Ten Yori Shu wo Homeage yo.

I moved to Japan at a sensitive time, spiritually. I grew up in the Lutheran church and am a follower of Christ. But I find myself often still shifting to 'figure it out.' When I moved to Japan, I had spent the previous year and a half attending an Orthodox church, of all places. But that's another story.

Yokohama Orthodox Church, our current parish

Orthodoxy is crazy different than the Protestant world. It took much adjustment, and I remember even experiencing something similar to culture shock. The Orthodox church I first attended regularly had inquirer's classes - a time when our priest was available to field questions and discuss orthodoxy. This was helpful to understand the differences, but there were still times of emotional adjustments - those times I would feel in over my head. I remember leaving in the middle of one of the Lenten services because it was just too much, too overwhelming. A friend of mine noticed and checked in later. He understood that I was freaked out. He said this was good, and it meant I was paying attention.

I was at a good place with Orthodoxy when we got married. That's a good thing, since we were married in an Orthodox cathedral. By three Orthodox priests. With less than a handful of Orthodox in attendance out of the 225 friends and family that were there. And I was then married to an Orthodox man. I was engulfed.

I say I was in a good place, but I still felt very new. We both (my recently converted husband and I) still had a lot to understand. I thought moving to Japan to fulfill military orders would mean a hiatus in our progress. That we wouldn't have the chance to continue pursuing Orthodoxy. I thought we would have to pick up where we left off when we moved back to the States.

Fortunately, I was wrong.

Who knew that we would be so welcomed at a tiny little Japanese Orthodox church? Who knew that we would be able to attend liturgy every week and still have the opportunity to learn about Orthodoxy? Who knew that I would be chrismated and convert at this church? And who knew our son would be baptized there as well?

This church has become a family indeed and we are once again engulfed in Orthodoxy.

We currently know the liturgy in Japanese better than in English (koei wa chichi to ko to seishin ni kisu, ima mo itsumo yoyo ni, Amin ... ).

We have lunch with this wonderful group of people after liturgy every week. Matushka (the priest's wife) hurries to finish her meal and grabs Steven so I can have a rare two-handed meal. He's been spoken to in English, Japanese, Arabic, and Russian (only a few of the nationalities represented).

This week, Miki San put on and tied my shoes for me since I was flying solo and already had Steven in a carrier on my abdomen, making it tricky to bend.

When I wasn't able to attend after Steven's birth, they sent Curt home with blessed bread for me. They also did this after I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

I am regularly invited to lunch out with the ladies I call my obachans, my pseudo-aunties from this church.

We are supported and blessed and we are in it. We are living Orthodoxy in a way that has little regard for language barriers and differences of background.

God blew this whole thing out of the water by allowing us to remain in the Orthodox Church AND grow in it, despite being in a land foreign to us. We have truly been provided for, and this community will honestly be difficult to leave. We've already talked about how much we dread it. This church, that is no bigger than our house, has brought to Orthodoxy two out of the three of us, leaves us walking on air every week and has truly been a treasure.

Silly me for thinking that the limits that I see actually mean something.

Living on the Cusp

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It's been three years since I started attending the Orthodox Church. In any other story, I would actually be Orthdox after that long; I would've normally gone through about a year of catecuminate, and would've been chrismated (instated, in a way) into the Orthodox Church. I would take the eucharist every week and participate regularly in confession.

But our lives haven't been normal.

Between study abroad, getting married, and moving to Japan, this hasn't been able to happen. But man alive. The road has been (and will continue to be) riddled with challenges to becoming Orthodox, but it has been a beautiful journey to say in the least. The Orthodox Church is gracious in allowing the non-Orthodox to still participate in most traditions. This sounds like a given, especially for a Protestant believer, and many see closed communion as exclusive and somewhat elitist. But the Orthodox believe when we commune, we become one with Christ and a sole body with each other. We are not just communing with Christ, we are being brought together. To commune with someone who does not yet adhere to Orthodox beliefs would be to live out a unification that doesn't (sometimes doesn't yet) exist.

Anyway. Though I am not Orthodox, I still get to participate in many events and traditions throughout the year, and in any given Orthodox Church, we are welcomed with open arms more than I've experienced in many other places. My husband and I have been able to experience Orthodoxy (although me not to the fullest), and slowly study and reflect on what it means to be Orthodox.

I am thankful for the preparation.

The real challenge, for me, is also something that I love about Orthodoxy. In many parts of the world, including the US, it's the best kept secret. I didn't even know Orthodoxy existed until a few years ago. It's a world out of the spotlight, and that allows it to operate well. But this also means that Orthodoxy isn't in all places, and that there isn't a given demand for it. I am thankful that Orthodoxy exists in Japan (thank you, St. Nicholas!), but in the military? Less so. I wish I could just dive in to this Church, but what I also need is day in, day out community.

For now, this means having one foot in the Orthodox world and one in the Protestant one. This often means a constant internal struggle. In some ways, and unfortunately so, these two churches either have differing approaches or are on completely different paths altogether. This is not to say that the core is not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But beyond this core, if things are constantly different, it can be challenging, especially if you're trying to dive into a particular one.

But I was encouraged at my last Protestant women's event, and God is reminding me that it is (in fact!) ok! It's hard to explain, and I don't think I'll try in print, but the Protestant church allows me to continue to fall in love with the Orthodox one. It's like both are in agreement about my future, and are thus passing me from one to the other. Protestantism is letting me go and pushing me with its fingertips, and glory be, it feels good in my heart.

 

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