There are a number of things about our worship that are different from the services of other churches, whether Roman Catholic, liturgical Protestant, or Evangelical.

Orthodox worship is often consider "exotic" and "other-worldly", and most definitely springs from different origins and traditions than does Western Christian worship. 

In an effort to help alleviate confusion, here are twelve things that you should know about worship in the Orthodox church.

If you are from a Protestant or non-liturgical tradition, you may feel overwhelmed the minute you walk in the door of an Orthodox church. You will find yourself surrounded by a blaze of colour in the priest's vestments and the icons that adorn the walls. The pungent fragrance of incense will envelope you. Rich, deeply moving but unfamiliar music will fill your ears. All around you people will be doing things—lighting candles, kissing icons, making the sign of the cross, bowing, standing in prayer—everything but sitting still. To someone accustomed to four bare walls and a pulpit, all this may seem very strange.
 

It's important to remember that none of this is an end in itself. Everything we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, or do in the Orthodox Church has one purpose and one purpose only: TO LEAD US CLOSER TO GOD. Since God created us with physical bodies and senses, we believe He desires us to use our bodies and senses to grow closer to Him.

In most Orthodox churches, there won't even be any pews, just a few chairs scattered at the edges of the room for the elderly and infirm. Other churches, especially those that purchased already existing church buildings, may have well-used pews. If you find the amount of standing too challenging, you're welcome to take a seat. It get easier with practice.

We sign ourselves whenever the Trinity is invoked, whenever we venerate the cross or an icon, and on many other occasions in the course of the Liturgy. But people aren't expected to do everything the same way. Some cross themselves three times in a row, and some finish by sweeping their right hand to the floor. Often before venerating a icon, people will cross themselves twice, bowing each time with their right hand to the floor, then kiss the icon, then cross themselves and bow again. Don't worry; that doesn't mean you have to follow suit.

We cross with our right hands, touching forehead, chest, right shoulder, then left shoulder to end over the heart, the opposite of Roman Catholics and Anglicans. We hold our hands in a prescribed way: thumb and first two fingertips pressed together, the last two fingers pressed down to the palm. Here as elsewhere, the Orthodox impulse is to make everything we do reinforce the Faith.—The three fingers held together represent the Trinity; the two fingers against the palm represent the two natures of Christ.

We kiss things. When we first come into the church, we kiss the icons. You’ll also notice that some kiss the chalice, The acolytes kiss the bishop’s hand when they give him the censer or candlesticks, and we all line up to kiss the cross at the end of the service.

We kiss each other ("Greet one another with a kiss of love," 1 Peter 5:14) before we take communion. When Roman Catholics and Anglicans pass the peace, they give a hug, handshake, or peck on the cheek. In Orthodoxy different cultures are at play. The Slavs kiss once on each cheek and then again on the first cheek; the Greeks and Arabs kiss only twice. Follow the lead of those around you.

The usual greeting is "Christ is in our midst," with the response, "He is and always shall be." The greeting is not the previously familiar "The peace of the Lord be with you," nor is it "Hi, nice church you have here."

Only Orthodox may take communion, but anyone may have some of the blessed bread. Here’s how it works: the round communion loaf, baked by a parishioner, is imprinted with a seal. In the preparation service before the Liturgy, the priest cuts out a section of the seal and sets it aside; it is called the "Lamb." The rest of the bread is cut up and placed in a large basket, and blessed by the priest.

During the eucharistic prayer, the Lamb is consecrated to be the Body of Christ, and the chalice of wine is consecrated as His Blood. The priest then places the Lamb in the chalice. When we receive communion, we file up to the priest, standing and opening our mouths wide wile he gives us a portion of the wine-soaked bread from a spoon. He also prays over us, calling us by our first name or by the saint’s name which we chose when we were baptized or chrismated (received into the Church).

At the end of the service, as we file past the priest, we come to a basket of blessed bread. People will take portions for themselves and for visitors and non-Orthodox friends around them. If someone hands you a piece of blessed bread, do not panic; it is not the eucharistic Body. It is a sign of fellowship.

In our experience, we don’t have any general sins; they’re all quite specific. There is no complete confession prayer in the Liturgy. Orthodox are expected to be making regular, private confession to Christ in the presence of their priests.

The roll of the pastor is much more that of a spiritual father than it is in other denominations. He is not called by his first name alone, but referred to as “Father First-Name.” His wife also holds a special role as parish mother, and she gets a title too, though it varies from one culture to another. Some of the titles used are: "Matushka" (Slavic), which means "Mama"; or "Khouria" (Arabic) or "Presbytera" (Greek), both of which mean "priest’s wife."

Another difference you will probably notice is in the Nicene Creed. In the Creed we affirm that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, but we don’t add "and the Son," as Western denominations do. In this we adhere to the Creed as it was originally written.

