Orthodox service traces ancient traditions

Published 10:58 pm Friday, October 10, 2008

EVERETT — It was pure worship.

Psalms and prayers chanted acappella in otherworldly tones.

Incense lifted in a fragrant offering to God.

Beauty emanated from a tradition, preserved, unchanged for more than 2,000 years.

From the moment Helen Robinson experienced it, she was hooked.

Now the people of Everett can experience that same beauty and tradition, just as Robinson and the first Christians experienced it in the third and fourth centuries.

An Orthodox Christian Vespers, or an evening worship service, took place Oct. 2 in the chapel at the First United Methodist Church. It was the first service of its kind in Everett. More are scheduled for the first and third Thursday of each month.

Vespers services are part of the Orthodox faith, an ancient tradition that can be traced back to the first Christian church in Jerusalem and at Antioch.

“What struck me the most was from the time we stepped into the church until we left, it was pure worship,” said Robinson, recalling the first Orthodox service she attended.

“There was a natural order, like a spiritual dance, this beautiful order of liturgical worship. The choir was beyond gorgeous. You could imagine these prayers being lifted to God. And from that moment on, I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” she said.

A liturgy is a prescribed form of prayers or worship. The term derives from the Greek word ­leitourgia, or public service.

Robinson and the rest of the Arlington congregation she belonged to then — Grace Community Church — were so drawn to the ancient Orthodox Christian faith they all converted as a congregation to Orthodoxy in 1997.

That year, Father David Hovik, pastor of St. Andrew Orthodox Christian Church in Arlington, who was then pastor of Grace Community Church, led the congregation through the conversion process.

That year, 103 people from the Arlington church attended a Chrismation service at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Brier. The Chrismation was like a baptism into the Orthodox faith for the whole congregation, said Robinson, who was part of the conversion, along with her husband and four daughters.

“It was an incredible experience to be a part of this huge group of people who were converting. Normally when you think of a conversion, you think of just one person or a family, but we had 103 people,” she said.

Orthodoxy is an apostolic faith, considered by some to be the oldest form of the Christian religion dating back to the time of Jesus when he called the first apostles to carry on his mission, Hovik said.

“Orthodoxy considers itself to be the one Christian body that has not changed its faith or practice over the past 2,000 years,” he added.

Orthodoxy may be relatively new to the Northwest, but it’s not new to the rest of the world. It’s the second largest Christian body in the world with an estimated 225 to 300 million members worldwide. It’s also growing rapidly in the Northwest. In 1987, there were 13 Orthodoxy parishes in the state. There are now 27. The Arlington church is growing, too. The congregation started with 33 families and has grown to about 74, said Hovik.

Many of the original families who converted to Orthodoxy, including the Robinsons, live in and around the Everett area.

For 13 years they’ve been traveling to Arlington for Sunday and other services.

With the rising price of gas, the congregation decided it made sense to have an Everett service, Robinson said.

So what’s next for the Arlington congregation and the Vespers services in Everett?

“God only knows,” Robinson said. “We try not to have any expectations. Right now, the services are to help the people who live a little closer to Everett, to help to conserve gas and to be more responsible to the environment. But maybe, God willing, there may be something more growing out of this humble effort.”

Reporter Leita Hermanson Crossfield: 425-339-3449 or lcrossfield@heraldnet.com.

Thursday services

Regular Orthodox Vespers services are scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church, 3530 Colby Ave., Everett. Vespers services are the first and third Thursdays of each month. Call 360-435-9769.