September, 2019

The Orthodox Church has always celebrated the beginning of the New Year on September 1, following the tradition of ancient Rome, and in accordance with the decree of Caesar Augustus in about 3 BC. This was the custom in Constantinople until its fall in 1453, and in Holy Russia until the reign of Peter the Great. September 1st is still festively celebrated as the New Year at the Patriarchate of Constantinople; among the Jews also, the New Year, although reckoned according to a moveable calendar, usually falls in September. The service of the Menaion for January 1 is for our Lord’s Circumcision and for the memorial of Saint Basil the Great, without any mention of its being the beginning of a new year. Now, some thoughts about the inner meaning of the Church New Year…

It can be jarring to move suddenly from the end, back to the beginning of something. It reminds me of a certain board game we used to have. I would always be way ahead on the game board, when suddenly, some kid, would draw a terrible card with which he could send ME (not him) tumbling all the way back to the beginning space. But this is what Orthodox believers do as we move from August 31st — the last day of the old year, to September 1st, the first day of the new year.

It is part of the goodness of God, that He, who has no beginning and no ending, the Eternal Trinity, should take such care to give us a year which begins and ends, and then begins all over again. In our human and finite state we need fresh starts, and this is one of them. From the peaks of Pascha, Ascension, Pentecost, and Transfiguration, we move back to beginnings, the Nativity of the Mother of God, and then in December of the Son of God Himself. We start this wonderful cycle all over again. But the Holy Spirit, as we trust Him, will renew this new year to us, and give us a whole new understanding of it.

“Behold I will do a new thing”, God says through the prophet Isaiah (43:19). The new wine will come to us in new wineskins (Matthew 9:17).

The God who has put eternity in our hearts, knows our human frailty. He knows that marriages need their anniversaries, and all of us, especially children, need their birthdays from year to year. We in the Orthodox Church also hold a special place for the anniversaries of those who have died in Christ. We recall every year the glorious deaths of the saints. But the whole of this is held in a solid framework – the Orthodox Calendar. Through the God inspired wisdom of our fathers and mothers, we have a beautifully constructed lectionary, which flows through the year, like the streams of an effortless river, blessing whatever they touch.

It is significant that the last great feast of the old year is that of the Dormition of Mary, the Mother of God. Her human passing was to heaven’s glory. And the first great feast of the new year is her Nativity. It is not that Mary is more important that Christ, around which most of the Calendar revolves. Mary is not God. She did not exist from eternity. But she is honored in this way because she is our supreme example. She lived a life of complete obedience to God.

Q. Why do some women cover their heads with a scarf in church while others do not?

A. This is an ancient practice that comes to us first from Judaism and then from the early Christian church. It pre-dates Islam by a couple thousand years at least! In fact, the holy apostle Paul makes a point to the believers in Corinth that this is one practice that should NOT be done away with. If we look at St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter eleven, we see his explanation – it has to do with glory. You see, in the church and especially in the worship of the church, we have many symbols. These symbols unite us to heavenly realities and mysteries. The veiling of women is a symbolic act, much like the vestments of bishops, or priests, or deacons. As these point to the nature of the spiritual world, the glory of God, the glory of angels, etc., the woman, by veiling her hair, puts on a vestment of sorts which also points to heavenly truths. And what are these? Firstly, as St. Paul says, that God created the world, then He created man (Adam) and from man he took his wife (Eve.) Even though she is taken from his side, woman is different from man. She is her own person. She was created to be his helper but not his slave. She is taken from his side to signify that it is at his side that she stands, as St. John Chrysostom points out. In the Jewish scheme of things, both men and women covered their heads to pray. In the Greco-Roman world (i.e. the pagan gentiles) neither men nor women covered their heads to pray. St. Paul seems to split the difference. Interestingly, he allows the women to retain the symbol of the covering of human glory in the presence of God, but not the men. And perhaps this was more important for the women, for by covering their heads with a sign of God’s glory (the veil) rather than human glory (the unveiled head, their hair) they also show that they undo the deception of Eve. Eve was tricked by her head; fooled by the serpent by suggestions. The Orthodox woman, because of Christ’s Cross, and following the example of the Most Holy Theotokos, shows in a symbol that she is not fooled by the arrogant suggestions of the evil one. In fact, the symbol of the veil reveals that she is fully illumined and reflects the glory of God. So as Moses, when he descended from the holy mountain was radiant with the glory of God and hence was compelled to veil himself in the presence of others (Exodus 34), so she is veiled as a sign of that same closeness to God.

Must, then, every woman cover her head in Church? This is the wrong way to ask the question. Everything that we do in the church we do in complete freedom. Even in St. Paul’s day there were those who did not understand. There were Jewish Christian men who grumbled and judged harshly those men who prayed without covering their heads. There were also Gentile Christian women who felt uncomfortable covering their heads. St. Paul answers both of these groups with these words: “If any one is disposed to be contentious, tell him that this is what we do as well as all of the other churches of God” (I Cor.11:16). Tradition does not force, it invites. But it always has a reason for what it does.