My first church service in 2009 was special: attending Vespers at St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Brixton, Johannesburg, as a result of an invite from Steve Hayes to those involved in the emerging church conversation to see what we can learn from each other.

The service was beautiful, full of imagery and ritual. I was particularly struck by the use of gold in the paintings and icons - unexpected beauty in one of the less beautiful neighbourhoods in Joburg.

Some of the liturgy was in Afrikaans and there was much use of the space in the church - not just the front but the whole building, as the priests processed through it at various times. The choir singing was beautiful and reminded me of the chanting of the Benedictine Monks at uMaria weThemba in Grahamstown.

To help prepare the non-Orthodox visitors for what goes on at Vespers, Steve posted Notes from underground: Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee with links to resources on Orthodox Vespers.

The Greek Orthodox church is one of the three main streams in Christianity (the other two being Catholic and Protestant) and is the stream I know least about. It was tempting to bring a critical eye to bear on my lone Orthodox experience and to then apply that to all Orthodoxy everywhere, but that's not fair! And so during the service I kept reminding myself to come back to the present, to be present to what was happening although it was different, and search for G-d within it.

It was great to see Cobus and Maryke (now married - congratulations!), as well as Reggie Nel, Andries Louw and Arthur Stewart there...and of course, the Nieu Communities apprentices for 2009.

After the service we had a conversation with everyone who attended about what the service was about and I enjoyed the format of being able to ask any question we wanted to. More churches can learn from this way of welcoming strangers.

Although most of the service was Greek to me (*sigh* that's really weak, I know, but I couldn't resist) there was something beautiful and haunting about it. The knowledge that this way of worshipping G-d has been largely unchanged for almost 2000 years - and that in that experience I shared that much history with all of those who have done that before - that was profound.

Others have blogged about the experience:
Andries Louw - Negotiating identity between orthodoxy and emergence.
Cobus van Wyngaard - Orthodox-Emerging dialogue.
Reggie Nel - Vespers worship, strange but intriguing.
Steve Hayes - Orthodox emerging missional dialogue.

Roger, thanks for the link to my post. Keep well and enjoy Cape Town!

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