St. Sophia’s Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Kiev, Ukraine

There are at least six very distinct characteristics of our Eastern Christianity. The first is that it is communal. The Eastern Christian perspective sees the individual in relation to others; he is never alone. This is because Eastern Christianity views the Church and the individual as a reflection of the life-giving relationships which exist among the Persons of the Holy Trinity. This is one of the primary reasons why all of our prayers end with rendering glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This act emphasizes that the model for living this earthly life is the Trinity. Just as each Divine Person could not exist without the other, so each human person cannot be defined as an isolated individual. The bond which unites and sustains the Persons of God is to be the same bond which unities and sustains those within the Church – namely love. Where there is love, there is self-discovery and union. Where there is selfishness and pride, there is deceit and division.

Think about the way that we worship. Our prayer is dialogic, that is a dialogue between priest and people, symbolizing that life must be a dialogue between God and us. We must be constantly speaking with Him. His response is always found in the new ideas and inspirations that we have about how to deal with a particular situation.

Our worship is also communal. Unlike the Western Church, a priest cannot celebrate the Divine Liturgy without at least one other person being present. The Divine Liturgy is not just the prayer of the priest. It is the prayer of the community.

By making the Trinity the focus of our worship, we are reminded that we are called to be life-giving, through the power of love, to one another. This means that we make every effort to be concerned about others, especially those in our community, because we know that we must emulate the Trinity in our human relations.

I think that this characteristic of our Eastern Christianity cannot be stressed too much. The power of love is the very source of the Trinity’s existence. Love is life-giving. We should hold this idea in the front of our minds when we deal with others. We must be life-giving instead of death-giving. We are death-giving when we ignore someone, offend someone, judge someone or speak badly about them. Humankind, led by God’s Spirit, formed into communities and societies. Why? So that we humans might learn how to love others as we love ourselves. Think about this! It is the basis of our religion.