Everyone knows that, Father

Father Orthoduck has previously chronicled his various, uhm, missteps. Well, Father Orthoduck did it again. You see, every parish to which Father Orthoduck has been assigned has its own way of dealing with the directions that come from a higher authority. In this case, Father Orthoduck was ready to read the Gospel for Morning Prayer for yesterday. He stepped forward and went through the parts of the Orthros Liturgy that led up to the Gospel that is read during morning prayer. Then he stepped forward and began to read the Gospel for morning prayer.

Unfortunately, there was an unexpected glitch. You see, the Gospel book that Father Orthoduck read from was in the Revised Standard Version. But, the previous bishop of this diocese was a fan of the King James Version and required all his priests to read from the King James Version. So, the parish to which Father Orthoduck is assigned went through the Gospel book that they had bought and taped in the King James Version of all the Gospel texts.

While Father Orthoduck was aware of that “adjustment” nevertheless, when he went to read today’s Gospel, he did not notice a very very important fact. So, he began to read from the Gospel text as written. What Father Orthoduck did not notice was that the King James version of that Gospel was written on the facing page from the Gospel that Father Orthoduck was reading. And the Gospel that Father Orthoduck was reading went to the next page. So, Father Orthoduck turned the page only to find out that the next page was covered over with the King James Version of the following week.

All of a sudden, Orthros ground to a halt. Father Orthoduck was standing there desperately trying to find the ending of yesterday’s Orthros Gospel. The parish priest walked out just as Father Orthoduck decided to lift up the taped over copy to reach the original Gospel. He was able to finish reading the original Gospel after the unexpected pause. But, it certainly provided some hilarity about the Gospel reading.

Father Orthoduck would like to point out that every parish assumes that the way that they handle things is the standard way. But, every parish priest and every pastor can tell you that there is no such thing as a standard way of handling a standard Christian worship, regardless of how “standardized” is the worship of a particular Christian church.

But, Father Orthoduck is learning. Father Orthoduck is an Antiochian priest loaned to an OCA parish. Father Orthoduck assists the assigned parish priest. Father Orthoduck is so happy with the parish to which the Lord has sent him. The head priest is wonderful and very patient. However, Father Orthoduck must admit that his sense of humor has stood him in good stead as he tries to learn all the differences between the Antiochian implementation of the Divine Liturgy and the OCA implementation of the Divine Liturgy. The differences are minor, but every so often Father Orthoduck has a “fun” moment when the chanters are looking at him and the parish priest suddenly stops praying the Proskomedie and comes over to help Father Orthoduck out.

But, this helps to point out that there is no such thing as simply one standard way to celebrate any Liturgy. And, it does help to point out that every priest and pastor encounters a place in which he runs out of knowledge and grinds to a dead halt wondering what he is supposed to do next. This is the point where Father Orthoduck prays that the Holy Spirit is overseeing the worship and is willing to provide some much needed guidance.