Moderator: Mark Templet
I was reading a news article on the Monastery of Esphigmenou the other day which began with this line:
At the gate of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou, a sign--"by decision of the venerable assembly"--warns that "entry is forbidden to long-haired men and anyone improperly dressed." - Source
I found this very confusing as I was under the impression that, according to the Church canons, all monastics and clergy were suppose to grow their hair long?
I first visited the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou (the tighlty girdled one) in 1968. There were only a handful of monks and I was very warmly received and since I was not married at the time, was invited to join the brotherhood. I returned in 1982 to find the monastery flourishing but very hostile to visitors who were not Greek.
However I held my peace and entered the Trapeza and received the blessing of the Igumenos. But a trial was to begin. During the evening vigil service I was repeatedly accosted by young zealots who asked what was I doing in their church. Having explained numerous times I was Orthodoxos, I resulted to ignoring their questions and signed myself with the cross, which seemed to send them away. Eventually an elderly monk, who had been an engineer in Paris, invited me to join the monks on the kliros.
The next day, I was invited with other pilgrims for coffee after the Liturgy in the cell of the Igumenos. To my surprise it was the saintly elder Euthemios whom I had met at a skete 10 years before - but that's another story.
While I admired the Fathers stand for true Orthodoxy, I found the zeal of some of the young ones out of place. But that seems to be how life is. As you get older and may be more wiser, you are not so quick to judge.
It is no secret that they are increasingly more cautious of visitors and their purpose.
For instance, who they commemorate during divine services has always been important information as the charter specifically states they can only commemorate the heretic Bartholomew.
Today you would not get through the front door without advance warning by cell phone from a network of people.
Perhaps something like this was the cause of your not being able to blend in so easily.
Or maybe because you are not Greek, I mean, why not be Greek? 
Paradosis wrote:I was under the impression that, according to the Church canons, all monastics and clergy were suppose to grow their hair long?
There is in fact no Canon about this, but rather, the opposite. Male monastics were expected to keep their hair short with a wreath like haircut called the "paplethra" (21st Canon of the Sixth Oecumenical Council).
Monastic long hair is a custom that developed later.
George
