Protestant Tours Orthodox Church

well hey everyone welcome or welcome back to gospel simplicity i am so glad you're here and today we have something very special today we are touring an orthodox church and i'm here with father john baker so thank you so much for doing this welcome glad to have you with us today so could you tell us a little bit where where are we in the church and just in general sure um this is christ the savior orthodox church in chicago we're here in the gold coast river north neighborhood um this was at one time a offshoot of anglicanism oh okay this church here it was built in 1905 uh by a group called the apostolic catholic church they're from scotland um offshoot of anglicans and presbyterians from what i can understand okay in the late 90s this this there was not really a parish community here uh the house next door the the gentleman who lived there and was kind of the caretaker of this this property his grandfather was the last priest here from decades before their priesthood died out and what they would normally have done was to give the property back to the anglican church okay when they had contacted the anglican church up the street the former priest there was now an orthodox deacon he converted from the episcopalian church up the street i should say became orthodox and uh through his connection uh with our then uh bishop job of blessed memory uh we were able to acquire this property okay short story of it awesome well thank you so much for giving the history of that and so when someone walks in the first thing they see is this icon here and all of these icons i imagine there's a reason for that what's going on here well it'll it could uh be different depending on what church you walk into whatever the center icon is here we're christ the savior so we have the the great high priest jesus himself okay and the episcopal vestments uh but you usually when you come in uh you'll you'll notice iconography you know right off the get-go this not having been built as a traditional orthodox church this wall would not be here probably there would be another entrance an opening here you would have the two side entrances and one in the middle and that would be what it would be known as the royal doors where the emperor would would walk okay uh with a common fault coming on the inside but here at our church uh we just did what we could to make it is conducive to orthodox worship uh so you have the the image of christ and the diocese here with with the prophet and foreigner on his right and his mother on on the left you'll always see that okay uh either on uh iconostasis or on a dais like this uh and then with the with the other icons here um you know we did we did fundraising and people um who wanted to sponsor various icons were uh able to purchase those so we could pay the iconographer okay he had kind of he'll he had a layout a general layout of the church but some of that was was um negotiable okay so it's just kind of an eclectic mix in here okay one of the neat things was i think i i'll share with you and your viewers is is um i was able to uh kind of leave a lasting stamp here uh my patron saint is st john so we had that okay put there but then uh my wife's name is stephanie so our patreon is saying to saint stephen uh we put that there and then these five saints here um are the patron saints of all my children so that's awesome that's awesome so someone who is versed in iconography and orthodox tradition might wonder why we have all these saints here because they you know have elizabeth the mother of saint john the baptist along with some desert fathers a russian same from the 14th century they don't really go together other than the personal connection yeah the personal connections all right so you said in a traditional orthodox church you would have the center entryway and then these two yeah the two entry ways so we don't have that here so this is be our our narthex area okay um then you have the nave and the sanctuary so the first thing i noticed when i came here for a divine liturgy is um there's no pews yeah what's going on there well we have a few of the remnants when we acquired the property it was full of pews and we pulled them out and in traditional orthodox churches uh there's no there's no pews okay um it's kind of anomaly here in the united states but you'll see pews in a lot of orthodox churches just because either uh when when people first came to the united states and brought their faith with them from some of the eastern countries or what have you um they either bought protestant churches and converted them and left the pews under they put pews in because they wanted to look more american okay um so having pews really hinders worship okay yeah especially during some of the different seasons of the liturgical year holy wheat great lent you know those type of things we do a lot of prostrations yeah during the services and they get in the way so you know the whole idea is that we are um the goal i should say is that we are not only praying with our minds and our hearts but our body offering everything to god and and being a part of the worship so okay it's not just the priest who stands up there with his back to everybody but everyone is the offering of of all the faithful and so everyone is to be included in that no one's a spectator okay nobody's a spectator and so i i noticed when i was here and then you just mentioned it as well that the you know the priest facing that way if i've got my geography right that is east right is that significant or is that just a coincidence no that's that's traditional and we lucked out when we got this church orthodox churches are built facing east for the rising of the sun you know and then the scriptural references of of easting uh praying towards the east um so a lot of if a church is built and it can be built the way it's supposed to it always faces east okay but there's some that that don't you know you just can't cause the city ordinances or whatever yeah but we lucked out in chicago so something else i noticed when i was here for the first time is