ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE |
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Exarchate of Parishes
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| EPISCOPAL VICARIATE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND | ||
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The Liturgy after the Liturgy
Irina von Schlippe This is not the original title of my talk, which was much more pedestrian, but the title forced me to think much more about the message which I wanted to convey, and this conference, particularly the few words which I exchanged with Archbishop Gregorios and Father Boris Bobrinskoy’s talk yesterday, forced me to think even more – so the talk might, alas, be even longer. The main message I would like to convey seems to be that there cannot be a Liturgy after the Liturgy, without a Liturgy coming first. That is – one cannot go out into the world and serve God without first joining other people in the Eucharist. But can there be a Liturgy without committed service to God preceding it? Surely we must praise God in our work and our life, before we can presume to come and be partakers of His glory at the Liturgy. The second main message seems to be that unless we engage (I find no other word) the Holy Spirit into our work, then whatever we do, however virtuous and useful, will not go beyond professionalism and at best philanthropy. It will of course still be very useful and welcome to its beneficiaries, but it will not be a work of charity, it will not bring us into communion with God. At the end of Orthodox Liturgies, before the final blessing, the priest says the words “С миром изыдем”, “Let us go forth in peace”, with the congregation answering –“О имени Господнем», “In the Name of the Lord”. And this pattern, almost word by word, is followed in most Christian Liturgies. In the Orthodox tradition, these words are followed by a final prayer, summing up all our wishes and re-affirming our faith, establishing the bridge between the Liturgy at the altar and the Liturgy in the world, where we are all celebrants. This prayer is offered by “the junior priest”, the priest with the most recent ordination, the one who has most recently left the crowd of lay believers to become one of those who serve at the altar and may bring the Lord in Communion to the people. He is best suited for this, as he remembers our lay condition so very vividly. The word “dismissal”, applied to this part of the service, seems to me rather inappropriate – yes, we are all dismissed from our joint prayer around the altar, but these words are also an instruction, a command, to go out into the world in peace and go about our lives in the name of the Lord rather than following our own whims and desires. Since the 1950s, I have been constantly instructed to strive for bringing my church life into my everyday life, to “church” my life, and to “church” the bit of the world immediately around me. This expression, “оцерковление жизни”, seems to have been first used by Father Sergei Bulgakov and is still the banner of the Russian Christian Movement, of the church life led by our brethren primarily in France, and also anywhere this teaching has been heard, that is – all over the world. Metropolitan Anthony talked about the need for it incessantly. When I became a parishioner at Ennismore Gardens, having moved here from France, where I used to worship at the Russian Christian Movement (Ecumenical Exarchate) church, I often talked with Metropolitan Anthony about this, about ways of living as a Christian in an environment which was entirely secular, ways to bring one’s life into the church at all times, ways to bring the church into one’s life outside the times of worship. His words about transforming every breath into a prayer are forever vivid, if difficult to apply. I am not good at all at praying and the emphasis of our conversations concentrated more and more on a practical level: may I call it applied religion? In any case, it resulted in a great variety of practical applications, way beyond my personal outreach. When working at the BBC Russian Service in the 1960s and 70s, I had the opportunity to organise Metropolitan Anthony’s broadcasts to Russia at times when he seemed to be the only representative of the Russian Church, of the Moscow Patriarchate, who was able to make statements on the dire situation to the Church and to the people ( believers or those searching for truth) in the Soviet Union. We prepared and then recorded a number of so-called interviews, when in a studio I would ask a question and he would speak uninterrupted for 25 or 30 minutes. During the preparation of these, however, there was a genuine conversation and he would talk in practical and realistic terms about tangible, immediate events and attitudes. For broadcasting purposes, however, he would give advice on a more general level, advice applicable to all times and all societies – but the very timing and slant of this advice were of immediate value to the listener in Russia, as well as to anybody who was worried about current affairs – as we all were during the Cold War, most acutely during the Cuban crisis, the persecution of dissidents, the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, during the Soviet invasion into Afghanistan. Metropolitan Anthony refused to exercise his