i went to the annual greek festival this afternoon. its at the greek orthodox church.. it was well on its way to being filled with patrons.. they have good food, music, pastries and greek folk dancers... the church was open for vespers, so i walked in... there were two men with name tags so i asked one if he was a chaperone, he said no and was kind of shy..
i told him i have questions about the church and its services could he answer them? then the other guy stepped in.. the church resembled the gothic catholic church i grew up in, but it wasnt as grand in scale and instead of real stained glass windows, it had painted pictures that simulated windows.. the pews and altar were similar to ours..
we discussed the differences between catholicism and orthodox greek christianity.. he said they worship in the same way that it was done as far back as 1500 ad (or so from what i recall)..
i asked him if they had purgatory and limbo in their belief system.. he said no, purgatory doesnt exists.. he did say that their faith and beliefs were similar to the baptist even though the appearance of the church is closer to what i recall in other catholic churches.. he said the catholics are wrong about purgatory and wondered where the babies went that had been in limbo before the pope recently did away with that disposition for unbaptized souls...
he thought his beliefs were superior to others and the true expression of christianity.. i remember that mindset growing up... every sect of christianity thought they were the only ones that had the path to paradise/heaven ...
i asked him what he thought about the evangelicals and the place they hold in our current govt... he didnt speak favorably of pentecostals... he spoke about jesus alot but more so from a place of how he fit into their beliefs, although he did say he would witness to me if i wanted him to and that we could pray together right there...i offered no expression... i didnt want to encourage that...
he was raised catholic but converted to greek orthodox a long time ago....
a man dressed in a black robe walked into the church foyer. he had longer straw like salt and pepper hair and a full beard that was quite long.. he stood about five feet from us.. the guy i was talking to made a statement to me about some aspect of their beliefs and the man nodded, walked over shook the guys hand and then walked away and back into the church.. i asked the guy who befriended me if that guy was part of the church and if he had taken a vow of silence.. he said he wasnt part of the church hyerarchy, just a member.. he asked why i thought he had taken a vow of silence.. i said because he didnt say anything... he said that because he's crazy.... we are open to all people as long as they arent dangerous... and that he usually follows him around to be sure he isnt misleading anybody who may mistake his appearance for being one of the priest...
i asked this guy what he thought about todays political climate and the merging of religion into our govt. he said it didnt worry him.. his church had survived many of these kind of merges and invoked kosovo as an example.. and a reference to the nazi's too.. his church survived them all.. but i said they were very destructive forces, didnt that concern him.. he said, he was at peace.. and thats what his religion offered him and it was a good place to be....
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