that i was i noticed all the candles and also that you guys have to be the most trusting people of children with fire the age of yeah that's a great good thing that my back has turned to all of them because i would have a harder time with it i don't think if i knew what was going on so what what's going on there though when i when you come into a service and there's candles so you know we uh traditionally we light it right we light a candle and offer it with our prayer okay um you know the the symbolism of the light and and uh something being again something tangible to go with that prayer and offering yeah within the orthodox tradition you know everything is an offering everything we do our whole day should be an offering and so as we offer our prayers we have these candles that we light as well and you know you'll see people they may kiss the candle they say a prayer for someone okay or something and they and they light the candle and put it in and around the various places within the church depending sometimes they'll be asking for the intercession of a saint like if this candle stand here with the icon there or they may not they may just be praying for a loved one or okay or just offering their day to god somehow awesome and so speaking of the icon there i noticed as well it seemed i don't know if this is just like something people do or if there's a significance to this i imagine there is but when people came in they generally seemed that you know they'd do a candle or not then they'd go around to these different there's probably a word for it yeah to the icon stage that's what i was going to say yeah i didn't know that okay analoy yep okay and with the icons on it i have to say one of the things that really moved me was seeing just these little girls like go up as high as they could like they could barely reach but but what's what's going on there well you know as you come in um you're making a reverence you're humbling yourself you're you're you're showing veneration to that saint or that depiction if it's one of our lord uh or what have you so you'll see people in various traditions it may be a little different very reverently hopefully making the sign of the cross blessing themselves and then you know a little bow and making this making the sign of the cross again venerating the icon asking for you know the prayer of the saint or just glorifying you know honoring them okay uh with their prayer and their veneration and then making the sign of the cross again and moving on now that's different depending on where where you go some people you know make the sign of the cross kind of fast some people are more reverent and uh about it and and uh very deliberate but you know everyone has the way they go around they make their way around and and venerate the various icons and then and find their place and get ready for the service interesting so do these stay like this is it always the same no i changed these these uh this one gets changed with we have a woman who brought this from moscow this is uh saint patricia people have a great veneration for her i was able to go venerate her relics when i was in moscow uh last year on a trip and uh i think it was about a four hour wait to get in there was a line around the church down the street um all day long every day it's like that she's known as a miracle worker but people only did that for iphones yeah yeah people will do that see but that's a great thing they have their own icons we have our we have our icons you know buyers are created in the image and likeness of god so um this one is we we keep here for most the time uh but if there is a some particular saint that's being celebrated like this coming sunday is the archangel michael okay and the bottomless powers of heaven and so i'll put an icon of the archangel michael here on on sunday okay saturday evening because it's a festival service uh us with with the uh that that particular celebration i'll put an aneloi in the middle of the church with an icon of the archangel there and then we'll we'll move it over to here the next day yeah that one gets shifted around a bit this one uh stays pretty much the same unless it's holy week or or the pascal season this is the fathers of the first ecumenical council this is okay when we celebrate our parish feast day which is the first sunday after sunday before yeah the sunday before pentecost um we also have it up there on the iconistas uh to the left of of the the north door there okay but that one will stay there pretty much uh all the time okay i mean you know see you having the the fathers of the first economic council the upper constantine uh you have the depiction of christ and an icon on the holy altar table as well and arius down here being really uh feeling really bad wow what happened to him there so you point there's an icon in the icon here now i you know i should know this and i know a bit but at this point would they have been using icons already and well i'm not i'm not sure you know 325 i'm sure there were icons of course and and uh the the purpose of the first edition of council was when they uh determined the the nature of christ you know yeah and and so that is the uh i believe that the symbolism with that being there but you have the icon you have the gospel uh you have the eucharist you have the full embodiment of the church there wow in the sacramental life in and also with the the gathering of the the bishops okay um yeah and so i mean when you come into this church nearly every i mean besides the wooden parts it's all covered in in art what's uh is that just traditional to orthodoxy and is there a reason for that sure it certainly has a sensory effect on it yeah of course like i said your whole body everything is to be pulled into uh worship and everything in the temple not only is it sacred space and holy space but it should draw us in you know everything is meant to draw us in so whether it's the iconography the the hymnography you know the beautiful singing yeah the the incense being offered the everything is is meant to pull us into a union and communion with christ and i think it was at the seventh academy ecumenical council one of the fathers said you know um uh icon or paint does with icons do with paint what what scripture words do with scripture right um so again it's it's it's a revelation everything you know not only scripture but but in the iconography as well is is meant to show us the path to christ and the kingdom of heaven in the communion of the saints wow yeah that's really powerful and i'll say it's it's so interesting i mean having you know growing up in protestant churches obviously it looked nothing like this but then you know a catholic church felt very different for me to go into but even this feels very different in the type of art and i notice for the most part it's all icons it's not like statues and other things is that significant yeah we don't there was a council that i think uh outlawed the uh her okay forbade the the the uh uh having statues and okay as you know part of veneration so now we don't have any you'll never see any statues within the orthodox church everything is two-dimensional okay interesting and now i mean if you don't like can we keep going around so over here you have uh st john of chicago i'm sorry excuse me st john of san francisco shanghai and san francisco uh very beloved saint his relics are in the cathedral there in san francisco he was one of the faithful bishops that was driven out of moscow during the bolshevik revolution and made his way through china and then to the united states okay on the other side we have saint nichtarius of agina another loved hierarch of of the church and then uh you know we have uh the great marta demetrius the holy great martyr catherine uh and then on the iconistas as i mentioned in the deuces there in the narthex you know you have you always see christ with with his mother on on the left uh john the baptist over here on the right this icon part in particular the one on the iconistas and this one on this analog this is the icon not made by hands the holy mandilion it's celebrated on august 16th okay uh and that is our temple feast day so we have two feast days here for our parish okay um and what do you mean by that the icon not made with hands uh the icon not made by hands is the holy image uh the tradition is that you know christ was set towards jerusalem prince abagar of edessa had sent servants to entice christ to come to him to help him he was suffering very sick and christ had taken the uh a towel and placed it on his face and gave it to the servants to give to prince abagar odessa he was healed and that his image and said was left on that oh wow on that uh towel and so this is the icon depicting that uh the holy mandala and the icon wow image made not by hands okay so we have that there on the on the iconostash you'll also see it way up there on the on the back wall of the altar okay uh it's painted up there as as well written up there i should say um and then st john the baptist on the right here the fathers of the first ecumenical council and then saint nicholas uh on the acanasta so all these saints on the acanastas that you see um they can vary okay there is uh there is a um and a particular order that they're supposed to be in uh and depending on if there were there could be feasts uh icons of feasts up there um you'll always see you know on the doors the same thing at least on these these uh doors right here on the beautiful gate with the evangelist and the enunciation these these what are known as the deacon's doors those can be those vary sometimes okay ours are quite different from what most churches you would see okay which would either be uh that the deacons like lawrence or stephen uh sometimes the archangels around there but this is an old believer tradition i think having the the repentant faith the thief on the cross and melchizedek on these these doors here okay and the priest who did our iconography he's a uh he's a he's a priest in erie pennsylvania uh of the old believers and so uh i think he and our our former bishop decided to do okay uh these these icons uh in this way wow so a question about it's the iconostasis or iconostasis okay now i i noticed in the service at various times the what you call the gate there correct the beautiful gate people call them the royal doors that's kind of a misnomer but um the beautiful gate okay sometimes it's closed sometimes it's open right you is it only you that go goes through that door and the clergy will go through there okay yeah so the bishop the priest the deacon um at various times during the services during the liturgy for example it has their symbolic meeting that that that uh anytime there's an entrance there's the little entrance the great entrance okay um those are the times that that the doors are opened okay uh and then they're closed when they and you're not going in and out of them really i mean that's what guys don't do we like to symbolize and and and uh put a lot of things to practical meaning in the orthodox tradition there's just like a lot of practical reasons too yeah that we do things and then we say oh with this spiritually this is a really good idea but there is symbolic meaning in those entrances okay that is important to the liturgy itself but alter servers will always go in and out of the doors a priest never walks through unvested you're always in your full investments or a felony i should say that you would never walk through with just when i when i wear the stole okay upper trihelium you would never walk through them was just that on you have to be uh vested in your fellownian well bishop will walk through whenever he wants it says church all right and then right behind that you have is it would you call it an altar the holy of holies um and that is for you know a particular purpose and that is that's you know for the the celebration of the services and the servers who are ordained or asked to be back there so it's not a free-for-all i don't i don't even go back there if i don't need to wow i mean we really should uh hold it in reverence you know this is sacred space um and so we don't go in and out it shouldn't