very significant authority by condemning anything political in his official statements, but he made his position entirely clear at all times, including during these landmark events, about our own personal responsibility for the state of the world. For instance, when Solzhenitsyn wrote his magnificently demanding open letter to the then Moscow Patriarch, demanding that he defend his own clergy, his own people and his own country, I was asked by the BBC to beg Metropolitan Anthony to make a statement on this – since the Patriarch himself would obviously be unable to respond. We knew privately that in MA’s view Solzhenitsyn was justified, and that Solzhenitsyn personally had suffered enough to have a right to speak out – but our Bishop saw that any statement of his own would only make matters worse. He chose another path: he talked about the duty of the Church as an organisation and the duty of each member of the Church, the duty, in fact of every single person. He said that the Church has the monopoly of ensuring communication of man with God and of God with man. The Church is obliged to ensure that this function is carried out to the full at all times and in all places. This is a most difficult task, and nothing can be allowed to interfere with the full commitment to this task by the Church and by the people who represent her on earth, - the task of commitment to prayer, to ensuring that the Sacraments are accessible to the people, the task to keep open the channels of communication between God and Man. The Church is not allowed to be distracted from this unique and exclusive duty by any considerations whatsoever – even to defend the lives of people, even to engage in charitable works, not to speak of politics. The Church brings the Sacraments to people, its hierarchs are answerable before God for the continuity of Life Eternal among the people, for the spiritual life of God’s people. Therefore no-one has the right to come out with any statements whatsoever in the name of the Church, and this includes political statements, let alone statements which may bring about a curtailing of the church’s exclusive activity. I was appalled to hear this – how could he possibly preach appeasement and silence? Metropolitan Anthony added this:
Our late Bishop was truly passionate in his defence of this exceptional function of the Church as an organisation for all times and outside time, and he was also passionate about the function of the people, who at any given time ARE the Church, constitute the Church in its temporary, current, physical existence on earth. This was Metropolitan Anthony at his most demanding – stressing that God had faith in Man, and that Man had to justify this faith; that Man, that is, every single person, had to accept this trust and justify it. This initial broadcast gave rise to a series about God’s faith in Man, and also about some of the practicalities faced by believers in the Soviet Union: this was based on ever-recurring questions from them. (What does one do if a priest cannot be trusted? How does one choose between one’s career and one’s commitment to God?) But at the time of this memorable statement on the function of the Church as an organisation and of every believer as a member of the Church, once the recording was over and we were out of the studio, he proceeded to criticise, to attack me for not having taken part in a protest demonstration outside the Soviet Embassy the night before. I pointed out that he had talked about the pointlessness of such actions, so why should I have gone? He said that I had missed a chance to put my convictions in action, and therefore had failed to do my best. I was calling to others to take risks while remaining in the shadow. (He relented a bit when he heard that it was my turn to look after the children, and that my husband had in fact attended the demonstration). There is a saying in Russian – “Every initiative will be punished immediately”, meaning that you will have to do yourself whatever you preach or suggest - and in our late Bishop’s opinion: if you commit yourself, you must be true to this commitment to the utmost of your ability. And this brings me back to the title of this talk and to the theme of this conference. Metropolitan Anthony wrote mostly about prayer, addressing the world as a whole; but his emphasis was different when he spoke to those attending the Liturgy: his sermons which we now receive by email every week, thanks to the immense work done by the Foundation established in his name, - these demonstrate again and again that he spoke mostly about the work of the Lord, of the love which the Lord showed towards the world by serving it. And of our obligation to show our love for God by showing love to our neighbour. Our late Bishop repeated again and again, he demonstrated very clearly that the life of our Saviour, and particularly the miracles of Jesus Christ not only show His compassion, His mercy, His all-conquering, unlimited power, but they also show us ways in which we can follow Him actively, physically, not only in word and prayer, but also in deed and action. All through the Gospel we read Christ’s injunction to us – be active in your love for your neighbour. He even seems to lose some of his patience with us in Matthew chapter 25: there the Lord shows us the Last Judgement, the time when there