This is from a talk given by Priest Paul Siewers of St. John’s in Winfield PA at the Pennsylvania Association of Prison Chaplains, on a panel also featuring Priest Ignatius Hunter of Holy Trinity in State College and Subdeacon Herman Always of Holy Cross in Williamsport. Picture above “Dostoevsky in Prison” is by the late Russian artist Helium Mikhailovich Korzhev
Hello, I am Father Paul Siewers, an American Russian Orthodox priest and parish rector, and also a tenured professor of literature at Bucknell University, where I am campus Orthodox Christian chaplain. I also am a volunteer priest chaplain at Muncy SCI.
Dealing with Orthodoxy Christianity means dealing with something often strangely familiar but quite different, which sometimes makes it tricky across different faiths. It is said we are Orthodox but not Jewish, Catholic but not Roman, and evangelical but not Protestant.
Here are three things to remember in understanding, for those working with inmates in the prison system, why Orthodoxy is not just simply a kind of twin sister of Catholicism as is sometimes mistakenly thought by some Americans:
1. Orthodox Christianity in modern terms is non-Western.
2. Plus, it comes to America with cultures and traditions that suffered under various forms of severe oppression especially in the last century under Communism. For example, our US state with the highest proportion of Orthodox Christians is Alaska because of its Indigenous adherents, but they suffered under Western missionary efforts in the 19th and 20th centuries.
3. Orthodoxy’s formational culture lies in what we would call Byzantine civilization, which itself is something uniquely different from Western European and Anglo-American and Roman Catholic traditions. We didn’t have the same periods of Renaissance, Enlightenment, Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and we’re ok witht hat. There is a whole wealth of Greek and Syrian and Slavic Church Fathers across centuries. That said, we revere and read our Bible both literally and symbolically in light of ancient Church Tradition and the Church Fathers and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
All three points mean that Orthodox in an American institutional settings is best treated with the kind of culture care with which Islam, Buddhism, and other religions should be, not simply as another familiar Christian denomination often wrongly seen as akin to Catholicism.
Let me get specific with a few examples.
First, one of our Orthodox Christian inmates at Muncy, where there had not been an Orthodox chaplain or priest for quite some time, asked me if it was ok for her to continue leading prayers at Protestant services because there were no regular Orthodox services yet, although we have started Orthodox prayer and study gatherings I said no. We follow Orthodox canons that prohibit Orthodox Christians from participating in worship and prayer with non-Orthodox. This is not to be snobby but to try to maintain boundaries that got blurred historically in histories of conquests and colonialism as mentioned, and most fundamentally because the Orthodox Church is the “one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” Quiet meditative prayer is also important for Orthodox Christians, including saying the Jesus Prayer, often silently: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.”
Another inmate for years had been participating in Catholic services at Muncy but considered herself an Orthodox Christian. She had changed her designation to Catholic but when I began coming as a priest, she asked to be reinstated as Orthodox so to speak. We could not find her baptismal documents from when she was a baby, so we gave her a conditional baptism at Muncy (in which it was stated it was conditional on her not having been baptized before) through triple immersion. So she is no longer taking Catholic communion Now I do bring her communion in a kit usually used for the sick (for those not able to attend Church), until we can start a Liturgy service.
Besides such issues of prayers and communion, there is fasting. Orthodox Christians have a complex and rich fasting cycle throughout the year. Often this is not recognized alongside Islamic and Jewish fasting needs. Basically, Orthodox fasting involves a menu of vegan food plus shellfish. This is something good even to keep in mind for chaplain conferences like this, which on a Wednesday is a fasting day for us. Wednesdays, Fridays, and a few major feasts especially Lent, in addition to preparation for communion, can keep Orthodox Christians on a fasting menu for half the year.
A couple other tips about the care and feeding of Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Church, like the US military and like SCI, has its own hierarchy. So while at Muncy Chaplain Almasy my Orthodox colleague is a full-time SCI staff chaplain, to me as a priest he is also Subdeacon Herman in the Orthodox Church. A priest can give special blessings, and spiritually is director. But at the same time there obvious are requirements that I must meet in any SCI facility and at Muncy in particular. Sensitivity though to cultural hierarchy issues can help in dealing with Orthodox volunteers who are clergy. If you have questions, just ask.
Another issue is the calendar. Most of the Orthodox Christians in the world, in other countries, are on what I call simply the Church calendar. This is the Julian calendar. You can think of it as like the Jewish sacred calendar. However, in North America, most Orthodox Christians are on what I call the civil calendar, which is the Gregorian calendar. These are also sometimes called the old calendar and the new calendar. So it’s good to bear in mind that for special feasts such as Christmas, your Orthodox inmates and volunteer and staff clergy may be on different calendars, although our Easter or Pascha is the same. We usually can resolve such differences amicably by recognizing both calendars, but again it is another way that Orthodoxy is different for sure.
Finally, I’ll recommend a movie to you that just came out this spring, called “Moses the Black.” It’s available on Amazon Prime and probably elsewhere too. The film Moses the Black will help give you a dramatized sense of how Orthodoxy is different although sharing of course many aspects of Christian tradition. It is a movie about a gang leader in Chicago whose grandmother puts him in touch with the tradition of a fifth-century Egyptian saint named Moses the Black, who was a gang leader who gave up violence to become a monk in the desert. Again, I recommend this film Moses the Black to you because it will give some insights into Orthodoxy, why Orthodoxy is different, and in fictional form how it can interact with criminal and prison situations.
To wrap up, at Muncy with the help of Chaplain Adam and Subdeacon Herman, I conduct a catechumen class (currently going over the Nicene Creed), and also a book discussion about The Brothers Karamazov combined with prayer and Bible Study. We have about five inmates in the Catechumen Class, and about a dozen up to 15 sometimes in the larger overlapping group. We also have a couple folks from our parish who are in the process of getting clearances as volunteers, and an Orthodox student from Bucknell university where I teach who is with me today, who is here today.
Remember that Orthodox Christianity has long and deep interactions with prisoners and prisons around the world, related to Matthew 25, as can be found famously in the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Fyodor Dostoevsky. And Orthodoxy is growing in America due to conversions and immigration from a variety of lands, so you may likely be seeing it more, even though it remains a minority religion in the U.S.
In conclusion, please feel free to contact me as an Orthodox priest who can be a resource for you and help with contacting Orthodox parishes in your area. You can find me online through Bucknell University under Orthodox Christian chaplain. I also have cards with contact info here I’ll pass out. Thank you! Glory to God!