping and praying for unity. So, with this hope we trust one day by the power of God we will be reconciled, we will live in unity as one body of Christ.
Yesterday I caught a glimpse of this unity.
As many of you probably know, November 1 and 2 were All Saint’s and all Soul’s Day. These days go by many names in many different cultures and traditions, but the purpose is the same: to remember, celebrate, honor, and commemorate our loved ones who have died. Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an Orthodox worship service for this occasion. I sang in a small choir made up of students, some of whom were totally familiar with this practice and others of us who were entirely new to it. American, Pakistani, Georgian, Romanian, Ukrainian, Egyptian, and Guatemalan; Orthodox, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Baptist—a gorgeous ecumenical tapestry.
While the Orthodox tradition is new to me, I love it! I have become quite familiar with it over the last month and a half thanks to our 15 minute worship service every weekday before dinner in a style observed by Romanian Orthodox nuns.
My ear has quickly picked up on the various hauntingly beautiful chants and songs we sing which is both exciting and satisfying. I am so grateful to be expanding my ways to worship God and learning to the extent that I trust I could teach or lead others in these ways. I now know many versions of “Kyrie eleison” (Latin) or “Gospodi pomilui” (Russian) meaning “God have mercy,” often sung between a series of intercessory prayers. I can now also sing the psalms and even know various versions of the Magnificat or “Song of Mary”, which is Mary’s song of praise to God when Jesus leaps in her womb upon visiting her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-55) – it is generally an Orthodox and Catholic practice.
It is additionally powerful to participate in worship with Christians from the Orthodox Church because it is an expression of unity and solidarity in the midst of continuous divisions between our confessions that began 18 centuries ago. I can now go and share what I have learned and serve as a bridge builder, exposing other Protestants to these unfamiliar, yet beautifully reverent worship practices.
But, back to yesterday’s service. We sang a solemn, yet hopeful song in French called “La Tenebre” (“The Darkness”) between the recitation of various passages from the Bible on life and death. The passages were read by multiple people on staff at Bossey in their own languages of Italian, French, and English making the experience even richer. The song’s encouraging message proclaims, “Our darkness is never darkness in Your sight; the deepest night is clear as the daylight.” Then, in four-part harmony we sang a song to God on behalf of those who have died and for those of us who are living – that God would call us, lead us, and save us.
Next was the central part of the worship service. Before the service began we had been given the opportunity to write down the names of loved ones who had passed away that we wanted to remember today. So, at this point we sang “Kyrie Eleison” quietly while Father Sauca (Orthodox priest and director of Bossey) prayerfully read each name. I remembered my grandfathers Bob and Harry, my late Aunt Mari, and my beloved grandmother, Kippy, whom I uphold as a great role model for myself. I am grateful I have not lost many loved ones in my life. My heart went out to some of my friends here though, one who had just lost her brother who was only a few years older than me, and another who lost his uncle just two weeks ago. After this Father Sauca prayed a prayer of atonement for their souls and a prayer of glorification for God’s loving and forgiving nature.
The service concluded with a most intriguing ritual. Those of us who were near the front came around the small central table the Father was standing behind. Set before him was a cake made of flour, honey, and nuts. It was dusted with chocolate powder, on top of which individual chocolates that looked like upside down mini Reese’s cups were lined along the cross-section of the cake. He then took a bottle of red wine and drizzled some lightly over the cake. Now, because I imagine you are as curious as I was about the meaning: the cake represents the body of Christ—a symbol of unity among those whom have died and those of us still alive and the wine represents the atoning sacrifice of Christ for our forgiveness of sins. We gathered in closely, put one hand under the dish holding the cake and began to gently move it up and down together. Those who were behind us then came and set their hands on our shoulders, creating a sort of human chain in order to all connect to the cake. To the same tune of the “Kyrie” we sang, “Memory eternal.” A final blessing was given and we dispersed.
What a beautiful, sacred experience. I don’t come from a tradition where we remember the dead as profoundly and I appreciated the commemoration. It was an opportunity to recall their presence, appreciate their lives, mourn the tragedy of lives ended too early, but also to rejoice in the hope of their current state of peace.
Prayer from the service:
“Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. The choir of saints have found the fountain of life and the door of paradise. May I also find the way through repentance. I am a lost sheep: Call me, O Savior, and save me. Blessed are you, O Lord teach me your statutes. Give rest to the souls of Your servants, O God, and establish them in paradise, where the choirs of the saints and of the just, O Lord, shine like the starts of heaven. Give rest to Your servants who have fallen asleep, overlooking all their transgressions.