You thought the festive season was over? For Ireland's Russian Orthodox community the best is yet to come, writes Rosita Boland
'They are like a window into a heavenly world," says Father George Zavershinsky, who is explaining the significance of the icon to Russian Orthodoxy. He is standing in his church, the formerly Anglican SS Peter & Paul, in Harold's Cross, Dublin.
The most striking aspect of it now is the absence of pews. A few are lined up against the walls, but the floor is largely empty. Most of the congregation stands for the weekly three-hour service. "People like it," says Zavershinsky. "It keeps their minds focused on the service. Even quite old people prefer to stand."
They will be standing for several hours tomorrow night - Christmas Eve in the Julian calendar, which Zavershinsky's church still uses instead of the Gregorian calendar, which has been used elsewhere since the 16th century. Although January 6th is the 12th and last day of Christmas for most Christians, the Russian Orthodox Church is only starting to celebrate.
Zavershinsky is the Republic's sole Russian Orthodox priest. He was posted to Dublin from Moscow three years ago, with his wife, Lana, and 17-year-old daughter, Ekaterina, to look after the pastoral needs of some of the capital's estimated 50,000 Russian speakers - 30,000 of whom are registered with the Russian embassy. He is kept busy. As well as giving services in Dublin he travels to other parts of the country to lead services for people who otherwise would have no access to an Orthodox priest. He is also doing a doctorate at Trinity College on "the trinity and inter-religious debate".
Before its new lease of life SS Peter & Paul, which the Russian Orthodox community hopes to buy from the Church of Ireland, had been out of regular use for more than a decade and closed entirely for several years. Evidence of the two Christian traditions are everywhere. The church still has its original stained-glass windows and several marble memorial tablets. "Sacred to the memory of John Hawker Evans, the faithful superintendent of Harold's X Church Sunday School. He calmly fell asleep 17 November 1881," reads one. Now under every window sit Byzantine icons depicting Orthodox scenes. Prophets. The Nativity. The Resurrection. St Nicholas. The last Russian tsar and his family, ringed with haloes. The most elaborate icon is in gold and silver, of St Peter and St Paul, which was a gift this year from Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister. "Gold is the colour of the kingdom of heaven," says Zavershinsky. In front of the icon hangs a glass-and-gold oil lamp that is lit during services. Several others hang elsewhere in the church, lovely green, blue and red lamps brought from Russia.
Long, thin candles are everywhere, stuck in buckets of sand. The area where the priest stands is called the sanctuary, and behind it is a frieze of printed paper icons. The church hopes to replace them soon with painted versions. A choir balcony runs round three walls upstairs, where the overspill of the congregation stands. There is an organ, but it is never played. Russian Orthodox Christians do not use musical instruments in their services, although they do sing and chant. The smell of the highly polished floor permeates everything.
The mixing of traditions has created a serenely beautiful church that feels different to most of Ireland's other places of worship. Tomorrow the Russian Orthodox community will gather here at 9 p.m., to begin a long evening of prayer, chanting and vigil. It will be the final day of a 40-day fast during which the faithful abstain from meat and dairy products. Fish is permitted, but not on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays. Everybody over seven is expected to participate.
The vigil lasts three hours. At midnight the liturgy is given, followed by Communion, which can take over an hour to distribute given the size of the congregation and the fact that there is only one priest. It can be close to 3 a.m. before the service is over. "It's a very exciting event. Nobody wants to sleep," says Zavershinsky.
Then the congregation goes to the assembly hall next door, where tables are laid out for a feast. Everyone brings a plate of food, to add to what the church has provided. There is a lot of the cold meat and cheese that worshippers have not eaten for so long. "And we have Russian caviar." They make blini to go with it. There are also cheesecakes and wine. Everyone salutes each other with a traditional greeting: "Christ is born. Glorify him."
A Russian Orthodox Christmas tradition that doesn't yet happen in Ireland is that of the children's liturgy. Priests are permitted to give only one liturgy a day. As the Christmas Eve service goes into Christmas Day, Father Zavershinsky cannot give one for the children later in the day. But they do hold a party for them each January 7th, at which gifts are exchanged.
Another Orthodox custom, that comes from Ukraine, is that on Christmas Day children dress as shepherds and angels and knock on their neighbours' doors to sing in return for treats, a bit like Hallowe'en. If Russian children dressed as angels turned up at our doors on a working day after the end of our Christmas they would likely get very short shrift indeed. But who knows? Perhaps, in the future, we will learn to expect angels and shepherds knocking on our doors each January 7th.
Orthodox ways
The Orthodox calendar (Julian) begins on September 1st
Christmas Day falls on January 7th
Easter Day this year will be on May 1st, five weeks after other Christian churches celebrate it on March 27th
The Russian Orthodox Church, like the other churches that make up Eastern Orthodoxy, is autonomous, or self-governing
A service usually lasts three hours and congregations stand throughout
Every day is a saint's day
Everybody is welcome to join the Russian Orthodox celebration of Christmas. The Nativity service begins at 9 p.m. tomorrow at SS Peter & Paul, Mount Argus, Harold's Cross, Dublin
