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Review :: Culture
Eastern Orthodox Christianity 101
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Date Created
- 25 Feb 2006
Date Edited
- 25 Feb 2006 11:50:18 AM
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Copyright by the author. All rights reserved.
Who is GhiorghiOU BuSCH-a?
Some aspects of other forms of Christianity are not so widely known, here in the United States. After having witnessed service in Romanian, Greek, Russian and Serbian Eastern Orthodox churches I learned that the beginning of the sermon inevitably blesses the President of the host country, in this case George W. Bush by name. In their accents you usually hear something that sounds like: AnDDD ooooRR pRiZZiDENT Georgiou BuSCH – but nevermind the accent. I feel that this a very little known fact and that many other forms of Christianity do not have this “presidential” mention within their usual sermons.
Some aspects of other forms of Christianity are not so widely known, here in the United States. After having witnessed service in Romanian, Greek, Russian and Serbian Eastern Orthodox churches I learned that the beginning of the sermon inevitably blesses the President of the host country, in this case George W. Bush by name. In their accents you usually hear something that sounds like: AnDDD ooooRR pRiZZiDENT Georgiou BuSCH – but nevermind the accent. I feel that this a very little known fact and that many other forms of Christianity do not have this “presidential” mention within their usual sermons.
Click on image for a larger version
Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher's priest with two onlookers
The short little byline above is the full article in its own inadequacy and absurdity (imagine the times when Clinton bombed Serbia while Serbian Eastern Orthodox service clergy was blessing Di pRiZZiDENT KliN-TON-a
Go to any Muslim house of worship (?? – that word all of a sound does not sound right next to “Muslim” – oxymoron and self-contradicting) and see if the sermon holding Imams will ever mention the president of the host country in this generous light.
I have a sneaky suspicion that even the Eastern Orthodox congregations don’t even notice this little symbolic gesture within their own communities. Most Americans view the Eastern Orthodoxy as something from the Sergei Eisenstein black/white movies – Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, priests in those long black robes with bushy eyebrows long beards and something steaming from a chalice they always hold. That is not an entirely inaccurate image. Most Eastern Orthodox Priests do look as an obvious throwback to the times gone by, long time ago. However this seeming contradiction between the image and the context just happens to be of vital importance – so much more now when we have all determined with far greater certainty all the qualities of the “peaceful Islam”.
Iliya Pavlovich PhD
Go to any Muslim house of worship (?? – that word all of a sound does not sound right next to “Muslim” – oxymoron and self-contradicting) and see if the sermon holding Imams will ever mention the president of the host country in this generous light.
I have a sneaky suspicion that even the Eastern Orthodox congregations don’t even notice this little symbolic gesture within their own communities. Most Americans view the Eastern Orthodoxy as something from the Sergei Eisenstein black/white movies – Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, priests in those long black robes with bushy eyebrows long beards and something steaming from a chalice they always hold. That is not an entirely inaccurate image. Most Eastern Orthodox Priests do look as an obvious throwback to the times gone by, long time ago. However this seeming contradiction between the image and the context just happens to be of vital importance – so much more now when we have all determined with far greater certainty all the qualities of the “peaceful Islam”.
Iliya Pavlovich PhD
Sergei Eisenstein Ivan Grozny (the Terrible) image - enough for all of us to remember the the Russians are always "evil" - on account of being bearded - I suppose
Russian Eastern Orthodox priests in modern day Pennsylvania during Litya
Same Russian Eastern Orthodox Chruch service in modern day PA
Lent procession in Ukraine
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