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REFLECTION

A tale of two Christmases

ELAINE STORKEY says we have much to learn from the community disciplines
of a Russian Orthodox celebration of Christmas

A friend of mine, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, is bracing himself for another Christmas in the West.

Last year he had two Christmases. One was in the UK on 25 December. The other was back home in Russia on 7 January, the date recognised as Christmas in the Gregorian Calendar. Orthodox Christians throughout the world celebrate on this date, 13 days after other Christians. It gave him an opportunity to compare two different Christian cultures and two different ways of remembering the birth of Christ.

At one level he found strong similarities in the two celebrations, despite the different dates. Each Christmas Day had Christ’s birth at its centre and had begun with worship in church. In the UK, he had been invited by a large and hospitable family as their guest for the day, and received a warm and inclusive welcome from those who knew how to take a stranger into their homes. In Russia, he was one of the hosts, as his own family received their invited guests and celebrated with the extended family.

There were different family rituals. His UK family called in on neighbours to exchange small presents before lunch. His family at home went with other churchgoers down to the local lake to break holes in the ice to bless the water, before bringing jugfuls of it back to bless their house.

But both the Christmas feasts were enjoyed with the same over-abundance. There was the same eating and drinking, the same generosity and kindness, the same celebration and festivities as Christians gathered in two different cultures and traditions. Nevertheless, it was the differences that stayed lodged in his mind. The run-up to Christmas UK-style took him completely by surprise. The season seemed to be coming long before it arrived; in fact for the whole month before.

He found that the simplicity of the message of the incarnation had been hijacked by all the retailing hype and the shop-until-you-drop mentality. He was bemused by the way the Santa grottos, the card sellers, the advertisers and the stores all counted down the remaining shopping days to Christmas as though there might never be another one. He had heard about the relentless and aggressive commercialism but had not realised it was quite like this.

And there was so much he missed in the Christmas preparations in the Protestant tradition. He missed the 40-day fast, which began at home on 15 November and continued until the first star came out on 6 January, Christmas Eve. In his community, he and all the local believers observed a long period of self-denial. It provided a much needed opportunity for reflection and heart-searching: a time of stepping outside the concerns and routines of everyday and focusing more directly on relationship with God.

He missed the sacrament of confession, for reflection opens up those areas of life which need forgiveness and cleansing, and the Orthodox faith makes it easy to recognize this. He missed the process of inner healing, working with a spiritual leader to receive from God the healing from the Holy Spirit for all the damage and hurt which might be there. The absence of all this was a loss.

In fact he had become so out-of-contact with the fasting at home, that when he arrived back at the airport near his city he was surprised to see his relatives when they met him. They looked so thin! He was suddenly aware that without the discipline of the long traditional fast he was very rounded, and already full of turkey and plum pudding from his celebrations on 25 December.

It is interesting to reflect on the part a culture plays in keeping alive a Christian tradition. The Orthodox Church puts huge emphasis on the need for all the faithful to keep up these Christian observances. And although this is done by each individual, it is done in community. Isolated on one’s own it is so much harder, as my friend found out. He had tried to keep up the disciplines on his own, and had often gone without food to spend time in prayer and reflection. But without support from the wider Christian community it became difficult.

There was no-one to share his struggle with; no leader to help him with spiritual growth, with finding deeper peace with God. In Protestant Christianity we rarely go in for the liturgies which are there at the heart of Orthodoxy, but they can act as a powerful support for belief and faith.

What the Orthodox Church has always had, and what we have recently begun to re-experience in the West, is a profound sense of the community of faith and faithfulness. If they have sometimes over-stressed community instead of personal faith, we have often individualised faith and missed the emphasis on community. From a biblical point of view we need both. We are all called to personal commitment, personal faith, personal trust in the saving power of Christ. The faith of the Church cannot save us.

But we are also called to express that faith in community, to accept the disciplines of community, the demands of community and to work out our Christian commitment in relation to each other. It is Paul’s teaching of the Body, the teaching he constantly returns to in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4. As members together we need each other if any one of us is to grow into wholeness in Christ.

But the experiences of my friend also indicated something else – that we don’t simply need an experience of Christian community for our own benefit. We also need it for our culture. His fear was that the Orthodox roots of Russian Christianity, weakened already by its long communist past, are under attack again, but now from growing affluence and indifference.

And after experiencing his first Christmas in the West his question was a troubled one. Would Orthodox Christianity would be strong enough to withstand the commercialism and sabotage of Christmas which Protestant Christianity has been unable to resist?

Elaine Storkey is president of Tearfund

© Christian Family Network
is run by CPO, supported by
Care for the Family, Marriage Resource, Positive Parenting,
Care, Women Alive, Christian Herald and many others.


