St. Mary's Orthodox church is located in a formerly Unitarian church originally build in 1821, as a result the aesthetics are different than a typical Orthodox church. It's stained glass windows are Protestant, not Orthodox. It has sufficient pews for all parishioners, unlike some Othodox churches that only have a few pews off to the side.
It does have, like all Christian Orthodox churches the standard Orthodox iconography:
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| An example of iconography from Saint George's Orthodox Cathedral |
Honestly, I was initially disappointed at the Western features of the interior, as I but as Fr. Anthony Hughes told me later, this was an Antiochian Orthodox church, which often takes aspects from other versions of Christianity and incorporates them. And in this case, they did not want to destroy the history of the building; I very much appreciated this answer.
The interior does affect the tenor and the flow of the service. Pews mean less room for children to roam during the service and as such they had to stay closer to their parents and they often seemed bored.
At Holy Resurrection of the Cross, I saw children imitating the priest and interacting with other children at Holy Resurrection. This did not happen at St. Mary's
However, they provide more directed activities for children. For instance, they have childcare services for the service at least until communion.
The service was shorter than other Orthodox churches I have visited. Primarily this meant less standing. And like Holy Resurrection, it seemed relatively common to come to the service an hour or more late.
St. Mary's was racially diverse; they are pan-Orthodox, that is they do not tie themselves to one particular racial demographic (i.e. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and etc..).
As if to highlight their diversity they were celebrating Chinese New Year by having a "Chinese breakfast," and some children wore traditional Chinese clothing. This "Chinese breakfast" was around noon and mostly consisted of common dishes in most Chinese restaurants.
I happened to find myself at the table of the priest and his wife, the priest joked in service and again in conversation "what's more American than an Eastern Orthodox church having a Chinese breakfast. (I know some people who would disagree, but honestly, where else but America).
This celebration was in support of a translation project of the prologue of Ohrid, a compilation of lives of saints originally written in Serbian.
I was able to speak to one of the people associated with this translation project He told me that they were also focusing on ordaining Chinese citizens so that they can have Chinese Orthodox priests in China, as it is difficult for non-Chinese priests to preside over a parish in China.
While conversing with some of the regular parishioners, I mentioned my observation that Orthodoxy seems to emphasize repetition more than most other versions of Christianity, Thomas who converted to Orthodoxy at seven years old acknowledged this aspect and elaborated on the bodily involvement of the repetition.
When I compared this to Buddhist mantras, the priest emphasized that Orthodoxy is an Eastern (as opposed to Western) tradition.
At least one scholar agrees with this general sentiment. Huston Smith, a famous religion scholar, compared the repetition of prayer to mantras in Eastern religions. And I agree.
The Catholic Church may have similar services; however, they have never encouraged constant repetition of reading the Scripture as the Orthodox do, nor do they emphasize continual prayer with the same consistency as Eastern Orthodoxy.And the majority of Protestant churches do not have a single church head that presides over all of that denominations churches (i.e. Patriarch or Pope).
Bottom Line:
I genuinely like Orthodoxy and I can certainly see its appeal. So far the believers of Orthodoxy have been welcoming and thoughtful. It is experiences like these that really make me wonder if militant atheists have bothered to let believers describe their faith in their own words.
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