sassykat1-blog1 - Tumblr blog

sassykat1-blog1 · 8 years ago

Photo

Life to live!

#baton rouge #street art #MOPA

1 note · View note

sassykat1-blog1 · 8 years ago

Photo

Street art can tell you so much about a place!

#dirty south #baton rouge #street art

1 note · View note

sassykat1-blog1 · 9 years ago

Text

Orthodox Christian

Written by: Hayley Franklin

Photos by: Kaitlyn Graff

Nestled between On Court Tennis and Philly Me Up: Cheesesteaks and More, Saint Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church lies hidden in the large city of Baton Rouge. Despite its inconspicuous location in Suite E at 8775 Jefferson Highway, the church has a diverse congregation of more than one hundred laity.

Rev. Mark Christian of Saint Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church said the congregation includes people of many different nationalities, including Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Lebanese and Syrians, because of the origin of the Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox religion is largely Eastern, and was part of the Roman Catholic Church for nearly 1000 years before issues over papal authority and additions to the Nicene Creed caused the two churches to diverge. Due to this divide the churches now have many different traditions and views on doctrine.

For instance, Christian explained that Orthodox children might receive the bread and wine of communion at any age as long as they are baptized. In the Roman Catholic Church children are generally asked to wait until they are at the age of reason, usually 7 or 8 years old.

Another difference lies in marriage.

According to Christian, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that marriage is “until death do us part,” while the Orthodox Church states that “the bond of love between a husband and a wife endures even in death.” Divorced or widowed men and women are also allowed to remarry in the Orthodox Church, and married men may become priests.

Christian said, ”It may be good and helpful and even in some sense spiritually nourishing for a divorced person to have the opportunity to marry again.”

Other differences lie in the tradition of the mass.

Those who visit Saint Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church may be surprised that entire masses are sung, rather than spoken, and that incense is burned every Sunday.

The aroma of incense that remains during the week instantly embraces visitors, as do the religious icons adorning the yellow walls of the church. Christian explained, that the walls are yellow because they symbolize heaven, the place of the saints who rest on those walls.

Christian said, “Icons. It’s a Greek word meaning image and in as much as human beings were created in the image of God, somehow showing forth the glory of God, in as much as Christ was the true human one, the true image, these images are dear to us.”

In such a small building, the icons seem to outweigh the wall space, but Christian said he hopes to move the church to a red brick building on Acadian Thruway. The current location was meant to be temporary, although the church has remained at the location since 2008.

Each Sunday funds are collected for the upkeep and improvement of the church, but Christian said 100 percent of the separate alms collection goes to the needs of the community.

Christian said, “Not a week goes by that somebody doesn’t call me for help with gas or food or the other. We try to give to everybody who asks of us. It’s not always everything that they want or as much as they want, but we try to give them something.”

Saint Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church also donates to local organizations and the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), an organization involved in global relief work.

The IOCC is currently aiding refugee coming from Syria, and Christian said his church is doing more than just making monetary contributions to this effort. One Syrian family connected with Saint Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church is working to bring two brothers out of Syria.

Christian said, “One wants to come and one wants to stay. That’s a huge issue, whether to stay or whether to go, because there are a lot of Syrians who say, ‘If we leave we’ll never be able to go home,’ and then there are others who are saying, ‘Home has been destroyed. We need to flee for our lives.’”

Christian said countries often struggle to retain their cultural identities when an influx of culturally different people enter their borders, but that the human fear which accompanies those differences must be overcome.

Christian said, “From a Christian perspective the challenge is how to be hospitable, how to receive the stranger, how to feed the hungry, how to clothe the naked, how to shelter the one who is homeless. There are no easy answers to that. That’s the challenge we can’t shirk, the responsibility that we can’t shirk.”

Since this article was written, Rev. Mark Christian has resigned from St. Matthew the Apostle Orthodox Church. Currently, the church is without a priest, but is still open to visitors.

2 notes · View notes

sassykat1-blog1 · 9 years ago

Photo