be kind of just a casual place to hang out yeah but it's a place where we where we you know offer the liturgy offer the prayers for the faithful um and people have business when they need to be back there they come back and those who don't and don't go back and they don't yeah that's so interesting it's such a contrast from the way i grew up i grew up in like a non-denominational mega church and my mom was on staff so i was just always around the church and i feel like i've probably run through that church in my pajamas we get that we get a lot of kids here in pajamas for for you know we have a midnight service and and we get done about three in the morning uh we start about 11 30 p.m getting on about three in the morning the kids are here they're crashed out in their pajamas and they're they're laying in corners and they've got blankets spread out and yeah it's people stand from 12 to 30 yeah yeah i mean there's pure adrenaline for easter you know everyone so we've been through um you know a whole season of fasting and um you know that's what we've been waiting for you know so there's you could you could stand for another three hours probably wow that's beautiful you know i was just thinking about i i was reading some comments and some people were talking to me about the video i made about about coming here to a divine liturgy and i you know made a comment about standing the whole time it's just it's different and then i learned that in the orthodox tradition you're supposed to fast before the service is that correct so that made it even more intense to think about that everyone's standing on an empty stomach no wonder coffee hour's so popular we can go sit down if you like no not at all i wouldn't mind it um yeah so if you're going to receive the holy eucharist to be fast the night before okay so depending on where people are in their spiritual life and what they're able to do is is what they offer so um ideally it's it's from midnight on no nothing to drink nothing to eat nothing in the morning if you're sick and have to take cold medicine people wouldn't receive the eucharist wow um that being said that's kind of the bar you know that's what you need to do um there's other people who will fast from the evening before from vespers this the evening service before they'll come to vespers and they won't eat anything from after there or but that's just part of it it's all everything is just to put our focus on what we are going to partake of the body and blood of our lord um you know ideally there's no uh you know going out and watching movies and you know nothing those are bad things or watching tv when you get home or um but the focus should really be on i'm here the evening before this is where i begin my preparation uh to receive the holy eucharist the next morning and so that's our focus okay uh during that time that being said there's people like if someone needs to take blood pressure medicine or something they're like hey i have to take this they'll come and talk to the priest and say you know what do you mind is it can i get a blessing and priest will give a blessing for something like that of course you know say if you have to you know take it you know small thing of water and you know and that's okay i've had people come and say hey i get headaches because i don't have coffee in the morning can i have a cup of coffee and i'm like you need to get over your nicotine coffee addiction or caffeine addiction or cigarettes same thing if there's a few people who still do smoke you know yeah no smoking before in the morning you don't get up in the morning and have your cigarette and coffee and come to church um that's not a part of it but you also should be reading the newspaper and you shouldn't be looking on your email and you know we should be praying and reading the scriptures and and putting you know saying that jesus prayer and getting our families ready for receiving the eucharist wow that reverence it's it's so beautiful and that there's so much depth to that that i just never would have known um that's really cool to hear you know father thomas hopko i think it uh was who said this he's i i seen years and years ago i seen him give a talk at a church just preached and then gave a talk afterwards and you know he his his point that he made that really stuck out with me is that we should be going from eucharist to eucharist we're creatures that live from eucharist to eucharist we're either in a time of thanksgiving having received or in a time of preparation yeah so we move from thanksgiving to preparation for the next one and we really as liturgical beings um should have the eucharist as our as orthodox christians the eucharist is you know the central part of our life uh and it should be from each eucharist to eucharist that our focus is wow that's wonderful so is there anything else you'd like to to point out about this space here you know in in this church we were um father theodory revit who was our iconographer he kind of laid out this the scheme of of what the icons should be uh the main ones so these ones on the side walls are all have to do with uh events in our lord's life okay uh the miracles you know his entry in jerusalem the the uh the wedding or the the mystical supper the raising of lazarus transfiguration you know his his encounters with people yeah um and then these two large icons up here pentecost that the son of the holy spirit and christ descend into hades just they fit and they he thought it was a good good place to put those and with this church being christ the savior um having you know all the iconography reflect that and i think partly to being across from moody bible institute that's a good thing because i think one of the things that i've noticed over the years is when some protestants especially from across the street come in they may be put off by the iconography but at least if they see depictions of christ other than more than saints right and they begin to you know make a little shift in their understanding yeah this was really interesting here there was a there was a huge pipe organ here