The divine liturgy for Sunday December 15th, 2002 was one filled with experience and amazement. As I drove up the church looked like another ordinary church which I had attended many. As I approached the church I walked through the main doors and there was a small lobby where a few people waited for services to begin.
I went into a small office to the left of the main door and spoke with a lady about service to make sure there wasn't anything significant during Liturgy that I needed to know about. After being told no and a brief explanation on how it was similar to most catholic masses, I went and took a seat in a pew in the main part of the church. I was thoroughly shocked! The main part was a lot smaller than it looked from the outside.
As I sat in the pew, I looked straight forward at one of three altars. People were going up to them praying and then lighting a candle, although I am not sure what for. Behind the alters, was the main alter behind swinging doors, that were opened during liturgy for everyone to see. Above the swinging doors and incorporated into the wall were boards of icons of all or most of the Saints.
Among this was beautifully painted murals of Byzantine style art of characters and scriptures from the bible. This I found completely awesome, especially since I just to Ancient Medieval Arts this semester also, and saw a lot of slides like the murals I got to see in person today.
As liturgy started I saw these priests in what looked like the formal robes and very quite expensive white garment with gold trim. So I immediately expected this to be some formal mass like I hear and read about. When it came time for the priest to speak, he was very down to earth, even making jokes to parish. I found this comforting. Another thing I liked compared to most Catholic liturgy that I attend was that when the priest speaks and makes a reference to praying to god.
The norm is for the congregation/parish to reply i...