In the Orthodox Church, as in many churches,
we have coffee hour after worship on Sunday. It's a little bit different from what you
might expect though. Orthodox people fast before they come to communion - that is they have nothing to eat or drink
from the time they get up in the morning until after they receive communion. They're usually pretty hungry after worship. In many churches what you'll find downstairs
is not just a few donuts and a cup of coffee, but sometimes an entire meal;
a brunch or a lunch. You might wonder, what do we eat
during a fast period? We have four fasting seasons
through the course of the year, the longest one being the Great Lent
that precedes Easter (Pascha). And we fast also on every Wednesday
and every Friday throughout most of the year. This fast is a vegan diet. It doesn't mean going entirely without food. It follows the pattern that we see
in the second century writings of Tertullian, where he speaks of Daniel in the Kings Court,
not eating the rich foods that the king provided, but eating simple foods:
vegetables, simple grains. We try to eat simply during the fast. You might wonder,
"what does that mean?" You can't have macaroni and cheese
because it's cheese. You can't have a steak, can't have a hamburger,
can't have a tuna salad sandwich. We need to take a trip down the buffet line
during coffee hour during a fasting season and see what's available to eat. Obviously, there's still plenty that you can eat
if it is a fasting season. One of the nice things that this custom does
for Orthodox Christians is it sends us all around the world looking at
the vegan or vegetarian foods from other cultures,
and other places. People who grew up in Orthodox and other lands
bring their own traditions to America. But we also can look through
all the cookbooks we can find, and find vegan recipes from everywhere. It's quite a mix on a Sunday morning. But you can see that we don't go hungry.