when i first got right here right here right in this where this is the baptism of christ that whole thing you could crawl back in it the pipes went all the way up to the top and uh you know we don't use instruments in the orthodox i noticed that so we pulled it out uh i took it out i sold it on ebay for like 600 bucks yeah some really eccentric guy took it back to indiana to put into his house there's people from indiana luke's from india that's wonderful yeah and that makes sense you know as one of those strange protestants from across the street um there you know as a i feel like my opinion on icons has really developed a lot and reading into the history much much more favorable but it is certainly more accessible when it's oh like they're primarily about jesus it's it's a a nice introduction too yeah for us yeah i think so okay it can be overwhelming especially if someone is not familiar with the orthodox tradition right you first come in here and you're it's an overwhelm of the senses yeah that's that's a good thing yeah and you guys really do seem to communicate with all the senses and this is something that father joshua and i at the catholic church talked about as well but it's in a different way but in both liturgical traditions there is much more of a sensory experience and something i noticed here specifically was the use of incense as well and right i don't know if this service has technically started i don't know like what the demarcation well the service starts before you all even arrive okay perfect you know it's it begins with uh with the service called the prosecumedia it's the offering it's where the priest that comes in here we get vested and we offer we begin the the prayers and the preparation for the for the remainder of the liturgy when people incense is used i think this might what you were asking when you come by these various particular important or holy parts of the service okay um again we're sanctifying the space the people that are in it so when the priest comes around with that sensing uh when you're when you're first arriving or when's here and the hours are being read um not only sensing the space as being holy but also the people gathered okay as the body of christ right we're all uh you know in the image and likeness of god and and called to be holy and so uh living and walking and breathing icons right wow yeah that's really and again it's i mean you're seeing the icons you're smelling the incense for those that have prepared themselves their tasting of the eucharist and hearing the the words being preached and and all being sung um and i did have a question about that actually um and we can wrap up the space here soon but you i noticed in the service almost the entire thing is sung yeah is there a reason for that yeah you know just we raise our voices and praise of god and and sing everything so even the epistle is chanted i noticed that you know um everything nothing is red flat there's no reading uh traditionally now you will walk into some churches and they may do that and when i go into places like that it's really weird i find it to be yeah they're just speaking and monotone and uh but everything is chanted so the hours that are read before everything yeah yeah the gospel is chanted uh everything is raising our voices in in prayer and and singing praises to god that's wonderful well is there anything else they'd like to wrap up with about the space before we sit down and just chat a little bit sure i think you know the the temple itself is is a space set aside for holiness for the worship of god and and here in downtown chicago i've found it to be uh really important the work that we do here that everyone does in praying and and offering prayers not only for uh you know the faith of this parish but for the whole city for the whole world you know that one of the beautiful things about the orthodox liturgy is that that everyone is prayed for i know this during that so you know my my goal since i've been here is just kind of just saturate this place with prayer and hopefully it just kind of pours out into the street that's what i was really really uh what we're really hoping for here and so we have lots of services and and uh and uh you know just hope it has a prey that it has an effect on on our general area as well wow that's wonderful yeah so if you want to have a seat yeah well thank you so much for taking us through this building it is it's a beautiful space and i'm excited to share that with everyone thank you wow what what a tour that was so much fun i hope you enjoyed it if you watched this far i imagine you did but i just want to say a big thank you from me for your time and watching this i hope that you were able to learn something new or that inspired you in your faith a big thank you as well to father john baker for making that tour possible his hospitality was phenomenal i learned so much and actually after this tour we sat down for an interview so be on the lookout for that it will be coming out shortly after this video comes out and if you're watching this sometime in the future it's probably already out i hope you enjoyed that as well and i think you'll learn a lot in any case thank you so much to father john for making this possible shout out to luke for filming it and thanks to all of you and especially my patreon subscribers and merch buyers who make this channel possible until next time be on the lookout for more videos as always go out and love god and love others because truly above all else yeah we'll change the world peace love you guys so much i'll see you next time you

Channel: Gospel Simplicity

Views: 154,943

Keywords: Orthodoxy, Orthodox Liturgy, Christ the Savior, Fr. John Baker, Orthodox Church Tour, Orthodox tour, understanding orthodoxy, icons, orthodox icons, protestant converts to orthodoxy, convert to orthodoxy, orthodox apologetics, orthodoxy in america, OCA churches, Austin Suggs, Gospel Simplicity, Love Across the Lines, Church Tours, Beautiful churches

Id: 7uIEYIzArx4

Length: 32min 13sec (1933 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020