[Frederica-l] Podcast: the ancient church in Rome

[Frederica at aol.com]

This weeks' podcast features my prayer partner, Ina O'Dell, talking about her 
recent trip to Rome and her search for evidence of the earliest Christians 
there. She is a dynamite researcher, and before the trip had put together her 
own tour-guide booklet.  Did you know that in Rome the Liturgy was offered in 
Greek until the 4th century? 
 
Listen in at:
 
 
_http://audio.ancientfaith.com/frederica/ina1_pc.mp3_ 
(http://audio.ancientfaith.com/frederica/ina1_pc.mp3) 
 
or dial 857-488-4644 to listen to it as a "phonecast". Second half next week. 
 
This is the first of a two-parter. Ina is the wife of our deacon Mark, and so 
she is called Shmassey Ina; Shmassey is the title of a deacon's wife, as 
Khouria is the title of a priest's wife. Its one of those things that there is 
just no equivalent for in English. As American Orthodoxy keeps putting down 
roots, there still seem to be some terms that just can't be expressed in English, 
like "Theotokos" or "nous" in Greek. It's the same case here; Western 
Christianity just doesn't have a title for the wife of an ordained man. In Roman 
Catholicism they didn't have wives, of course, and Protestantism doesn't accord the 
pastor's wife the same sort of affectionate-motherly-spiritual-leadership role 
she has in Orthodoxy. So, though it was automatic to call priests "Father", 
it wasn't clear what to call "Mother." Thus every Orthodox ethnicity retains 
its own term, and in a Greek church I'm called "Presbytera," in a Russian church 
I'm "Matushka," in a Romanian church "Preotesa," in a Ukrainian one "Pani 
Matka," and on through a half-dozen other options. Since Holy Cross is an 
Antiochian church, our titles are the Arabic ones, Khouria and Shmassey. 
 
A Protestant woman who's done a lot of writing about her faith told me once 
that she had visited a convent where the predominant language was Russian. She 
was alone in the church looking around when a nun came in and seemed rather 
concerned about her being there. the nun didn't speak English, but pointed at 
the woman and asked "Orthodox?" The woman said, "No, Presbyterian."  At that, 
she told me, the nun's whole demeanor changed; she beamed and became very 
friendly, and took her by the hand and led her to look at each of the icons in turn. 
This lady asked me, "Why was that? Do Russian Orthodox nuns have a particular 
love for Presbyterians?"  After I got through laughing, I told her what the 
nun must have thought she'd said; she thought she was a "Presbytera". 

 
********
Frederica Mathewes-Green
www.frederica.com



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