“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20. When pondering my response to this year’s prompt and reflecting on the experiences in my life that would be the most applicable, I found myself constantly harkening back to this particular bible verse. As each experience seems to correlate to it in one way or another. Firstly and perhaps most powerfully is a sight I beheld just under two months ago on Holy Week, Holy Friday to be specific. As is now tradition, my younger brother Danny and I departed Archangel Michael’s with a large group of young parishioners headed by Protodeacon Daniel to go ‘tomb hopping’. This is the practice of visiting and venerating the tombs in a variety of Orthodox churches around the greater Cleveland area after that evening’s Great Vespers.
While this is always a fun and spiritually powerful activity, this year I was able to take away something entirely new from it.
After our caravan of cars embarked from Archangel Michael we headed toward our traditional first destination, St. Theodosius’ in downtown Cleveland. In any typical year, the 20 minute long car ride would be rewarded with the sight of Theodosius’ grand Iconostas, vaulted ceilings and ornate iconography. This year, unfortunately, was anything but typical. A massive fire badly damaged most of the massive temple forcing the faithful to hold their services within a simple hall detached from the main church that was spared from the blaze. In this cramped hall was set up the same grandiose tomb that would normally take center stage within church along with a series of folding chairs and a space for the choir. What might easily be construed as a depressing sight, I took for a powerful one. The faithful at St. Theodosius’ would have every reason to disperse to other churches, but instead they persevered, continued to worship in that spot, and most crucially, have continued their works.
While not entirely the same, these scenes of orthodox perseverance that I witnessed at St. Theodosius’ that evening reminded me of the primary (and only) Orthodox church in Athens, Ohio; St. Ephraim’s. Every other Saturday of the semester we gather in a lutheran church as we have no space to call our own. These reader services led by members of the congregation rarely draw in more than 15 people at a time, a collection of Orthodox students and university staff and curious locals. Despite these less than ideal conditions, the faith of the small, local Orthodox population has not been diminished. Many of the Orthodox faithful in Athens are determined to use their faith to assist their community as many of the parishioners are either aid workers or educators. Combine this with the Appalachian instinct to assist one’s community in any way possible and you get a parish that, despite its struggles, seeks to individually contribute to a better world in their every action.
Between these recent experiences at St. Theodosius’ and St. Ephariam’s, I have realized that no matter how adverse the conditions of one’s faith may be, it is in the Orthodox nature to not only spiritually strengthen oneself at all times, but to use that strength to assist one’s community in any way possible. Whether it is highly organized like Theodosius’ continual support for St. Herman’s house or individual efforts like the aid workers of St. Ephraim’s the Orthodox will always create betterment in their localities. As a person in a well connected, thriving Orthodox community, there is no reason I should not use my faith to do the exact same.