is no redress, when we have to face our sins and failures, the time when we cannot put anything right any more. We shudder on hearing this chapter. In our everyday life, however, unless we remember at every step that we are going about our business in the name of the Lord, we tend to forget Matthew 25 and all the other reminders of our duty. We may pray, and we may pray fervently, meditating on the wonderful, inspired words of the Gospel or of the innumerable prayers in which innumerable saints have condensed their faith and their love for God – but all too often we limit our prayer to the effort of praying in words and meditation, we do not do not pray in action, we neglect our duty to bring relief – up to salvation, support – up to happiness, comfort - up to healing, all of which can be achieved mostly through entirely mundane actions, by our own actions, our own activity, our own commitment to our neighbour. Our neighbour, - and that is simply the person who is actually next to us in life, the person whom we have met, the person who has sought us out – the person whom we can destroy or support. Our Saviour gives specific examples in Matthew 25: the hungry, the thirsty, the wanderers, refugees or homeless, the naked, the sick, those in prison. We may shrug and say that these examples are far from our own life; we may say also that we give generous donations to charity, expecting professionals to do a much better job and at a much larger scale than we could ever hope to do. Yes, I am the last person to criticise those who give cheques – but personal participation is all-important as well. All-important to the giver. From my own observations, also immensely comforting to the receiver who knows that he has been noticed as a person. As an example of our own activity in the St Gregory’s Foundation, I would like to quote the example of an old English lady whose only income is the basic state pension. She has been donating 10 pounds a month – the widow’s mite – to help a young man in Russian to train as a priest. She agreed to give this support to a choirmaster in the deepest provinces, and the widow’s mite - given over 10 years – has taken him through an intensive course in the tipica and other “technical” church matters, also through a degree in teaching music (taken by correspondence). He now has two professional qualifications. He remains a rock on which the choir at the parish’s services stands, and he has grown immensely in spiritual stature, thanks to this exceptionally generous and loving support. He can also earn a living. As an example at the opposite end of the scale, I would quote the Russian Royal Family in late 19th and early 20th century: they not only financed hospitals and orphanages – and the sums involved are staggeringly high. This was not enough for them. The Royal women trained as nurses and systematically carried out physical nursing duties at these very hospitals. One of the late Tsar’s daughters was a most capable surgical sister. To go back to the message directly addressed to us: The Gospel repeats time and time again that children should be welcome and cherished to those loving God, that they should be brought to the Lord – and we dutifully organise Sunday schools and camps, pilgrimages and crèches, play corners where the little ones can enjoy themselves while their parents pray. We donate equipment and seek out competent helpers. We do not like it, however, when children make a noise in church, when they run around, when they ask questions in a loud voice during services. We go to great lengths to exclude them from the greater part of our services in order to give adults some peace, a wonderful devotional peace to pray in. But what happens to us as persons? What happens to us as a community, if we distance ourselves from each other, from our own children, from the children of our brothers and sisters in Christ, of the (currently small and noisy) persons who will very soon become our adult co-parishioners, possibly our future priests? Unless our children attend the services, they do not learn to worship with us. Unless they share NOW the joy (and tiredness) of worship with their parents and the rest of the congregation, this joy (and the overcoming of tiredness) will not be part of their person – why on earth should they suddenly turn into devout Orthodox in their teens? I hope that we all remember Metropolitan Anthony’s reaction to noisy young children at services and to the complaints of non-parents about it. I remember also his injunction to us as parents, when young and blessed with three children under five – he said: make them want to come to church, make them happy to attend the service, work at it! I shall be glad to share our own experience and techniques, but most of all I would advise everybody to read the most useful guidance by Professor Sophie Koulomzine, “Our Church and Our Children”, published by St Vladimir Press. It is all a question of personal commitment, of personal experience, of allowing the love of God to flow through us. This is quite tough at moments, but so very rewarding! Still on the theme of children – please stop to think, and imagine yourself to be a young mother (or indeed father) of a young baby or toddler, harassed by the infinite practical details of a new life, constantly caring and fussing about food, cleanliness, order. You