The Litany

I have to admit, this morning it felt like I was in an Orthodox church. The explanation is a little roundabout, so I hope you'll bear with me.

To start with I'd read some time ago, I think on some local Orthodox church's website, that the Orthodox tend not to be punctual about arriving for services. This had been reinforced by something else I'd read (Russian Orthodox this time, I think) -- and was confirmed recently by my visit to a Greek Orthodox cathedral in Salt Lake City last month. Nobody noticed my late arrival for "Orthros" ("Matins", hardly anyone was there to notice anyway), but a while later people started arriving and continued so far into what was clearly "The Divine Liturgy" (Holy Communion) that it seemed almost they'd arrived just for the ending. That's the background.

Now at present we're leading up to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of St. Bartholomew's founding. Fr. Daniel has suggested a program of preparation in advance, including fasting and prayer... and The Litany at 9:45 Sundays before Mass. And so it was today, with some of us from the Scripture Study class in the pews for the Litany, which proceeded while other folks arrived for 10 AM Mass. An interesting experience, to hear our numbers (in the responses) small at first, the sounds of new arrivals, and the strength of the responses growing as folks caught on and joined us in the Litany.

It was very much like my experience in the Greek Orthodox church, and completely unlike any Anglican service I've ever been in.