What You Can Expect

A young boy once visited an Orthodox church with his friend. He had never been to an Orthodox church before in his life. When he went back home after the service, his mother asked him what he saw. He told her, "Mom, you will not believe this. I saw a man with a beard wearing a dress and his purse was on fire!"
If you are not Orthodox and you come to our church, then, like this young boy, you may see many things that seem strange to you.
You will see a candlebox in the narthex. People will be lighting candles and praying as they come in. They will be kissing pictures. These are very special pictures. They are called icons. We don't worship them. We venerate them. (We will let you venerate them, too, if you promise not to worship them.)
You will see a man wearing a black cassock chanting prayers and psalms. He is the reader and will be doing the Hours. We do not start our services cold. People enter our church in an atmosphere of prayer. After the reader finishes the Hours, we all do our worship service. There is usually a lot of beautiful singing in our church.
You will smell incense. We use incense in our church — just like you read about in the Bible.
If you come to our church on a Sunday, you will see us doing the Typica service. The Typica service is a service that we do when there is no priest present. If you come on a Saturday when the priest is here, you will see the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is the name for our Communion service. It usually lasts about 90 minutes.

Seated at the table in the fellowship hall (left to right along the outside of the table) are Jerry (He was a catechumen from St. Mary Magdalene's. Now, he is a monk.), Leigha Oglesby, Father Bill (from the local Catholic church), Father James Bohlman, Deacon Athanasious Hilton, Reader Stephen Cravey, and Herman Newport. Also pictured here are (left to right along the inside of the table) Ken Cravey, Tracy Cravey, and Eddie Cravey.

After the service you will get fed in the fellowship hall. We usually have a good meal after we finish our worship services, especially when the priest comes and serves the Divine Liturgy for us. When he comes, we have lots of food to eat after the service.

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