snatch at the possibility of coming to church, and here you are – at the heart of your spiritual life, such a joy! What do you do? Will you park the child at the nursery or crèche, and allow yourself the infinite luxury of prayer, or will you take the path of parental martyrdom and keep the child with you? Please keep the child with you. It will for once see its most significant adult in an entirely different environment, an entirely different situation. (This is particularly true for fathers who do not get enough opportunities just to be, just to live next to the child). There will be just the two of you, and you will be different from your everyday self – let the child see you pray, see you be still and incomprehensible, but together and loving. Let the child see the icons which you venerate, share in the candlelight, the singing, the mystery of everything. If it fusses – and it will definitely fuss – take it round the church a bit, show it an icon or a kind person, or lit another candle, or possibly give it a feed, but remain together and carry on praying, taking the warmth and love of the child as part of the prayer. It won’t last, you know. The child will grow. And it will remember in its very bones how lovely it was to be together, and it will have learnt to pray without any additional or formal effort – it will be ready to listen to teaching, and it will feel at home in the Lord’s House. Trust the Lord and trust the child – if it feels through your actions that you love God, and that you love your child, the child will feel loved by God and it will love Him back. This personal involvement, this physical involvement is essential. It is not enough to pray for the world, you must experience the effort needed to make any change at all. It is wonderfully useful to sign a cheque to benefit a charity, (and without strong financing and strong administration large-scale charitable activity is impossible), and I am forever grateful to those who support us in this way, particularly those who come and see the results of their generosity for themselves. But it is equally useful for one’s soul – as different from one’s social conscience – to do something practical with one’s own hands to help one’s own neighbour. Last Saturday, email brought yet another sermon by Metropolitan Anthony, a very recent one – words which he said on 21st May 2000, Sunday of the Paralytic. Only eight years ago… He said -
And in the Russian-language sermon on the Sunday of the Paralytic, from another year, he says (I am going to paraphrase):
We listened to him time and time again – let us start acting a bit more frequently on what we heard, and don’t let’s fear the consequences. I would like to suggest a few practical things – things which have worked before in many places. The first is to help our clergy – and here I want to be controversial and include in this category not only men in cassocks, but also their family, and also those lay people who are engaged on a permanent basis on some work in our Vicariate, our parishes or Eucharistic communities. Oh, I know that they themselves do not necessarily encourage us. We are all – including our clergy - notoriously bad at delegating, and practicalities being what they are (particularly our fearsome distances) we all find it much easier to do everything ourselves rather than delegate. But unless we share both our burdens and our joys, we will not develop. In our Vicariate - which is so small - we are all the more responsible, each of us, for the whole work, life and progress. Let us not leave everything to specialists, let us all use our own skills to help your Bishop, and all those who toil to ensure that we have the Liturgy, be it in church or in our worldly service. If we do delegate (particularly to young people), if we give them instructions carefully and accurately, and if we then do trust people to carry out the task to their best ability and independently, we will give them a proper insight into the near-infinity of tasks which go into running an extended community, and we might train some successors to the current activists. We might also, as an extra bonus, make life easier for clergy and other activists! We will all learn something, we will learn to know each other, we will bring our non-church skills into our church life, we will extend our own lives… Let us try! The second is for everyone to try and do something very specific to help at least one neighbour. Not necessarily in our own Orthodox community – but let us start with this at least. You know the Scouting rule: do at least one good deed a day. Very mechanical, but how very, very efficient! We all know, for instance, old people, infirm people, also lazy people and busy people who do not attend as many services as they would like. Or who do attend but never appear in our midst at other times. We have young parents who are stuck at home. Let us try to get in touch with them - by telephoning, or maybe just sending little notes, postcards, faxes, emails or texts on our mobiles to each other. Just one a day to start with? Let us offer to visit, ask to be visited, offer to give some respite from caring after someone. It will feel very artificial to start with, but every activity finds its own level eventually. Even more importantly - let us ask for help as well as offer! Let us accept the