31 Flavors - the church as ice cream

Imagine a wide selection of ice cream flavors. Now imagine that over time ice cream makers made more and more vanilla ice cream, and consequently less and less of other flavors. It's certainly easier to just make vanilla ice cream - easier to put quality controls on just one item, easier to market one strong product, and so many people already eat it. So why not just make that and do away with all the hassle and bother of counting nuts, measuring fruit mixtures, stirring in syrups?

That, in a nutshell (if you'll forgive the pun), is the direction many authors will attest to the church taking before Vatican II. Eastern churches slowly Latinized, incorporating more Roman practices and marginalizing or completely doing away with practices that had existed in their parishes for centuries. Icon screens were removed, statues were placed inside and outside the churches, pews replaced open spaces, and the list goes on.

Returning to our ice cream analogy, would anyone say that chocolate and vanilla ice cream go together? Most would say they do. But if you bought chocolate ice cream and instead opened the container to find a speck (for a speck we are in number) of chocolate could you still call it chocolate ice cream? No. And that was (and to some degree is )the danger faced by the Eastern church. How else do we maintain our identity in a wash of vanilla, but to preserve and maintain what we hold close? Do not be surprised if you are not welcomed with open arms as a Roman Catholic into an Eastern parish for this very reason. At the same time do not give up hope of finding a new home there.

I continue on, strangely hungry and looking for my Marble Slab coupon, to discuss those things that don't mix so well. Do peanut butter cups go well with mango madness? I think not. For that same reason don't expect that all your sprinkles and mix-in practices will be welcome (the rosary, adoration of the blessed sacrament, kneeling at the epiklesis) in your new church. Nor should you try and be the "uber-dox" new parishioner that does a metany for every occasion, greets everyone in Slavonic, and brings the pirogies to all the events. Being disgusting or saccharine sweet wins few taste contests. Instead, take the time to see how the works of the people are made. If you have a desire to help out, learn what needs doing over what you want to do.