All Saints Greek Orthodox Church of Peoria

Well I was wrong.

I could not have imagined that any Christian faith could top Catholics in their grandeur, reverence for symbolism and holy traditions.

And then we decided to visit an Eastern Orthodox Church.

I really had no idea what I was doing. In fact, I had been planning that we would go to the Episcopal church today. Something though in me was urging me to step outside of my comfort zone. The Episcopal church felt like a safe choice for only our third house of worship visit. But this journey isn’t about feeling safe. It’s about pushing myself out of my comfort zone, making connections and bridging divides.

I was driving home the other day and drove past All Saints Eastern Orthodox Church in Peoria. Like First Federated, I’ve driven past this church thousands of times. I really hadn’t paid too much attention to it honestly. It’s rather unassuming from the exterior. It’s not huge; only a story and a half or so. I always thought of the Orthodox Church as ‘basically Catholic.’ My only basis for that was my middle school was a very diverse Catholic School. Not at all what you’d expect. Students had to test in to be accepted and while it was part of the Catholic Diocese, it wasn’t just for Catholics. We had Muslim, Hindu and Jewish students as well as one boy in my class who attended the Eastern Orthodox Church. I recall him often sharing his experience and how it compared or contrasted to Catholicism.

After our visit to All Saints Greek Orthodox Church I decided to dig deeper and learned more about the basis of faith for the Orthodox Church. What I now understand is that the Orthodox Church and Catholic Church were one church until The Great Schism in 1054 AD. While the West (what became Roman Catholics as we know them today) leaned toward a legalistic view of religion, the Eastern Orthodox Church held a more mystical theology. Orthodoxy recognizes the supreme majesty of God, as well as the limitations of the human mind. The Church is content to accept the element of mystery in its approach to God.

But, this particular Sunday morning, with *very* limited knowledge that I gained in middle school about the Eastern Orthodox church and knowing where it was located, we made a quick decision to postpone our visit to the Episcopal church and visit All Saints Eastern Orthodox Church of Peoria.

Because this was a sort of last minute decision, I didn’t get to do the amount of research I try to do before visiting a house of worship. I knew where it was and they do have a link on their website for visitors so I took a few minutes to read that. I’m a big believer in the idea that we have to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations in order to grow. If we just always do what we know, how can we ever possibly learn? If we only know life from our lens, how can we live with empathy? If we never trust ourselves enough to take a risk, how can we ever expand our horizons?

All of that to say, we had no idea what we were doing.

I knew that they have a prayer time before the main service, which they call the Divine Liturgy, at 9 am called Matins or Orthros. I knew that the Divine Liturgy started at 10. After feeling rushed at First Federated by not arriving early enough to get settled I wanted us to get to the church a bit earlier. We parked but had a hard time figuring out where the main door was. This is not the church’s fault, although Ben did say that it would be nice if Churches would have some signs outside since we ran into this problem at First Federated too. It was about 6 degrees outside though and we didn’t want to wander around any more than we had to. So, we found an unlocked door off the parking area and went in. Immediately we heard chanting type prayers and I panicked a bit. It was otherwise very quiet. “Were we too late?” I wondered. We quietly walked up the stairway and found ourselves in the main entry, or Narthex of the church. As we expected from my reading on the website, there were lit candles and also an opportunity to light a candle of our own. Their website did say that someone would greet us and help orient us to the church but the place was silent except for the prayers in the main room or Nave.

It was dimly lit and there were only a handful of people in there. This is where I stepped outside of my, and probably most people’s, comfort zones. We were there and we were there to learn. And with learning sometimes we make mistakes. We hope there is plenty of grace for us.

I whispered to Ben, “Do you think we should just slip in the back row?” and he agreed so we did. With us, there were less than 12 people in there and everyone was standing. There were three people off to the right at the front that were leading the prayers in a chanting/singing way. The Priest began blessing the nave with incense. He was dressed in a similar fashion as a Catholic priest. As he walked down the aisle, everyone turned to face him wherever he went.

The walls of the Nave were filled with beautiful painted icons of Saints. It’s important to note, that like Catholics, Orthodox Christians do not worship Saints. They Venerate them, which means they regard them with great respect and admiration. There was a candle on the wall in front of each icon. At the front of the church, you see the Iconostasis, which separates the Nave from the Sanctuary. It was beautifully ornate with three doors and the altar within.

The prayers continued and slowly people started trickling in. Everyone stopped at the entrance to the Nave to bow and make the sign of the cross. They don’t genuflect at the pew like Catholics do. They do the sign of the cross differently than Catholics do though, going from forehead to heart to right to left and back to heart.