About 75% of the service is congregational singing. Traditionally Orthodox use no musical instruments. Usually a music director leads the people’s singing. The style of music varies as well, from western-sounding four part harmony in a Slavic church to solo chant in an Arabic church, with lots of variations in between.

This constant singing may be a bit overwhelming at first; it feels like getting on the first step of an escalator and being carried along in a rush until you step off ninety minutes later. It has been fairly said that he Liturgy is one continuous song.

Before long you know it by heart. Then you fall into the presence of God in a way you never can when flipping from prayer book to bulletin to hymnal.

The original Liturgy lasted something over five hours. The Liturgy of St. Basil edited this down to about two and a half hours, and later (around 400 AD) the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom further reduced it to about one and a half hours. Most Sundays we use the St. John Chrysostom Liturgy, although for some services (e.g. Sundays in Lent, Christmas Eve) we use the longer Liturgy of St. Basil. Several time a year the Liturgy of St. James and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts are also used.

When you arrive for Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning, worship will already be in progress and you will feel chagrined at arriving late. You are not late; the priest, reader and some parishioners are just winding up the Third Hour, which began about a quarter of an hour before. Before the Third Hour, the priest and deacon had other preparatory services; they will be at the altar for a total of over three hours on Sunday morning, "standing in the flame," as one Orthodox priest put it. Orthodoxy is not for people who find church boring.

We love her and it shows. What can we say? She’s His Mother. We often address her as "Theotokos," which means "God-Bearer." In providing the physical means for God to become man, she made possible our salvation.

Not that we think she or any other saints have magical powers or are demigods. When we sing "Holy Theotokos, save us," we don’t mean "save" in an eternal sense, as we would pray to Christ; we mean "protect, defend, take care of us here on earth." Just as we ask for each other’s prayers, we ask for the prayers of Mary and the other saints as well. They’re not dead, after all, just departed to the other side. Icons surround us, in part, to remind us that all the saints are joining us invisibly in our worship.

Every Orthodox church will have an iconostas before its altar. "Iconostas" means "icon-stand." In a mission parish it can be as simple as a large image of the Virgin and Child on an easel on the left, with a matching image of Christ on the right. In a more established church, the iconostas may be a literal wall, adorned with many icons.

The basic set-up of two large icons creates, if you use your imagination, three doors. The central opening, in front of the altar itself, usually has two doors, called the “Royal Doors,” because that is where the King of Glory comes out to the congregation in the Eucharist. Only the bishop, priest and deacon, who bear the Eucharist, use the Royal Doors.

The openings on the other sides of the two main icons, if there is a complete iconostas, have doors, usually with icons of angels; they are termed the "Deacon’s Doors," Altar boys and others with business behind the altar use these, although no one is to go through any of the doors without an appropriate reason. Altar service, bishop, priests, deacons, altar boys, is restricted to males. Females are invited to participate in every other area of church life. Their contribution has been honoured equally with that of males since the days of the martyrs; you can’t look around an Orthodox church without seeing Mary and other holy women. In most Orthodox churches, women do everything else men do: lead congregational singing, paint icons, teach classes, read the epistle, and serve on the parish council.

Flipping through the Yellow Pages of a typical city, you’ll find a multiplicity of Orthodox churches: Ukrainian, Greek, Romanian, Russian, Antiochian, Serbian, and others. All these Orthodox bodies are one church. The ethnic designation refers to what is call the parish’s "jurisdiction" and identifies which bishop holds authority there. There are about 2.5 million Orthodox in North America and over 300 million in the world, making Orthodoxy the second-largest Christian communion.

The astonishing thing about this ethnic multiplicity is its theological and moral unity. Orthodox throughout the world hold unanimously to the fundamental Christian doctrines taught by the Apostles and handed down by their successors, the bishops, throughout the centuries. They also hold to the moral standards of the Apostles. One could attribute this unity to historical accident. We would attribute it to the Holy Spirit.

Why then the multiplicity of ethnic churches? These national designations obviously represent geographic realities. Since North America is also a geographic unity, one day we will likewise have a unified national church, an American Orthodox Church. This was the original plan, but due to a number of complicated historical factors, it didn’t happen that way. Instead, each ethnic group of Orthodox immigrating to this country developed its own church structure. This multiplication of Orthodox jurisdictions is a temporary aberration, and much prayer and planning is going into breaking through these unnecessary walls.

Orthodoxy seems startlingly different at first, but as the weeks go by it gets to be less so. It will begin to feel more and more like home, and it will draw you into the Kingdom of God. We hope that your first visit to an Orthodox church will be enjoyable, and that it won’t be your last.

© Based on the Conciliar Press pamphlet "12 Things I Wish I Had Known" by Frederica Mathewes-Green. Used by permission of the author.