Dear Friends,
In fact, the beard has a long and venerable history in Orthodox Christianity.
For example, it was a symbol for being a Christian at one time. . .
Sts Anthony, John and Eustace, Lithuanian Slavs martyred by Olgerde, were identified as being Christian SOLELY by their beards and their refusal to shave them off!
St Basil the Great once wrote that when he grabbed his beard he "knew he was not a woman." etc.
The reason the autocephalist Ukrainian Orthodox shaved their beards was to differentiate themselves from the Russian Orthodox. The Kyivan canons of 1921 of the UAOC actually decreed that beards were not to be an absolute rule for clergy. And the Antiochian Metropolitan Philip Sabiba has no beard (always wondered about that!).
The Ukrainian Catholic clergy did not wear beards as bearded clergy earned them the nasty epithet of "Katsap" (ie. Russophile clergy and among the UGCC clergy at one time their name was "legion.").
So there is a long-standing tradition in Orthodoxy about clergy wearing beards (and robes etc.) to show they are an icon of Christ. When UAOC discarded it, they were breaking with that Orthodox tradition (and they broke with it a number of times when they instituted married bishops etc.).
In the UGCC, we are like the Anglicans with "High Church Byzantine" and "Low Church Latin" sections.
I met a young UGCC Basilian priest and looked closely at his black sash. I asked him about it and he smiled as he said, "It's probably a carry-over from the Jesuits - they reformed us four times in our history you know!"
I said I did know but wasn't going to say anything out of courtesy . . .
Vladyka David's sister is a Lutheran, it just so happens, and I hope no one will suggest that means he has Protestantizing tendencies as well!
Alex
