(A brief word from Fr Rector…) Pt. 1/3
In the world of DIY Orthodoxy and Orthodox Internet bloggers, where everyone feels entitled to his own opinion and delivers it rather forcefully, the phrase “Holy Tradition” is a common byword.
What is tradition? Our English word tradition comes from the Latin traditio, which means “handing down.” Therefore, if we are talking about liturgical tradition, this is something that has been handed down to us, something we have received from our predecessors in the faith.
For all Orthodox Christians, a textbook case of departure from Holy Tradition is the adoption by some Local Churches of the so-called “New Calendar” in the 20th century. The New Calendar was introduced to blend the Orthodox into the “happy family” of the Protestant world, to be “like others.” It is true that the first Christians did not always agree on when Pascha, for instance, was to be celebrated, but by the time the Patristic Age was in full blossom, the Orthodox calendar of feasts based on the Julian calendar had become the universal norm.
For us in the U.S., such a case is the Western Rite. It was not handed down to us, which means there has not existed throughout the centuries of Christianity an unbroken liturgical tradition of Orthodox worship in the West, but rather it represents the result of academic research on “how Orthodox worship might have looked had the West remained Orthodox.” In a future piece, we will examine the roots of the Western Rite as a modern phenomenon.
Even the Old Believer communities, although they appeal to Holy Tradition, are a case of deviation from Holy Tradition. The contemporary worship of the Old Ritualists represents the result of the development of liturgical forms, some of them unique only to 16th-century Russia. For even in the 15th century, practices were slightly different, in the context of separation of schismatic groups from the rest of the Orthodox world.
Now we come to the question given in the title of this short essay: should catechumens leave the nave after the Litany of Catechumens? To answer this question, we again need to dive deep into the history of the Church.
In the Early Church, most Christians lived a much more focused life than we do. As periods of persecution followed one after another, martyric death was a very real possibility for a Christian. Under such conditions, Christians were prepared to receive Holy Communion at every Divine Liturgy, and entire parishes communed at every Eucharistic celebration. Therefore, if a baptized Orthodox Christian did not commune with everyone, he would have to explain publicly why not. Another aspect of Christian worship at the time was secrecy, again due to persecution: only members of the specific worshipping community were allowed to be in church during the Divine Services. For a new person to be introduced to the community, he had to have someone vouch for his good character. This practice is still retained, and such people are called “godfathers”, “godmothers”, or “sponsors”.
The deacon’s call for the catechumens to depart was the moment when those who were not yet baptized and, by definition, could not commune, had to leave. The rest of the Divine Liturgy went on without them, and all who stayed would commune.
With the legalization of Christianity in the 4th century, which flung open churches’ doors throughout the Roman Empire, there was no longer need for the former secrecy. Soon it came to the point where anyone could come into a temple and be allowed to stay. A well-known illustration that, by the end of the first millennium, the non-baptized were not forced to leave after the Litany of the Catechumens, is the embassy that the future Saint Vladimir, the Great Prince of Russia, sent to Constantinople in the 980s, when he was discerning what faith he and his subjects were to adopt. Only by witnessing the fullness of majestic Orthodox worship could his emissaries report to him that they did not know whether they were in Heaven or on earth.
We read in the memoirs of medieval foreign non-Orthodox visitors to Russia how they would attend the Divine Services there. The non-Orthodox spouses and extended family members of the Royal Family often prayed at the Divine Liturgy, and no one would even think to ask them to leave.
It seems that the current practice, where catechumens are asked to leave the temple, is one of the aftershocks of the so-called “Liturgical Renewal” movement, inspired by the activities of the notable OCA clergyman Alexander Schmemann. This movement gave rise to liturgical experiments and innovations, like frequent communion virtually without any preparation, which were promoted as a return to the “roots” of Orthodox worship, but in fact only steered those communities down the path of secularization.
The idea, “Let’s do something that no one has done since Christian antiquity,” shows one’s disregard for, and departure from, Holy Tradition.
So, we have seen that the non-Orthodox being present during the entire Liturgy is part of Church tradition, of something we have received from our predecessors. Therefore, while the deacon’s words preserve an ancient liturgical form, they should not be taken in our present practice as a requirement that catechumens leave the nave.
People walk into the church, witness Orthodox worship, and become drawn to this fullness of the expression of the Christian faith. Then they enroll in catechetical class and find out that they can no longer stay during the Liturgy, as they used to do, but must leave. Why? Is this done so that they might attend catechesis class? But do catechumens not have a right to be present at the Divine Liturgy? Or are catechumens to study on their own while the beauty of Orthodox worship is being revealed a few feet away behind closed doors?
Orthodox worship, besides being an unspeakably beautiful tapestry of God’s revelation put into music, iconography, and communal worship, is the best educator. We usually say to inquirers: “Attend the Divine Services as often as possible, and the Divine Services will teach you everything.”
This is not to degrade catechesis classes, but those classes are meant to help us “read” the church services, to fully appreciate the richness of Church tradition and her life.