Bells and Smells

This morning I got to do something I’ve wanted to do for the past ten months, and maybe more correctly ten years or more. Our fifth international exchange student arrived last August from Moldova, one of the former Soviet republics. Early on in our discussions with her we found out that she was a member of an Orthodox church in her home country. She would attend services in her home city and also out in the country when visiting her grandparents. I mentioned at the time that I would love to visit any Orthodox church here in the Twin Cities if she would be our guide. The days and weeks and months became busy and it never happened. Realizing that she will be leaving in less than four weeks and there wouldn’t be many more available Sundays, we decided to make today the day.

I spent some time yesterday surfing the net, trying to find Orthodox churches with web sites and with the service times listed. It was a challenge. Of the thirty to forty Orthodox churches in the Twin Cities that I found only a handful had websites of their own. And of those I found only three or four that listed their service times. I jotted these down and we decided to attend the earliest service which was in St. Paul. When we arrived and looked on the door, I realized that either I had written down the wrong time or they were trying to trick visitors. Probably the former. We were there at 8:30 and the time on the door was 9:45.

So off to Minneapolis we went. The south Minneapolis church’s posted service time was 9:30 and our goal was to finish up as early as possible. After some Dunn Brothers coffee and Breugger’s Bagels we arrived right at 9:30 in the pouring rain. And they were just starting. We sat down in the back and Inga asked if this was OK. I said yes, but then I changed my mind and we marched up near the front to get a better view. I’m glad we did. We were then right under the 40 foot dome with a large painting of Christ in the middle of the ceiling. He was looking down upon us so we had to behave. I was being good; I actually wore my fancy Italian three piece suit with a striped shirt and silk designer tie, anticipating a more formal crowd than I normally mingle with on Sunday mornings. I guessed right. Not a pair of jeans was to be found in that place.

St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church was very welcoming. People were friendly and some went out of their way to greet us in the lobby. One man even gave me a tract. I thought that maybe a Southern Baptist had snuck in. Just kidding, I appreciated the gesture. But maybe it was my shoes. I was wearing some brown hiking boots that had quite a few scuffs. They probably gave me a way. I sure got razzed later that morning after church service number 2 in New Hope. A long time friend whose gifts include correction of others told me he would soon shop for some new shoes for me. At least I had shaved and brushed my teeth this morning.

But back to St. Mary’s—what a smorgasbord for the senses. You are first greeted by the many lit candles, then your eyes are grabbed by the many painting throughout the sanctuary. And then the stained glass figures of the saints pop out, followed by the incense burners, and then painted silhouettes, and the Greek letters and phrases and sentences. It’s a little bit of a sensory overload at first. And then come the smells. The incense hits you in waves, even before the priest swings the bells with the incense burner. The smells were pleasant at the time, but what struck me most was five hours later as I was taking off my button-down shirt I realized that the smell had permeated my clothing. And the smell as I hung up my shirt brought me back to the sanctuary in Minneapolis.

The smells that we low-church Covenanters associate with church usually center around lutefisk at Christmas time. But that’s another story for another time. And come to think of it the rest of today’s story will have to come another time, because my butt gets sore if I sit too long. And I’ve sat long enough today. Speaking of sitting, this is my last comment. If you think charismatics stand a lot in church, you should check out the Orthodox. They’ve made standing a rite. And as Inga told me, in Moldova the sanctuaries don’t even have seating. Tough to fall asleep in church there. We might need to look into that.