Orthodox Christians are soon to celebrate Pentecost, one of the great feasts of the liturgical year.
In our calendar, the Sunday after Pentecost is All Saints’ Sunday, which winds down the Paschal cycle of feasts, a long period starting before Lent.
The timing of this cycle is dependent on the date set for Easter.
This is different in most years to the western date for Easter due to a discrepancy in the way of calculating it.
The event of Pentecost is often said to be the birthday of the Christian Church.
Another way of looking at it would be that the Church, being the people of God, predates Pentecost, and starts with the righteous of the Old Testament. Rather, what happened on that day, when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, is the inauguration of the New Testament priesthood of which the Arch-Priest is Christ Himself.
In the period from the Incarnation until the Ascension, Christ is known to us as a historical reality, and after Pentecost he becomes a sacramental reality, known through the Church, His body, on a course that will takes us all the way to the end of the world.
The great miracle of Pentecost is not so much that the apostles, mostly uneducated working men, spoke in foreign languages they had never studied, but that the message was understood by many.
People who came from different cultures, different worldviews, with different languages and philosophies were able to receive and pass on the message of the Gospel.
They were able, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, to understand and receive the same Christ. Let us hope that one day the same unity will once again reign over us.
John Irvine, Prophet Elias Orthodox Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Reading
