Photo by Father Theophan
By Father Theophan
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church
Los Alamos
This coming Friday, Aug. 26, will mark the end of the Los Alamos Summer Concert Series for 2022. Summer is quickly coming to a close. For the past few months, each Friday I’ve been setting up Saint Job’s little mobile chapel at the pond for the concerts. I think we’ve only missed two.
At the beginning of each evening, I light the first candle and the incense and then I stand nearby, waiting for the curious or distressed. So many children and teens are interested. This is something new, something old, something foreign but comforting. During these times I have had some difficult conversations, some counseling, some encouraging, but mostly I have said, “Go ahead. Go in. Light a candle and say a prayer if you’d like to.” And that has been it.
There has been no “hard sell”. Like many preachers, I can, and often like to, argue religion. But if I can argue someone in, someone else can argue them out. Either this is attractive or it’s not; either it catches something inside, or it doesn’t. It’s not really about us, it’s about him.
Our church is not a list of moral rules, although we do have a lot of rules. Our church is not a charity, although we should always be looking for ways to serve our neighbors. We believe that God is the King, robed in majesty, creator of heaven and earth, and thus we worship him as is proper. Our church is a worshipping community whose citizenship is of the heavenly kingdom. It is not properly an institution or a business. It is much closer to a family.
This summer has been a blessed time for us. We have reached out into the community; extended our arms to embrace those outside our four walls. There have been nearly 500 visitors to the chapel, and I pray that there will be many more.
I grew up as an evangelical Christian (Christian and Missionary Alliance). Although Orthodoxy has taken root, it seems that you can take the boy out the evangelical church, but you can’t take the evangelical out of the boy. I found this treasure, and I want to tell everyone about it!
The point of this venture has been to give people a taste, or more accurately a smell or sight of the Orthodox Church. It is intimidating to go into a new church, more-so a new type of church, one is not familiar with. Our aim was a gentle introduction of sorts.
The mobile chapel will continue to be a work in progress. I’m working on a new cross and lantern to go on top of the dome, and we want to panel the interior, among other things.
We will continue to leave the chapel open in the future, latched but unlocked. Please stop by if the curiosity gets the better of you.
