the new oca church in dayton, ohio, saint paul's, does not have an iconostas; it was built in the last couple of years; for several years, the parish used a protestant church bulding that they bought and "refurbished for orthodox worship." that edifice, also, did not have an iconostas.
i asked the pastor when the church was in the "refurbished" building why they did not have an iconostas, and he gave me a big deal about how the church abroad "idolized nineteenth century russia," and that the oca was more interested in concentrating on "more original (or perhaps ancient) sources" (this is an approximation of what he said-i do not remember his exact words), and therefore, the oca was more "into" the 3rd century, in which, he told me, the iconostas was not used. he alwyas wore a short-sleeved "roman collar" shirt, and told me that this was because patriarch tikhon (of course this was before the mp "canonized" him, so he did not refer to him as "saint tikhon"), when he was a bishop in north america, said that clergy should dress as "the gentlemen of the country." not knowing anyone who would fit that description and who also wore a short sleeved roman collar shirt. . . well-what can i say? i was, i might say, very sorely tempted to tell him that there were no cars in the 3rd century either, and wondered why he did not ride a horse to church. this priest alsotold me that he longed for he day when bishops would dump their "byzantine regalia," and dress more . . . modern.
i am also told that the chapel at saint vladimir's seminary has no iconostas-or did not at one time-i have seen photos-the photos i saw showed two large icons kind of sitting there-but there was definitely no iconostas! based on what the priest in dayton told me, as well as the photo i saw of the chapel at st vladimir's seminary, perhaps i mistakenly thought the absence of an iconostas was more widespread in the oca than it actually is . . . the new church in dayton is quite nice in other respects-but the iconosas was, indeed, left out intentionally (and how could it be left out 'unintentionally'????). i hope this is enough 'reality' for you!
the oca certainly does have, however, a very different 'spirit' than rocor- . . . i visited the oca's all american convention when it was held in st. louis in, i think, 1988-this was the first time i had seen any oca bishops, and any services where oca bishops were present. the services were held in the ballroom of the adam's mark hotel, where the convention was going on. there was a sort of a raised platform, or stage, where they had set up an altar. there was no iconostas there, either. we noticed two very very nice vigil lamps hanging in front of icons on the stage-they were really beautiful, in the shape of byzantine eagles-very nice, very unusual, looked also very expensive. we got there several minutes prior to the beginning of vespers. we were looking at these vigil lamps, and a fellow parishioner from st john chrysostom (rocor) parish in st. louis went right on the stage to look at them closely. he came back down, and told us that the lamps did not have oil, or a wick in them-he then commented, "just like the oca-a lot of show, but empty . . ." i had been to rocor services where bishops were serving. this vespers service was very different in that when the service began, only one or two of the maybe 8 or 10 bishops in attendance at the convention were present. as the service continued, the remainder of the bishops sort of meandered in one or two at a time, and during the vespers service, several were talking to each other during the entire service. while there may indeed have been important topics for the bishops to discuss concerning events at that all american convention, i must say that i have never seen such "chatting" going on among the bishops during a rocor service. there were two other memorable events at this convention (for me!)-one was humorous-there was all sorts of "ecclesiastical merchandise" on sale at many different booths set up by different purveyors of such goods. at one booth, they had dikiri-trikiri for sale. met. theodosius and abp. peter approached that booth together. met. theodosius selected a pair of dikiri-trikiri, sort of "weighed" them in his hands, held them up, then "blessed" with them three or four times-i was not close enough to hear any conversation-he then enthusiastically shook his head "yes," handed the dikiri-trikiri to abp. peter, who also did a few "test blessings," and also seemed enthusiastic about the merits of this pair of dikiri-trikiri! the other memorable event was NOT humorous-somehow, we got into one of the sessions of the convention. someone in this session, at the obvious urging of several others, asked for discussion of oca participation in ecumenism. this person was told that "the discussion is closed." this caused a sort of murmur and stir among the delegates; another person also asked that the discussion be reopened. the pronouncement that "the discussion is closed" was given, a bit more forcefully this time! and that was that! so much for the widely advertised 'democracy' of the all american conventions!
back to dayton, ohio-i am not aware of a website for the dayton oca parish-perhaps photos of that particular church are included in the oca's website-or a link to that parish website.
michael woerl