My assumption that the Liturgy would begin at 10 ended up being accurate but it seemed to flow straight from the Matins into the Liturgy. I picked up many parts that reminded me of Catholic Mass throughout the Liturgy but some of it was even in Greek. At one point a man came up the front and read on his own to everyone in Greek. Meanwhile, everyone continued to stand and people still were arriving. I noticed one family even arrived at 10:45 when Liturgy had started at 10! Some people would get up and walk out for a bit, returning maybe 10 or 15 minutes later. And there were so many children! They were so well behaved and many of them participated in the prayers and with the Sign of the Cross. The younger children who had trouble being quiet were handled very kindly by their parents and no one seemed to look as though they were irritated by them.

Finally, the Priest motioned for everyone to sit. And in sharp contrast to the solemn reverence that was happening during the prayers, he was delightfully friendly and candid in his homily. His message was about “Thanksgiving.” He spoke of Luke 17:11–19 where Jesus stopped to heal 10 lepers but only one turned around to thank Him. The Priest shared that it’s so easy to be thankful when life is going well or if we NEED something from God, but what about the rest of the time?

At this point everyone stood up again and chanting and prayers continued through time for Communion. The Orthodox church is explicit on their website that only those who are practicing Orthodox Christians should partake in Communion. Communion was done similarly to the Catholic Church where participants would exit their pews and go forward to the Priest, beginning with children and their families. The children were then excused for Sunday School. The difference was that the bread (Eucharist) and wine (Blood) is combined together and given by a spoon to everyone, even infants who have been baptized in the Orthodox Church. Two other men stood on either side of the Priest with a Communion Cloth that was held under the chin of everyone who approached the Priest.

The Liturgy concluded soon after Communion, although they did take a moment to call forward a new Catechumen, who is someone who is ready to become a member of the Orthodox church and will begin that process. They also installed a new Church board.

Everyone was then invited to the basement. Ben and I stepped out from the Nave into the Narthex and since we were in the very back row, we exited fairly quickly. We realized then that maybe we did that too fast because only us and a few other people were in the Narthex area. It seemed a lot of people stayed in the Nave to talk to the Priest before they left. After a few minutes we decided to go ahead and make our way downstairs. The smell of something delicious told us how to get there! There were only a couple of people already down there but a large table was set up with a big spread of Greek food. We looked at a few displays on the outer parts of the room and then finally a man called over to us from across the room and asked if we’d like to stay for coffee. He said that there is always food and coffee after the church but today was extra special because it was catered by Mediterranean Mart. We helped ourselves to a plate and briefly chatted with a nice lady who was also in line. We then went and sat with the man who originally connected with us. He was very welcoming and quickly introduced us to everyone at the table. He was originally from Greece and another couple was from Syria.

We had good conversations about what brought us to their church and how they arrived there. One man at our table had been Catholic but after his divorce and annulment, he could no longer receive communion. He found his way to the Orthodox church where divorce is not met with that same restriction. They mentioned that it was quite a diverse group of people, which Ben and I had noticed while we had been in church with them. Lots of younger families and a number of single young men.

Everyone encouraged us to try to meet the Priest but we weren’t sure if we’d have a chance to do that. The Liturgy had lasted for almost 90 minutes and we had arrived 30 minutes before that even! After enjoying our delicious Greek food and conversation we felt like we needed to be heading home. As we walked upstairs we saw the Priest and a young woman who I had noticed during the Liturgy. It turns out they were married; yet another contrast from the Catholic Church. They right away told us that they had been trying to get downstairs to talk to us because they had noticed us at Church and they apologized for it taking so long. She introduced herself as Presbytera Lydia, which is how you address the wife of a Priest. Orthodox Priests are addressed as Father and then their first name. They took plenty of time to ask about us and make sure we got all of the information we needed to feel comfortable. We briefly explained our exploration of Faith and they seemed to be intrigued that we had chosen to come to their church. They offered that we could email, call or even TEXT the Priest if we had any questions. They also mentioned a monthly zoom meeting where he shares more about the Orthodox faith and that we were welcome to join anytime.

I think I would like to go back sometime now that I’ve done more research on the history of the Orthodox church and understand the flow of their services better. I love how the Saints are venerated and the holy traditions are practiced and honored. It had taken me a bit to figure out how to use their Hymnal to follow along. Their bulletin was very basic with just two readings and a calendar of upcoming events so it was not meant to be used as a guide really for the Liturgy. I realized their Hymnal was set up similar to a Catholic Missal and once I did I was able to follow along although that was pretty far into the service.

Have you ever attended an Eastern Orthodox Church? Or were you raised Eastern Orthodox? What was your experience like? I’d love to hear in the comments!

~Kate