Valentina Lemez

May 2nd 2017

English Composition 1 (ENGLI-1101-048)

Instructor: Nadene Eisner

Serbian Spirit All The Way Across The Ocean

Sunday morning a mother with two kids approaches the church's door as 9am service starts.

Before they opened the door and entered the church, they almost simultaneously made the sign of the

cross on their bodies. With their right hand they gently touch the index, middle and thumb to the center

of their forehead. Then they bring their hand down to the belly button, raise it to the right shoulder and

finish by crossing over to the left shoulder.

Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross every time they enter the church, no matter the

reason for their visit. Even though it might look unusual to someone standing aside and simply

observing, this is something Orthodox Christians learn at the very young age and it becomes

inseparable part of their religion and traditions. Like they eat food when hungry, they make the sign of

the cross before entering the church, always.

Being an Orthodox Christian myself and growing up in Serbia, coming to Chicago and having

your own church and religion practiced means a lot to me. As the time passed by, I wanted to learn

more and more about Orthodox community here, in Chicago. Through observations of Orthodox

Christians in their own social environment at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, through

various interviews with members of all ages as well as through exploring the official website of this

church and the announcements on it, a threshold for membership in this community became obvious .

In order to better understand how to recognize a member of Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox

Cathedral, I will guide you through some basic steps, from the moment they enter the church on
Sunday, until the moment they go home.

Making the sign of the cross is the very first thing every Orthodox Christian will do before

opening the church's door. It can be made in many contexts, both privately and in church and isn't

something Orthodox Christians do only when they enter the church, but that it how they begin. By

making the sign of the cross, they worship and bless both themselves and God.

The first thing you notice upon entering any Orthodox Church is the sandbox full of lit candles.

You will see almost every member of the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral make an

offering, take as many candles as they want, light them, say a silent prayer and place the candles in the

sand. You will also find two different sandboxes, across one another, where one is for your loved ones

who are still alive and the other is for those who passed away. Once they do that, they make the sign of

the cross once again and enter the big hall where all of the services are being held. Once the service

starts, they stand as still and quietly as possible. They force themselves to pay attention and pray

without any distractions.

Prior to the beginning of the service, I spoke to a lady, who was in her late fifties and who

preferred not to disclose her name. She is one of those people who never miss a Sunday in church and

who is extremely knowledgable about all the Orthodox Christian regulations and traditional behaviors.

She explained to me in detail about the importance of obeying the rules of listening to Divine Service.

There are times when there should be absolutely no moving about in church (during the reading of the

Six Psalms, during any reading of the Gospel, during the reading of special prayers by the priest, during

any recitation of the Lord's Prayer and at the blessing). If you come into church late, it is a good idea to

stand for a moment and listen to ascertain whether it is appropriate to move around, venerate icons or

offer candles at that point. - she explained.

When the service ends, people form a line and wait for their turn to venerate icons and give

some gift to the Lord, according to their abilities, usually in form of money. After that, they move

towards the exit, where they stop, turn their face towards the hall, make the sign of the cross and then
leave the church.

Since during the service people don't talk to each other a lot, after the service ends some of them

gather at the building located right next to the church, in the same yard. That building also belongs to

church and has a lot to offer. People who were so serious and extremely respectful of God during the

service, when you meet them outside, they are very talkative and ready to hang out. Inside that building

you can find numerous educational programs for children as well as for adults. They offer school of

Serbian language for kids born in Chicago, but whose parents are Serbian, and they also offer school of

Serbian language for any interested adult, who doesn't have to be connected to Serbian tradition and

religion in any way.

I talked to a 23-year-old American guy, Chris, whose girlfriend was Serbian and for that reason

he decided to learn as much as possible about Serbs by enrolling into this school for Serbian language

and tradition at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. He explained to me how everything

was functioning during those classes and he seemed very satisfied. They had a mentor named Marko,

who was specialized to work with new members and educate them properly. They had meetings once a

week, every Thursday evening, from 7 to 8:30, so that it would be convenient even for people with full-

time jobs and busy schedules. Since Serbian language isn't the easiest to learn, Marko is very well

aware of that fact so he keeps things as simple as possible and teaches us only the most important

segments of Serbian language and culture, adding to it a little bit of religion every once in a while, but

trying his best not to overwhelm us with new information so we don't get confused, Chris said.

Another school that can be found at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral is a Serbian

Folklore Group called Soko. Today Soko has over 250 members, including Orthodox Christian children

from pre-school age through high school. Practices are held on Fridays at church hall from 7 to

8:30pm. A girl who I spoke to Tamara, has been an active Soko member since the age of 7 (she is 18

now). She said this folklore group was something truly amazing. She made so many friends, travelled

all over the United States and had fun along the way. It happened to be Friday when I was at the church
hall, talking to Tamara, which meant they had a folklore practice that evening and while we were

talking, a friend of hers came to her and said that they had to go because it was time for stepping. I

asked her what did stepping mean and she told me it was the name of one of their practices they had to

do at the beginning of every meeting. That moment I realized I had a lot more to learn from all those

people.

When Tamara left, I spotted a group of middle-aged women sitting around one of the tables,

talking in Serbian and laughing. Those were the moms of the kids who had folklore practice that

evening. Not only their children had fun every Friday night at their folklore practices, but so did moms.

Friday night from 7 to 8:30pm was also their time to gather, have a drink and talk to each other.

I noticed that all of these things became an inevitable part of these people's lives and they

seemed very happy about it. They all started with sharing the same religion, as Orthodox Christians,

attending church services and saying hello to each other when they meet, but Holy Resurrection

Serbian Orthodox Cathedral became much more than just religious institution. It became source of

love, respect and friendship for all of its members. Nicely divided into two very different, yet same

institutions, the actual church where people pray and respect God and Holy Trinity and the other

building, or the church hall, where the same people can relax and enjoy with one another, Holy

Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral has everything that one Serbian Orthodox Christian might

need.

And when I sum everything up, even though there are certain steps that members of this church

practice regularly, beginning with the cross sign, through lighting the candles, listening to every service

with respect, venerating icons, all the way to relaxing al the church's hall afterwards and any person can

learn these steps, there is actually much more to it. To become a member of this community, first you

have to be an Orthodox Christian and second you have to know how to speak Serbian language, in

order to completely understand every aspect of this community. If you lack any of these two crucial

conditions, becoming a member wouldn't have any deeper meaning.

 Finally, after I have finished my research for the purpose of this study, I realized that even

though I have been an Orthodox Christian for 22 years now, every time I go to the Holy Resurrection

Serbian Orthodox Cathedral on Redwood drive in Chicago, I learn something new, something I didn't

even know existed. New ideas will keep coming up among these members and this church will offer a

different experience every time I go and in that way make me want to visit and spend time there even

more.

Two sources?
Works Cited