Wednesday of the First Week of Lent Service - Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church - Holladay, UT - March 12th, 2014

      What an experience tonight was. This was my second time visiting the Orthodox Christian community, and my first time visiting a Greek Orthodox Church. If you want to go to a place where a service is set up for full devotion, this would be the place.

    First, to describe the setting. The setting is like crossing into a portal to the past. At the entrance there are three icons where I made the sign of the cross at each like the person before me and after crossed into the sanctuary. The sanctuary doors glass is dark enough that you cannot see what is inside. Once inside you are greeted by chandeliers, candles and a huge golden covering with life-size icons on an Angel (I think Michael), Prophet Elias, Mary and the baby Jesus and a few others. These are doors to the back where other icons and the altar is, the one area not covered except by a red curtain when the Eucharist is prepared. 

     A few minutes before the service started one of the priests (there were four of them) began chanting prayers. These prayers lasted until the Lenten service began and continued on from there. The only time when the chanted prayers stopped is when the head priest came from behind the curtain where the Eucharist was prepared on an altar below on Icon of Jesus on the cross and when the time for communion began.

     There were certain times where myself and most of the older folks crossed themselves and that was when "Hallelujahs" were said three times, and "By the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." There were also a few times were there was full bowing, such as during the communion prayer, and at one point the head priest bowed to all of us and we returned it...it reminded me of the Buddhist "Namaste." (The light in me honors the light in you).

    Besides the setting there were some other major differences I noticed, for one the Eucharist chant was more descriptive on it being a good meal intermixed with us becoming like Christ from the experience and that our kindness should be a living sacrifice to God. The kindness as a living sacrifice was something I very much agreed and supported.

    The experience was very long in the best way possible, there was respect for the people and the service taking place and the prayers/chants were like mantras with a positive and good message greater than the self. The theme was letting God transform intermixed with accountability to the self and to God...it was a somber service but not consumed by it...the somberness was reverence for the event taking place and honoring something greater that all were a part of.

   Suffice to say, I am looking forward to my next Orthodox Church visit and hopefully having a good conversation with one of the priests at some point during my stay here in Utah.

Lotus Temple and Slender West Lake - Yangzhou, China - March 10th, 2012

Last weekend Randy and I went to Yangzhou together. Yangzhou is one of the famous cities in Jiangsu Province and dates back 2000 years. We would see things from tombstones to gates that dated back to the Song Dynasty. I'll reach those areas when I come them...first I want to talk about the visit the Slender West Lake where the Lotus Temple was located.

First I want to talk about Slender West Lake or Shou Xi Hu in Chinese. It's a very beautiful location and is modeled after the West Lake in Hangzhou, which I visited last year when I was studying abroad in Hangzhou.

This lake is much easier to take in though since it is in a large park. The Original West Lake is enormous and is a major part of the city versus the Slender West Lake which is a tourist attraction/park with an entrance fee.

The fee was very worth it though. Throughout the entire length of the area was an assortment of locations to relax, to explore and to reflect. Exploration could be seen by folks who had rented electric boats to tour the lake to get the islands on it, and there were many paths that branched off to different areas...one could spend an entire day here.

Arrival at Lotus Temple
It was following one of these paths that Randy and I arrived at Lotus Temple. Lotus Temple is next to the White Pagoda which looks more phallic than most Pagodas, but is quite lovely with it's coloring of white and gold. It was from this area that we entered through the back of the Temple.

The Temple was peaceful and much emptier than Daming Temple, the large Temple Yangzhou that brings the tour busses...and because of it still had that naturalness to the place. Natural in that there was only one stand selling spiritual items connected to the Temple. It wasn't trying to be anything more then a place where people could come and worship. Not many people were though, so it was quite empty.

Along the walls were beautiful paintings of the life of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas and large Guan Yin's(The Goddess/Bodhisattva of Compassion) and Buddhas were in the main hall and at the back walls, much like Statues of Marys or Saints in a Cathedral. The similarities between Chinese Buddhism and Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity will be an ongoing theme you will find, since there are many even in the simple things like aesthetics and placement of objects representing "higher beings." I'll go into this more later in the next post about Daming Temple.
For now, Lotus Temple was a rest in a very interesting exploration of the Lake. The Temple has been around for a long time, like many of the sites would see, and with it, I've found in modern day China there is that awareness of the past that there isn't as much in America.


