Blog

July 3, 2024

Welcome Home!?

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.

For me, the vestibule or narthex is very important as the place where everything about the Church and its holy services begins. It is the location of my preparation, my attitude, of basics, of essentials, of questions and determination before entering the main section of the church. When I walk into the narthex of an Orthodox Church, I feel as if I am home. For many of us, the Orthodox Church and its sensory sounds, smells, sights, and the opportunity to be in prayerful peace and commune with our Creator and Savior, is what we crave, and what our souls, bodies, and minds need. Because the church is indeed home, a refuge, a place of healing, and a place of solace. “Welcome Home!” For many Orthodox, the Church is also where they find their community. And it is on this last point that many LGBTQ Orthodox Christians have encountered animosity.

Coming into an Orthodox Church, many LGBTQ Orthodox Christians have been asked to ignore or repent of their God-given sexual orientation, divorce their same-sex spouse, and consider themselves “disordered[1].” Welcome Home? This very essential question of whether a home should be offered to LGBTQ Orthodox Christians was asked by an Orthodox priest in an essay entitled: “Response to Myself. A Pastor’s Thoughts on Same-Sex Marriage.”[2] In this thoughtful, pastoral essay, Father Robert Arida, former pastor of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral (OCA) in Boston, MA, asks quite poignant questions that need to be posed to all clergy and faithful of the Orthodox Church. Father Robert asks the quintessential question: Do we offer gay Orthodox Christians a home?

“If the Church is going to respond to the legalization of same-sex marriage and unions, it seems that we should begin by considering how to minister to those same-sex couples who, being legally married, come with their children and knock on the doors of our parishes seeking Christ/ Do we ignore them? Do we, as a matter of course, turn them away? Do we, under the rubric of repentance, encourage them to divorce and dismantle their families? Or, do we offer them, as we offer anyone desiring Christ, pastoral care, love, and a spiritual home?[3]”

Every Orthodox Christian, whether it be patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons, lay leaders, and every member of the faithful, needs to ask themselves the same question: Is the Orthodox Church a home for EVERYONE seeking a deeper relationship with Christ? OR is there a litmus test in the narthex questioning your gender, sexual orientation, marital status, and degree of perceived sinfulness? May I humbly suggest that the doors of every Orthodox Church should be widely open for everyone, because “…nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God… (Romans 8:39)

[1] https://www.oca.org/reflections/misc-authors/the-homosexual-christian

 

[2] This essay first appeared in 2011 on the website holytrinityorthodox.org. It was reprinted in “For I Am Wonderfully Made” Texts on Eastern Orthodoxy and LGBT Inclusion. Esuberanza Press 2016.

[3] For I am Wonderfully Made, Texts on Eastern Orthodoxy and LGBT Inclusion, p. 130-1.