(A brief word from Fr Rector…)

Every person who seriously considers becoming Orthodox must understand that one is not only going to be learning the precepts of the true faith but is entering a unique culture. Encyclopedia Britannica characterizes “culture” as something which has its own “language, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, and ceremonies, among other elements.” The Orthodox Church has all those elements unique to her, even if there are similarities of the elements among other religious cultures (for Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have their own cultures).

The Orthodox culture is rooted in the world of the Old Testament and classical Hellenism. With the incarnation of the Divine Logos, His life on Earth, His revelation of Himself as described in the books of the New Testament, His death on the Cross, His Glorious Resurrection and Ascension into the Heaven, and His pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the holy apostles – all that constituted this culture before became purified: it received a precise focus and an unshakeable might, with its initial roots being re-evaluated and revitalized in the light of Christ.

When we say that the Orthodox faith is the faith of the Fathers, most often we understand it to mean that our faith is the faith defended by the great Holy Fathers of the first centuries of Christianity. The Christians of the later epochs stood firmly on this patristic foundation, and this includes our enfeebled generation.

The Church has always lived in the world, and the changes of the world found their reflection in the external elements of the Christian culture, while retaining its ontological faithfulness to its foundation. We retained the language and ideas of the Christian culture of the first centuries – when we read the writings of the Fathers, hear their homilies in our churches, pray the prayers they composed, we cannot help but notice how their language is our church language (as was noted after the reading of the Homily of Blessed Augustine on the feast of the Pre-eminent Apostles Peter and Paul).

The worship of the Church and her liturgical art today is inseparable from, and in continuity with, the art and worship of the Patristic age.

The same is manifest in the customs and the moral codes of the Church. While the expressions of what was and was not moral underwent changes, the principles have remained the same for two thousand years, as seen in the following examples.

If the first Christians wore tunics and wrapped themselves in loosely-fitting mantles, the Middle Ages saw them in tighter garments and men in some sort of trousers (something which had been considered a sure identification of a barbarian in the previous epoch). The Christian principle here is expressed in the writings of the apostles:

“Therefore, I desire that men send up prayers everywhere, lifting up pure hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness (i.e., pudency or bashfulness) and chastity; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly garments, but with good works, which becometh women dedicating themselves to piety” (1 Timothy 2:8-10).

“May your,” here the Apostle is speaking specifically about women,

adornment be not the outward plaiting of the hair, nor wearing of gold, or stylishness of apparel; but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible beauty of a meek and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:3-4).

What principles can we see in the teachings of the apostles?

A Christian is to be modest, should avoid following fickle fashions or dressing in the manner which attracts the attention of others. The apostle says clearly about what adorns us the most: a meek and quiet spirit of the hidden man of the heart. He calls it the incorruptible beauty, that is, the beauty that does not fade with the passage of time or changes of our appearance because of sickness or age. The apostle criticizes the ways in which women adorn themselves because they do so to attract attention to themselves of the people for whom the outward appearance far outshines the beauty of the inner person.

People go to great lengths to adorn themselves with garments and accessories where their focus is not on that “hidden man of the heart,” where they are either oblivious of, or intentionally turn away from, the Christian ideal of true beauty, which is precious in the eyes of God.

It was already mentioned that trousers, which once had been viewed as part of exclusively barbarian dress, has become our everyday attire. Anyone wearing a toga today on the street would do that only to scandalize others. The apostle mentions braiding of hair for women as something to be avoided by Christian women. He points to the ancient practice of elaborate braiding done to attract attention (just as people now dye their hair in unnatural colors or style their hair in ways that make them stand out). Modest, simple braiding, as a way to organize the woman’s long hair, to keep it in order, is very traditional.

When we come to Holy Baptism, we stand with no shoes, men take their belts off, women have their heads uncovered and hair loosened. We come as prisoners sentenced to death. And indeed, we die in the baptismal font with Christ and rise with Him; once slaves of sin, we are set free to labor now as slaves of Christ (cf. Ephesians 6:6; 1 Peter 2:16).

But some elements of Christian culture have endured unchanged throughout the entirety of the Christian era: this is our attitude towards tattooing and piercing of the face and body (who could have thought, for example, that one could be convinced of piercing their mouth and tongue, the very instruments by which we receive the “fiery coal” of the precious and holy Body and Blood of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ?), which has become widespread in our Western society only very recently.

These practices originally came from the religious context of the pagan cultus, signifying a worshipper’s consecration to, and ownership by, a demonic deity as his master and he its slave. Although today’s practices may not involve consecration to a literal demon, the underlying religious impulse is unchanged. For now it is the cult of the self where one becomes both slave and master: a slave to one’s own vanity and desires for self-expression, and a master over one’s own body, which belongs to the Lord, not oneself (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It is definitely a fashion that will pass. Yet, the damage is done: what used to be totally unacceptable (outside of extreme situations, like among the prisoners, sailors, or criminals), has become almost a norm. But not so among Orthodox Christians.

Our churches are open to anyone who is seeking salvation. On entering the Church, persons re-evaluate their lives and try to free themselves from whatever points to their past life, a life devoid of Christ, characterized by a spirit of self-asserting pride and hedonism, even if they conformed to this spirit without full awareness of what they were doing.

A good illustration of this re-assessment and changing of one’s customs can be witnessed in men who enter into the service of the Church. Everyone, beginning at the rank of Reader, must remove or conceal his tattoos and remove any piercings. If the tattoos cannot be removed, the person should cover them up at all times, even if he is with his family at the pool. This is what our clergy must do, and they serve as examples for the rest of us. Therefore, if we have tattoos, we should cover them (or do the best we can) when in church and we should try not to show them anywhere else, since now we do not belong to the world but are Christ’s.

Tattoos are seals of one’s former enslavement to the world, even if one fell into this slavery because of ignorance. We eradicate that seal, first, at our Baptism and Chrismation, and subsequently, whenever we seal ourselves with the sign of the Cross, as those who were redeemed by the Blood of Our Saviour.

Upon entering the Church, we enter a new life, wherein we become members of a Christian civilization, bearers of the ancient culture. The apostle Peter calls Christians “a holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9), that is, a unique people set apart from others, living by our own laws, speaking our own language (taught to us by the Holy Fathers), and holding to our own mores and way of life. Only by becoming “Christians” in the fullest sense of the word, our entry into the Church will be once and for all, and God will be Our Lord, for we will be His people.

†