parresia

Tradition...the Orthodox Way

Tradition...Throughout the Year, the Orthodox Way

From Chapter 5 of Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church

If anyone wishes to recite or to follow the public services of the Church of England, then (in theory, at any rate) two volumes will be sufficient-- the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer; similarly in the Roman Catholic Church he requires only two books-- the Missal and the Breviary; but in the Orthodox Church, such is the complexity of the services that he will need a small library of some nineteen or twenty substantial tomes...one of the greatest treasures of the Orthodox Church.

In these twenty volumes are contained the services for the Christian year-- that annual sequence of feasts and fasts which commemorates the Incarnation and its fulfilment in the Church. The ecclesiastical calendar begins 1 September. Pre-eminent among all festivals is Easter, the feast of feasts, which stands in a class by itself. Next in importance come the Twelve Great Feasts:

The Nativity of the Mother of God (8 Sept)
The Exaltation of the life giving Cross (14 September)
The Presentation of the Mother of God in the temple (21 Nov)
The Nativity of Christ (Christmas)
The Baptism of Christ in the Jordan (Epiphany) (6 Jan)
The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (2 Feb)
The Annunciation of the Mother of God (25 March)
Palm Sunday (one week before Easter)
The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ (40 Days after Easter)
Pentecost (50 days after Easter)
The Transfiguration (6 August)
The Falling asleep of the Mother of God (15 August)

There are also a number of Fasts:

Lent (seven weeks before Easter)
The Fast of the Apostles (eight days after Pentecost..ends June 28)
The Assumption Fast (August 1-14)
The Christmas Fast (40 days, from 15 Nov to 24 Dec)

All of these "events" afford the believer with an opportunity to prepare himself, both spiritually and physically for the great events of the Church's Divine History. Much of the above church practice and tradition is ignored by Protestants; I can't help but feel that that ignoring is a detriment to the faith and sanctification of many within Protestantism.

I have much to say on this matter, but for now I just wanted to post at least part of the Orthodox Calendar (there is some that I left out, including many festivals and other feasts) if only to inform myself, and perhaps others of the great wealth of tradition that I never even knew existed in the church.

Posted by jeremy stock at April 2, 2002 01:30 AM