"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
I'll bet the Great Entrance was quite the workout!
ReplyDeleteHaha! They look like something Gulliver might have left behind in Lilliput.
ReplyDeleteThey used that chalice for the reunion of the Russian church in 2007 but I hadn't seen the diskos and star before. They're splendid. I can't see a deacon carrying that on his own.
I don't know - that deacon in the photos looks like a man who can handle such a task.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the line to get to that chalice was rather long.
In a pinch, that chalice could double as a baptismal font!
ReplyDeleteNo effete priests serving there, eh? :)
ReplyDeleteBigger, in Eastern Orthodoxy, is obviously better!
ReplyDelete