I may have mentioned this a year ago, when I was posting from Bizerte, Tunisia for Orthodox Easter. The Christian Church formally divided into two distinct bodies in 1054 in what has become known as “The Great Schism.” Since that time, Catholic Easter and Orthodox Easter fall on the same Sunday only once every four years. This year there was a five week delay from the Easter of the West the Easter of the East. Today “Christ is Risen” is on the lips of every citizen of Ukraine.
Here in Kiev there are celebrations in the form of a special mass in the churches. Many women are wearing head scarves and one person in each family can be seen carrying a basket full of food, with eggs died red resting in the bottom. At the service, Easter mass is sung by however many priests are present. The front of the church has an alcove which contains objects of art, relics, and other sacred things. The priests are there, performing their chants and other rituals; like the burning of incense.
In the audience, among the crowd of standing observers, it is like being a witness to the communing of others with God. The priests are examples, but not examples to be emulated in this way. The group of regular humans are eventually addressed by one of the bearded men, but the ceremony seems mostly to be about the paying of respect. The people may come for 30 seconds, or for three hours.
Parishoners come to pray, to light candles, to stand in their own silence as the singing fills the air all around. It is one of the most quiet places I have found. Like when you are swimming; there is noise everywhere from the water rushing in and out of your ears, but you can still become totally focused on breathing, and the pace of your own heart-beat.
When the service had concluded today, the priests walked in a procession to another building to be alone together. We do not have a monastic tradition in the Western church, and I do not understand it.
albaniacalling 