Father Barnabas, thank you so much for this. I have been investigating Orthodoxy and have watched all your bootcamp videos as well as this one. Your explanation here of the vestments was very helpful, especially to understand about kissing the priest's hand. I had a really hard time with that the first couple times, and your words here helped me understand in a very tangible way the humanity of Jesus. He was a real man with real hands. Before he seemed to be more of a disembodied spirit to me. Thank you!
Great stuff Fr. Barnabas, one of my star students! One little detail: people were never baptized in robes, that is impractical and messy...they were baptized naked as infants are today. In the early Church there were many more adult baptisms and they were also were baptized naked in the baptistery (where only those baptized and the bishop and deacons - or deaconesses in the case of women - would be present) and then would don white robes and immediately join the rest of the congregation that was waiting for them next door at the main church to start liturgy with them so they could participate in the Eucharist in order to "seal" their baptism. The nakedness was important because it symbolized new birth, total surrender to God and the putting off of the old man, and the fact that Christ was naked on the Cross. They put on robes simply because they had to get dressed; everyone wore robes in those days anyway (that was the only form of normal clothing) but the white symbolized their new life of purity. Because they would wear this "Sunday Best" type of clothes for the whole week and because most were baptized on Pascha, the week after Pascha ended up being called "Bright Week!" Because the chrismation was a kind of "ordination" (laying on of hands by the bishop) this was their ordination to be a "lay person." The word "lay person" in fact derives from "laos tou Theou" which means they became part of the "people of God," hence this is an ecclesiastical ministry and not an "unordained' non-entity kind of a role the way it is understood wrongly today. Someone who was not baptized, chrismated and a partaker of the Eucharist was not a lay person. Hence, because this is actually the "first ordination" the symbol of the white robe harkening back to this first and most important ordination that brings us into the Church has become the basic garment for all the clergy in order to remind them that we first must be part of the "people of God" and then we can start talking about some more specialized ministries. The Orthodox Church in it's pure form without Western distortions is very "non-clericalistic" in this sense, because the Church is the Body of Christ as St. Paul says in 1Corinthians and the one member cannot say of the other "I have no need of you": the Church in it's pure form is a cooperation of ministries and one of the most basic and important ministries is that of being a lay person, i.e., part of the "people of God" and this is why clergy must be reminded of this with their innermost vestment which is the white sticharion so well described by Fr. Barnabas. Thanks Father, you make me proud. (Fr. Philip Zymaris, Assistant Professor of Liturgics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology).
"Can an orthodox priest wear something else in his daily routine except the black robe? It seems a little difficult to wear a black robe on a hot summer day." That depends on where you are. Some Orthodox clergy in America wear the clerical collar and jacket. It can be black, but I have seen grey or even navy or brown. Around church, however, priests must wear the riasa (the black robe). In some places where it is hot, I have seen them wear white robes. However, if the priest or deacon has taken monastic vows, they always wear the riasa and it is always black. In Europe (such as Greece) priests always wear the riasa. Lately priests in the U.S. have been wearing the riasa so they won't be mistaken for other clergy (such as Roman Catholic and Anglican).
Hello, Father Barnabas Powell i would like to ask you a question... Can an orthodox priest wear something else in his daily routine except the black robe? It seems a little difficult to wear a black robe on a hot summer day. Have a nice day =)
How did Christians get from the loosely structured congregations established by the Apostles to a super structure of priests, altars and sacraments? To find an answer to this question I began a reading of church history. One of the better books I have found so far is A History of Christianity by Paul Johnson. From what I can understand the movement away from the kind of church established by Apostle Paul's missionary journeys came early. That structure was not strong enough to withstand relentless attacks from the world without and contentions among the church within. It was a solution to surviving as a cohesive universal church. You can argue if that was God's doing or the work of man, but it was done by Christians.
Is there any evidence that Jesus Christ's disciples, apostles and/or followers (before or after the crucifixion) went through elaborate rituals with expensive costumes and paraphernalia?
The temple priests always wore priestly garments by Gods instruction in the OT Had the church not gone through persecution and been hiding while gathering in underground churches, they may have worn priest garments
Read ACTS and you see Paul never stopped the jews from doing there rituals, rather he showed them that christ came so that they could now praise God and stop sacrifice of live animals as christ had finished it, now the new "sacrifice" is the body and blood which is shared, the use of bread. If you look at Orthodox liturgy it is very "similar" to jewish services prior to christ