hand of our neighbour – at least with an open mind, if we cannot do it with joy and love. I remember vividly one old Russian lady, Zina, who used to visit several old ladies all over London. She saw them once a week, or some once a month. It was an immense joy to all of them. Nothing much happened – they had tea together, they just were friends together, and Zina would spread the word if something was going wrong, in the fist instance to those authorities whose task it is to look after elderly people - she was in fact the designated social worker of our parish. It was one of the greatest achievements of our parish in my opinion. Another parishioner was an official prison visitor – but with a twist: she visited the families of prisoners and tried to help them by giving them information and by presenting their case to the relevant authorities. It was a truly Christian service, greatly treasured by Metropolitan Anthony, but she did it as part of her secular service to the community at large. Father Michael organised regular visits to Russian patients in hospitals – I think it would be great if we could visit our own people at least! From my experience as school charity organiser, I know how much patients appreciated our volunteers’ weekly visit to a ward – writing letters, running small errands, just talking. As a young inexperienced mother, I appreciated immensely our neighbours offering advice and just coming for a cup of coffee, reminding me that there was indeed a world outside. All these are small steps in the right direction of seeing our neighbour as a person, of finding ways to establish a network of love and care. If we take this path, then we will be better prepared to meet greater needs when they present themselves. I once met a neighbour whom I barely knew in the street, accompanied by a man whom I had never met. I greeted her, the man turned out to be her husband, and to my “How do you do?” he answered – “I am dying”. To my – “Well, we are all going that way”, he said that his doctor had just told him that he had metastatic lung cancer and he would not live more than three weeks. We parted on this note. A few hours later, I met him in the street again, alone this time, and greeted him. He grabbed my arm and asked “Do you know me? Do you know where I live? Please take me home”. He had been given his first shot of morphine, felt much better and went for a haircut – but by the time his hair was done, his mind was completely confused. He had left the front door open. His family were all working and tried to cope with this emergency – and since I was on holiday, I could spend a week sitting with him, listening to his anger and his blasphemy, trying to pray to protect, sort of “throwing a shield” over him, but the main thing was my just being there. It did help to calm him down, and it was a most beneficial experience also to us as a family! But let us not limit ourselves to helping in times of distress. Let us also share our joys, our pleasures. For instance, practically every woman and quite a few men have their own recipes, or – even more usefully – their own menus for Lent, for festive days, for seasons. Let us swap information, - in person, by email, by conference telephone, maybe even – what a surprise that would be – by actually assembling together in one spot. Let us get together and do some cooking, or make some jam or other preserves for the church bazaar. Let us have some fun together. Most of all – let us tell each other about anything joyful! It is amazing how quickly negative comments spread. Do we ever spread good news? If you do – please include me next time on the mailing list. There was a time of great distress when Metropolitan Anthony helped me greatly. Once I was over this trouble, I decided not to bother him any more, but did not want to cut the link (this was a long time ago, when he was still answering the telephone), so I started to phone him from time to time to tell our good news, rather than constantly moaning. After a couple of weeks, he asked – “What is the matter? Why all this happiness? What’s wrong?” I told him that it was unfair for him never to hear to good news, only the terrible ones – and he said that no-one ever did this, no-one took the trouble to share their joys systematically with their priests. And he asked me to stop, because it would be so easy to get used to this approach, and this would – as he put it – «меня развратит» which I cannot quite translate, but would render as “put me on the wrong track”. He would relax and not be stressed all the time, ready to give succour. Is this fair? So my suggestion is – let us not quite do a Pollyanna, but let us share our joys, and also let us create some cheer and happiness! We do worship together and we share a snack after the Liturgy, both of which are essential. Let us add something to this, something which is not necessarily religious, but something which will give us joy and the pleasure of seeing each other as people, not only as fellow worshippers or fellow workers. We might go to an eatery where we can swap news and get to know each other better. I know some people do this already, but not enough! It is of course difficult for us to visit each other if we live so very far away – but surely we can organise a common activity from time to time? We do not need to have an official