Someone has to be the wife!
July 27, 2024
Someone has to be the wife!
A good friend of mine passed away not too long ago. I should actually call him a former friend because when I left the active priesthood, no longer able to be alone in my life, this friend stopped communicating with me. He was so distraught that I left the priesthood, for a “homosexual lifestyle” that he stopped speaking with me. He was even further upset by my decision to marry the man that I love, and have now been with for over twenty years. Unfortunately, we never reconciled before his death. When finding out about my relationship, one of the questions he had about us, that he voiced to a mutual friend, was “Who is the wife? Someone has to be the wife!” (more…)
The architectural layout of a traditional Orthodox Church is something that I have always loved. Usually, the conventional interior design of an Orthodox church has three main sections, the narthex or vestibule, the nave or main part of the church/temple, and the sanctuary or the altar area. While I imagine that most people do not think much about the vestibule or narthex section of a church, traditionally it is an essential part of the liturgical rites of the Orthodox Church. Those preparing for baptism, the catechumens were to remain in this area and were prohibited from entering the main part of the church. It was also the place penitents were relegated to stand during the Divine Liturgy until the end of their penitential period. Today, many of the divine services and mysteries of the Church, begin in the narthex. For example, baptisms, marriages, funerals, and certain Lenten and Holy Week ceremonies are called to start in the vestibule. Today, in many Orthodox Churches the vestibule is the place to purchase and light candles or find parish bulletins, but rarely is this area given much of a second thought by most Orthodox Christians. The important sections are usually seen as the nave or church proper as well as the sanctuary, behind the iconostasis or icon screen.