The Holy Orthodox Church: Chapter VII
Some Requirements of the Church Service when a Bishop Officiates. Something about the Angels, and the Heavenly Hierarchy
Before we commence to explain for you the services of the Orthodox Church, we find it necessary to disclose for you the symbolical meaning of certain ceremonies, not yet explained, and also to point out some things used in our church, which, when rightly understood, may lead you to the knowledge of things heavenly, and, finally, fix your hearts on high, where it is our hope, we will be with the Lord.
In this city, where our Most Reverend Bishop has his residence, you have the opportunity of enjoying a greater blessing, by beholding the fullness of church services, and seeing, in detail, what others do not see, and sometimes, unfortunately, what they do not know of.
Whenever you see those round carpets, or mats, with the imprint of a bird upon them, placed before the Altar and in other parts of the temple, then you know that the Bishop will be present, either to pray with us or to conduct the services himself. The walls and turrets of the city which you see on the carpets signify the jurisdiction of a Bishop over which he stands, and the eagle with outspread wings above, flying in the air, reminds us of the example we have in the purity and height of the doctrine which the Bishop offers us. From the earliest days, the Church has shown the eagle as an emblem for the deep, or, rather, the high theology of St. John the Divine, and the Disciple of Love.
At Divine Service, the ministers wash their hands, but the Bishop does this before the whole congregation, that all may know how we must be prepared to partake of or administer the most pure mysteries, with a purified conscience and holiness of purpose. When the Bishop prays over the water, brought to him by two subdeacons (or, in their place, two readers), he says: Thou, O Lord, our God, Who blest the streams of Jordan, send down also upon this water the Grace of Thy Holy Spirit and bless it for the sanctification of Thy people.
As most of our children have not yet been instructed in the wider symbolism of Christianity, and as some of the grown-up people of our congregation are sincerely seeking for information, I will tell you now what a sacramental fan is, and why it is used. It is made to represent a flying angel; it is fixed on the end of a long handle, as you see them carried in church processions, and held over the Gifts, or the Gospel, at the more sacred moments of the service.
In the writings of the early Fathers of the Church, this fan, or Ripidion, is mentioned; it was sometimes made of the feathers of a peacock, or of fine skin, in those hot countries of the East. With us, they are made of metal, and they serve to remind the deacon (who overshadows with these fans the holy Table, on which lie the body and blood of Christ, the King of Heaven), of the six-winged Seraphim, who are ever ready to serve their Master. And so we are not alone in serving God, for the whole company of heavenly bodies take delight in assisting us to make more pleasing to God our unstable efforts. Those of you who read the Bible, know that the spiritual messengers and servants of God are a great and countless number. St. Dionysius, one of the first successors of the Apostles, opens for us some of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven when he discloses how the spiritual hosts of light are divided into three orders, each order again containing three degrees of angelical bodies. Their names are these: first, come those who stand highest and in a closer degree of communion with the Almighty, the Thrones, the Cherubim, and Seraphim; in the second order follow the Authorities, Dominions, and Powers, and to the third order belong the companies of Angels, Archangels, and Principalities.
This is a digital edition of Beacon from the Bay: The Collected Works of Saint Sebastian Dabovich of Jackson and San Francisco, a several-month-long project to catalogue the out-of-prints works of Saint Sebastian Dabovich, the first American-born Orthodox priest.
If you would like to purchase print copies of Beacon from the Bay for a personal or church library or bookstore, you may do so from Amazon. All support is greatly appreciated for this labor of love.