To reach Daming Temple we would follow the West Lake all the way to its back entrance. It was wonderful seeing the change in landscape and the amount of people became less and less until we saw only an old man with his young granddaughter. The old are very close with the young here in China. Any place you go, you will usually find a Grandma or Grandfather with their granddaughter or grandson. Something much rarer in the States to see.

We would eventually lose site of the Grandfather and his granddaughter and arrive at the gate. Across the street we saw the Nine storied Qiling Pagoda and Daming Temple, the next adventure awaited.

Holy Saturday - Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church - Issaquah, WA - April 23rd, 2011

         How to describe Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church? First I must describe the location. It's in a rural area near my house on a private road. There is a pasture with Pony's next to the Church and a large house behind the Church.

     Then there was the Chapel. Paintings of saints and characters from the Bible posed with Golden Halos, in paintings painted gold. There wasn't holy water at the entrance like there is with Catholic Churches, and the altar was carved out of wood and covered flowers and had a red tapestry underneath the arch on the altar. This was the first room.
 
   The second room was smaller and had a golden cross that looked like it had a sun upon it, and a great candle holder with seven candles ornately made of gold. There was so much gold in both the paintings and symbols. The Priests garbs were also gold.  

     Today was vespers and the holy liturgy. I was not able to stay for it all so I shall describe what I was there for. The vespers were readings from the Old Testament along with chants and prayers to the Trinity. I was there for Genesis, Exodus, Jonah, Isaiah and Kings. It was here I noticed what my friend and I had been talking about the day before.

    In Exodus God leads Pharaoh on for the soul purpose of showing his glory. Rather then having Pharaoh become compassionate towards the Jews he ignites Pharaoh's anger...all this is a show of power to get the Jews to worship and honor Him...to FEAR Him. 

   In another story a Prophet get's God to heal a boy who is sick. Because "God why have done evil against this boy?" Because the Prophet calls God on it. God lets the prophet heal the boy and "Repents of the Evil He (God) committed."

     The God of religion is so much like us (better and worse in some instances). He does good and evil. He contradicts Himself. Is jealous, wrathful, compassionate, and all the other human emotions. The God in the Bible feels bad over some of His actions. Whether it's the flood, the child or other actions. But I have trouble seeing the character as All-Good and All-Benevolent given these actions...as well as the existence of Heaven and Hell.

  If either exists then there isn't justice. Eternal punishment or reward for Temporal actions, is not just. There isn't an equal give or getting...it's eternal, infinite, for something that was finite. This is something my friend told me yesterday that stuck with me. She's right. How is infinite punishment or reward just given finite actions?

      Hearing these Old Testament stories really gave me an appreciation of the past and how far we have come. Ethically most people are aware of the Good have moved on from an "Eye for an eye." Or killing for ideology...most people just want to live. So many people asked questions and many of them died as heretics for asking those questions...thankfully it is not that way in as many parts of the world as it was before...though it still happens.

   When any book, Holy or not, is put above free thought and then used to suppress questions of it...evil occurs. Closed systems aren't just in religions though, that same mentality has exists and does exist within countries and communities. The State can be God, or any ideology can be God. Any thought of what a person believes God to be...can be worth killing for. Worth doing evil in It's name. As our ancestors did in the past and that is still done to this day.

   Easter or sometime after I'll be doing a reflection on Christianity...but this where I am currently. I don't think I would ever convert to any of the Abrahamic faiths. The Books of the Word have to many contradictions, and the God is like us (not all Good or all benevolent)...not better or worse in the stories, just more powerful. There is still more to explore and discover in the stories and life. Religion tells us a lot about ourselves and people. I intend to continue to discover, experience and learn as I continue the blog.

   Tomorrow is Easter. Let's see what it brings.