pilgrimage announced and structured, we can – as a small group of friends – share a car to go to Walsingham or to one of the innumerable pre-schism holy British sites. We might even, by prior arrangement, meet a group from another parish there! Or even two parishes. We could talk and compare notes. We might speak of our parish life, of our clergy – and this might well lead to some ideas about assisting them! We might even visit – as a group – some non-Orthodox holy sites, or wonderful Whipsnade Zoo, the British Museum (showing each other what we know and appreciate most and possibly what we hate, explaining why), or Kew Gardens, or London Eye, whatever. This offer is not restricted to Londoners: one of the best ways to get to know people is after all to have them stay and to do things together. When I am in London, I am always happy to offer a bed or two. I am sure I am not the only one. Let us have picnics, let us go to the theatre or concert together, let us help each other with shopping… Let us bring the children together not only in camps, but also in term time. The circus is more often than not a good thing to do together. But let the children put forward their own ideas – imposing a financial limit from the start, maybe? But do give them the initiative. Also allow them to bring their friends – not only Orthodox ones. Allow them to bring another part of their lives into their church life – if they bring their school friends to “churchy” get-togethers, it will be great for them. Let us learn together about the various secular traditions accompanying various feasts, and let us try and repeat these at the proper time! Pentecost in Russia is a time for one’s dwelling – and one’s church – to be decorated with greenery, to an extent which in this country can be compared only with a traditional harvest festival. Getting this greenery and learning how to use it can be an immense pleasure – and will teach the children quite a bit, particularly about the rules of collecting this greenery from public spaces!
Please do not scoff at all this talk about cooking, baking and making – traditional food is the strongest link in a family or a community, it is the very last tradition to go when a family or community disperse, and the first thing to resume at a family or community get-together. In short, the Liturgy after the Liturgy is not only our duty to pray formally: we are commanded to “pray constantly”, which means of course that we should bring our faith and the joy of our faith to every action of our lives. Oddly enough, it is a great effort, a much greater one than engage in long formal prayer separate from our daily activities, but only repeated effort makes one stronger and healthier. Our Lord told us again and again that prayer and obedience to God’s laws are essential, but active love towards our neighbour and personal commitment are the greater proof of our love for God. In my work for St Gregory’s Foundation in this country, in Russia and elsewhere I see the immense difference between the people who treat their charity as a profession and those who treat it as a service to God, or perhaps to a greater good, if they have not found God – it happens so often that people have been chosen by the Lord, but do not realise it, hampered most often by their circumstances. It is the combination of personal empathy, non-sentimental love, ability to be joyful together, the natural, organic way in which the charitable person discovers the need of others, which is the hallmark of those who serve God by serving their neighbour. The work of our St Gregory’s Foundation, while being officially non-religious, is permeated with this joy both among givers and among beneficiaries – possibly because so many of us, living outside Russia, are connected to Russia by familial bonds of love, also possibly because so many of our members and benefactors have travelled to Russia, have seen for themselves the need, the immense harvest to be worked, and the workers toiling at it, have experienced the empathy which I would call charitable love – and have joined us out of love. It is a wonderful way to live. So let go in peace in the name of the Lord and in the love of our neighbour. Suggestions mentioned in discussion:
Irina von Schlippe, St Petersburg and NW Russia programme,
St Gregory's Foundation: Aid to Russia and the former Soviet Union,
Registered Charity No. 1002469
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Talk given at the 2008 Annual Conference of the Vicariate, ‘For the Life of the World’.
At the beginning of Lent, Ukrainians sow rye in a handsome shallow bowl. It grows throughout Lent and at Easter one puts one’s dyed eggs into the tall vivid green grass. This is one of the most vivid memories of my childhood and an immensely strong symbol of renewal. Let us share it with our children. Let us find out about each other’s tradition, let us try and share them.
At the feast of the Annunciation, the Russian tradition is to release birds into the wild – presumably this cannot be done in the UK, but it can be discussed. More enticingly, perhaps, pastry “larks” can be baked to the traditional recipe and eaten by the whole family, also with friends. Pastry making is a constant accompaniment to the church calendar in Russian tradition, and I would love us to know more about each others’ traditions.