Christian Orthodoxy is more than pretty icons, long services and lots of gold. A new book contemplates the faith to which 87% of Romanians belong.
When Father Nevsky Everett went to the launch of a New Testament translation from Medieval Greek into Romanian in Bucharest, he expected speeches followed by a glass of wine with fellow clergy.
Instead, there was pandemonium, and near rock concert-like frenzy.
“There were women and children there. People were elbowing each other to get a copy,” he said on Monday at the Bucharest launch of his new book, Ways of Seeing.
“Bibles were flying across the room and people were catching them,” he told amazed guests at the Carturesti bookshop for the launch.
And here was me thinking Orthodox Christians may be in awe of Christ, but don’t know their Bible.
Yet this is a nation that is hungry for their faith and the living Bible. The Orthodox religion survived communism, despite suppression and compromise, while the nation’s hagiographers presented dictator Nicolae Ceausescu as a demi-god and the regime bulldozed churches.
After the 1989 revolution, Romanians were free to practice their faith openly and loudly. Baptisms were held in churches rather than secretly in a cramped living room while a surreptitious priest performed one of its major seven sacraments. An open profession of faith could mean a demotion and kill professional advancement.
Nevsky Everett’s 89-page book written for English speakers lifts the curtain on Christian orthodoxy, the prevalent denomination in Romania, sewn into the fabric of the country’s identity, culture and history. It also comes as people in Britain seek out the liturgical purity of Orthodoxy with the internet and the Romania’s one million plus diaspora making it more accessible to many, the author believes.
The book, published by Canterbury Press in February, was launched this month in London, four years after Father Nevsky, as everyone calls him, was appointed chaplain to the 112-year-old Church of the Resurrection in central Bucharest. He’s also the Apokrisarios, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s or the diplomatic envoy to the Romanian Orthodox Church.
During his time in Romania, the popular Father Nevsky, 37, who was formerly Chaplain and Welfare Fellow at Keble College, Oxford, has become deeply acquainted with Romania’s dominant faith and remains fascinated by it-hence the book, the first written by any of the numerous Anglican chaplains who served in Bucharest since the late 1800s (before the red-brick church on Gradina Icoanei was built).
In his book, Nevsky Everett takes readers beyond the ‘beauty of its icons and the quiet power of the Jesus prayer’ and unveils ‘a rich, living tradition with transformative insights for today’s spiritual journey.’ Of course he doesn’t attempt to unwrap its deep mysteries as mystery cannot be explained.
Perhaps not surprisingly, his interest predates his appointment to Bucharest. Firstly, there’s his name which is “not exactly English”: he was named after Saint Alexander Nevsky (13th century Russian prince credited with “saving the Russian people from Catholicism and being enslaved by the Germans”) which he calls “a sort of nominative determinism.” As a student, the Metropolitan Kallistos Ware came to speak at his college, leaving a deep impression. Since his ordination in 2013 he has been involved with different Anglican-Orthodox organizations.
And now Romania where he’s had “the immersive experience of Orthodoxy.”
Back to the new book which is divided into five chapters: Icons (which are physical and tactile we learn), the Philokalia, a foundational collection of Orthodox Christian spiritual texts composed between the 4th and 15th centuries, focusing on inner prayer, contemplative life, and asceticism; the Divine Liturgy (Byzantine rite); the Byzantine Hymnody (Orthodox chants) and the Holy Spirit, the last being the most familiar to Western Christians.
Don’t expect any criticism of Orthodoxy_ that’s not the purpose of the book and Father Nevsky’s role includes being basically the Ambassador of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate.
Yet, there is some challenge: the book isn’t just an explainer or deep dive into Orthodoxy for Western Christians. Father Nevsky hopes it can “help Orthodox Christians to understand their own tradition better.”
Now this reminds me of my own job: a foreign journalist casting a fresh pair of eyes and perspective on Romania.
He says: “We can often disregard those things we are most familiar with- things become habitual, or we do them because our grandmother told us to, rather than because we see their value or significance.”
“I’d like to see my outsider perspective can be helpful here, perhaps shedding new light or explaining things in a new way.”
The book has good reviews: “It offers a lucid and penetrating account of the manifold ways in which the eternal presence of the Lord becomes perceptible within the Church’s liturgical life,” writes Olga Sevastyanova, Director of Orthodox Research Institute of St John Chrysostom.
As touched as Father Nevsky is by Orthodoxy which has clearly been part of his Christian journey, he remains an Anglican.
“There are reasons why I’m an Anglican and not an Orthodox,” he says quietly and firmly, putting the lid on any potential speculation, not entirely absurd, I suppose, as nobody can think of another English chaplain who’s written a book on Orthodoxy.
Ways of Seeing is available at Carturesti book store for 132 lei.
