Sysoyev Program: Lectures and Sermons
Article by Andrew Smith :: Photo courtesy Irina Sharova
This post will be continuing the series on Fr Daniel Sysoyev. If you don’t know who he is, check out my first post. The second post was on his co-workers and the missionary school.
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Key in Fr Daniel’s strategy are his talks and lectures. He would deliver 5 talks every week, from Thursday to Sunday.
On Thursday nights, Fr Daniel would serve vespers, then after that he would lead a Bible study. This was not a Bible study in the ‘everyone gives their opinion sense of the word’, but one that focused on what holy people had interpreted the Scriptures as being. Scriptures are the most sacred text in the Church; it is only fitting that they be interpreted in the proper manner – doing otherwise has led to tens of thousands of denominations in America alone.
This Bible study would last for two hours. Fr Daniel would start on the Old Testament, and then move to the New Testament, and then after the Bible study, tea and coffee would be served alongside a small meal. This Bible study attracted all sorts of people – from inquirers and catechumens to Protestant pastors and Muslim imams.
Friday night was Fr Daniel’s Catechetical School. He would deliver five talks, each lasting for 2 hours, over five Friday nights, simply repeating the series many times over the course of the year. His first talk was about God – who He is, what His nature is, and so on. The second talk was about the creation of the world, and he’d discuss angels, the rebellion of Lucifer, creation, revelation and science, ancestral sin, human nature, among other things. His third talk was about salvation and the last judgement, a talk largely based on ‘The Life in Christ’. The fourth talk was based on the structure of the Church and its sacraments. Fr Daniel would intentionally dwell on baptism, because this was what catechumens needed to know. This also created a natural curiousity in his listeners about what was next – that is, communion – and meant that inquirers and catechumens were not overwhelmed with too much information that couldn’t be put into practise. It was an early Church practise to only allow those who were sacramentally in the Church to be present in the Liturgy, and could be a practise restored today for the same reason. The last talk that Fr Daniel would give in the series was about ethics and asceticism, discussing the commandments, spiritual life and fighting sin.
On weekends, Fr Daniel would preach during the major services of the week – Saturday night Vigil (which, despite the name, usually goes for around 2-2.5 hours in Russian practise) and Sunday Divine Liturgy. The first sermon he would deliver during the first part of Vigil (i.e. during Vespers), which would be about the passions and the virtues, and also about the Saint who was being commemorated that day. The second sermon he would preach during the Divine Liturgy, after the Gospel reading (where the sermon is traditionally preached), and this would be about the Gospel that was read; the third sermon would be preached at the end of the Liturgy, and it would be about the Epistle. Each of these sermons would be posted online.
In addition, there is often a portion during the Divine Liturgy where there is a great gap of time and nothing appointed to be sung – that is, while the clergy are communing and before the laity commune. During this time, Fr Daniel would appoint that Scriptures were to be read (Fr Peter points out in his podcast that, in Greece, often lives of saints or patristic texts would be read during this time).
After the service, tea and coffee would be served. This is common in Western countries, but is mostly unknown in Russia (and other traditionally Orthodox countries). The reasoning often given is that in Western countries, Orthodox are few and far between, whereas in traditionally Orthodox countries, nearly everyone you meet is Orthodox. Fr Daniel, however, found that there was a need for community to be built. I would guess that this is because it allowed people to see other believing Orthodox – not simply nominal Orthodox – and to interact with them.
Aside from the regular talks that Fr Daniel held every week, he would also hold special talks, generally around Nativity and Pascha. These would be about the sacraments, and he would invite parishioners and the newly-baptised. The talks would be different every time, mainly because Fr Daniel was able to tailor them to his parishioners’ needs at that particular point in time.
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This series will continue for a few more posts.
Do you think that these ideas – Bible study, frequent catechism classes, three sermons a weekend or parishioner-specific lectures – would work in Western countries? Have you tried any of these, and would like to share the results?
Leave your comment below!
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Yes Bible study and frequent catechism classes can and have worked. It is equally important to continue with catechism classes even after catechumens are baptized – to have post-baptismal catechism classes. In this way the newly-illumined is not left on their own after their last catechism lesson before baptism, but continue having regular contact with their catechist to continue learning about the Faith and Church life and have someone to call upon during their “post-baptismal haze” and when the “honeymoon” period after their baptism subsides and their feet land back on earth.
Haven’t tried the 3 sermon method. We usually combine and explain both the epistle and gospel reading in our sermons. The two are usually connected either thematically (for most Sundays) or have some common and connecting features.
Parishioner – specific lectures would be required if the make-up of the congregation is a mixture of newly-illumined and for want of a better term “cradle-born” and usually nomimal Orthodox. For the newly-illumined, these lectures would be catechetical in nature. For the nominal it would also be catechetical in nature, but with a “you-should-know-better” message tucked in there.
Post-baptismal catechesis seems to be a wonderful idea! Based on his ideas on catechism itself (that it should encourage curiousity into deeper parts of Orthodoxy, like Communion), I’m certain he’d concur.
Has putting sermons online been attempted (e.g. with RussianOrthodoxPodcast.com)? with any level of success?