		REFLECTION A tale of two Christmases ELAINE STORKEY says we have much to learn from the community disciplines of a Russian Orthodox celebration of Christmas A friend of mine, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, is bracing himself for another Christmas in the West. Last year he had two Christmases. One was in the UK on 25 December. The other was back home in Russia on 7 January, the date recognised as Christmas in the Gregorian Calendar. Orthodox Christians throughout the world celebrate on this date, 13 days after other Christians. It gave him an opportunity to compare two different Christian cultures and two different ways of remembering the birth of Christ. At one level he found strong similarities in the two celebrations, despite the different dates. Each Christmas Day had Christ’s birth at its centre and had begun with worship in church. In the UK, he had been invited by a large and hospitable family as their guest for the day, and received a warm and inclusive welcome from those who knew how to take a stranger into their homes. In Russia, he was one of the hosts, as his own family received their invited guests and celebrated with the extended family. There were different family rituals. His UK family called in on neighbours to exchange small presents before lunch. His family at home went with other churchgoers down to the local lake to break holes in the ice to bless the water, before bringing jugfuls of it back to bless their house. But both the Christmas feasts were enjoyed with the same over-abundance. There was the same eating and drinking, the same generosity and kindness, the same celebration and festivities as Christians gathered in two different cultures and traditions. Nevertheless, it was the differences that stayed lodged in his mind. The run-up to Christmas UK-style took him completely by surprise. The season seemed to be coming long before it arrived; in fact for the whole month before. He found that the simplicity of the message of the incarnation had been hijacked by all the retailing hype and the shop-until-you-drop mentality. He was bemused by the way the Santa grottos, the card sellers, the advertisers and the stores all counted down the remaining shopping days to Christmas as though there might never be another one. He had heard about the relentless and aggressive commercialism but had not realised it was quite like this. And there was so much he missed in the Christmas preparations in the Protestant tradition. He missed the 40-day fast, which began at home on 15 November and continued until the first star came out on 6 January, Christmas Eve. In his community, he and all the local believers observed a long period of self-denial. It provided a much needed opportunity for reflection and heart-searching: a time of stepping outside the concerns and routines of everyday and focusing more directly on relationship with God. He missed the sacrament of confession, for reflection opens up those areas of life which need forgiveness and cleansing, and the Orthodox faith makes it easy to recognize this. He missed the process of inner healing, working with a spiritual leader to receive from God the healing from the Holy Spirit for all the damage and hurt which might be there. The absence of all this was a loss. In fact he had become so out-of-contact with the fasting at home, that when he arrived back at the airport near his city he was surprised to see his relatives when they met him. They looked so thin! He was suddenly aware that without the discipline of the long traditional fast he was very rounded, and already full of turkey and plum pudding from his celebrations on 25 December. It is interesting to reflect on the part a culture plays in keeping alive a Christian tradition. The Orthodox Church puts huge emphasis on the need for all the faithful to keep up these Christian observances. And although this is done by each individual, it is done in community. Isolated on one’s own it is so much harder, as my friend found out. He had tried to keep up the disciplines on his own, and had often gone without food to spend time in prayer and reflection. But without support from the wider Christian community it became difficult. There was no-one to share his struggle with; no leader to help him with spiritual growth, with finding deeper peace with God. In Protestant Christianity we rarely go in for the liturgies which are there at the heart of Orthodoxy, but they can act as a powerful support for belief and faith. What the Orthodox Church has always had, and what we have recently begun to re-experience in the West, is a profound sense of the community of faith and faithfulness. If they have sometimes over-stressed community instead of personal faith, we have often individualised faith and missed the emphasis on community. From a biblical point of view we need both. We are all called to personal commitment, personal faith, personal trust in the saving power of Christ. The faith of the Church cannot save us. But we are also called to express that faith in community, to accept the disciplines of community, the demands of community and to work out our Christian commitment in relation to each other. It is Paul’s teaching of the Body, the teaching he constantly returns to in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4. As members together we need each other if any one of us is to grow into wholeness in Christ. But the experiences of my friend also indicated something else – that we don’t simply need an experience of Christian community for our own benefit. We also need it for our culture. His fear was that the Orthodox roots of Russian Christianity, weakened already by its long communist past, are under attack again, but now from growing affluence and indifference. And after experiencing his first Christmas in the West his question was a troubled one. Would Orthodox Christianity would be strong enough to withstand the commercialism and sabotage of Christmas which Protestant Christianity has been unable to resist? Elaine Storkey is president of Tearfund © Christian Family Network is run by CPO, supported by Care for the Family, Marriage Resource, Positive Parenting, Care, Women Alive, Christian Herald and many others.