A Visit to the Greek Orthodox Church

By Molly Herman Gallow

I was very excited to hear from my mom that the middle school Sunday School class at St. Dunstan’s would be traveling to a Greek Orthodox Church, the same church that my best friend attends . We met up with Meg Withers and her father, Peyton Ruhmkorff and her parents, Will Vesey, Michele Smither, and Elizabeth Wong-Mark, along with my friend Mirina and her mom and sister at the entrance. It was so fascinating to experience what it was like to attend an orthodox church. There were many similarities and differences that really struck me.

The biggest thing was that there were absolutely no women or young girls present by the altar. There were only altar boys carrying crosses and candles, along with two priests. I was shocked to see this-I guess because I’m so used to seeing Tricia and Maggie lead great services at St. Dunstan’s- and assumed that every other church would be the same as ours. Also, what impressed me were all the mosaics on the walls of the church. I was startled to look up and see the face of Jesus looking down at me. In addition, the mosaics told the stories of the Resurrection and Ascension, The Last Supper, The Baptism of Jesus, and plenty more. I loved seeing all of the details within the mosaics. It was truly an incredible sight.

One similarity that I caught was the communion. The congregation does take communion, but instead of kneeling like we do, each member takes some bread already dipped in wine from a spoon. Meg and I both thought how awkward and unsanitary it must be to take communion from the same spoon that every other person takes communion from, but then it occurred to me that this was their church and their ways of doing things. Everything isn’t always the same as St. Dunstan’s.

What made this visit very special for me was that Mirina and two other teen members of the congregation read essays that they had written for a competition at their church. The papers were all on peace and what makes a peace maker. Listening to the papers gave me the idea that St. Dunstan’s should let congregation members write papers and present them in church. I loved hearing all of their different ideas about the topic. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this church so I could get a feel of what other Christians do at their services of worship and how the Orthodox Church differs so much from ours. It was a great experience, and I hope we visit more churches in the future. Thanks to my mom and Mirina and her family for organizing this!