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I had the good fortune recently to meet up with a very good friend of mine, Father Deacon Terry Kraychuk. Fr. Deacon Terry is a Ukrainian Catholic who takes his Orthodox heritage very seriously. He wears the full regalia of an Orthodox deacon (including beard). We went out for lunch together at a local restaurant and it was really rather hilarious to see the reactions of the people around us. One fellow seated across from us couldn't keep from staring. I guess we're just not used to it here in North America. Would that we were.
Fr. Deacon Terry has just come back from two years in the Ukraine and had some interesting things to say. During the time he spent there, he visited a large number of churches, both Catholic and Orthodox. He told me that invariably, the Church with the most number of statues, that celebrated both benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and the Way of the Cross, was not the Ukrainian Catholic Church, but rather, the autocephalous Orthodox Church. This was also generally true of those Orthodox Churches under the Patriarchate of Kiev. I found this rather interesting. Latinization has affected even the Orthodox churches in the Ukraine. Father Deacon Terry stated that these services in the Orthodox Church had been "byzantized", although he didn't elaborate. He also visited a church of Old Believers. I was quite surprised when he told me that they held very strongly to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Does anyone know the story behind this?
Incidentally, in case you're wondering, I am a Catholic of the Roman Rite with, I hope, a great appreciation for the Eastern Tradition.

Ed

Edward,

That sounds similar to the Orthodox Churches that I have seen in Romania recently.

In Bucharest (which is really not mixed catholic/orthodox like the northern part of the country is), the churches and practices were an interesting mixture.

On the one hand, there were many churches that were in the process of being restored -- the iconographic frescoing was being renewed. Invariably, this was being done in a very byzantine/orthodox fashion, with very canonical iconography.

On the other hand, there were many churches that had western-style icons (which were being actively venerated along with all of the other icons), statues (particularly in the 19th century churches), etc. Noone seemed bothered by them at all (although I did not see anyone venerating or praying before a statue, whereas there was always a steady stream of people venerating the icons, whether western or eastern style).

The other interesting thing was the degree of kneeling I saw. These Romanian Orthodox were not averse to kneeling when at prayer -- whether before an icon, during an akathist service, during communion, etc. There weren't hang-ups about 'we shouldn't be kneeling...", etc., it was all very natural.

I would say that, true to form, very few people communicated at the liturgy I attended -- probably only 5-10% of those in attendance.

In all, it was interesting. I think that one should distinguish between (1) Orthodox practices in countries where Orthodoxy is in the majority or dominant position and (2) Orthodox practices in countries where Orthodoxy is not in the dominant position. In the former case, there appears to be much more variety in practice accepted -- there aren't the same hang-ups or insecurities. In the latter case, however, there is much more of a concern that the heritage will be lost by assimilation into the larger non-Orthodox christianity around, and therefore more attention is paid to being 'strictly' Orthodox, in a more traditional sense. In any case, Orthodox in this country perceive themselves as being much more different from Catholics than do Orthodox in Orthodox countries. All of the Orthodox I met in Bucharest were very friendly, and when they learned I was an Eastern Catholic, many of them said 'that's almost the same as us'. Words which one sadly rarely hears in the polemical dialogues here in the 'diaspora'.

O

Let's remember that many of the Orthodox in Ukraine were Catholic until the Greek Catholic Church was dissolved there in 1946. So, is it surprising to see that so many Latin practices have survived in Orthodox churches?

Romania is a different story. It revels in its Roman heritage. This summer, I visited Bucharest and observed on a major boulevard a statue to Romulus and Remus --the founders of Rome. So, during that same visit , I was not suprised to see a shrine to the Sacred Heart in a nearby "biserica ortodoxa" (Orthodox church).

John is right about the Ukrainian Churches, many of which were built as Catholic churches and confiscated by Stalin.

I suspect however, on the Romanian issue, while they do emphasis the fact they are culturally Latins, the Sacred heart devotion is a contridiction of their Latin heritiage not an affirmation. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a slavitization of Romanian Church life.

K.