Opinion - Columns - Bill Morem

Published: Thursday, Aug. 06, 2009

Bill Morem: Reflecting on faith with the arrival of a new pastor

The crossed roots of Eastern and Western Catholicism

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I grew up in a San Luis Obispo neighborhood that included a married priest — Father Anthony Kubek, a Hungarian immigrant who practiced Eastern Catholicism.

Marriage was an accepted practice at one time in the Eastern Church and can still be practiced today if one is already married before accepting the call.

I make note of this because Father Kubek, who lived four houses up from ours, sowed the seeds in the 1950s for what would later become St. Anne’s Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite in San Luis Obispo.

Over the years, this particular interpretation of the Catholic faith — as differentiated from the Roman Rite of the West — held Divine Liturgy at Father Kubek’s private chapel and later at the Old Mission’s former convent chapel until finally, in 1990, the congregation settled at its current home, the former Disciples of Christ Church at 222 Foothill Blvd.

The church and its congregation of some 75 families have undergone several major changes in the last year. First, the parish, under the direction of contractor Jim Shepard, undertook a total remodeling of the church, including the placement of a copper dome on the roof.

Second, Father Edmund Idranyi, 81, the founding force behind St. Anne’s and itsfirst full-time pastor, retired June 30 after 23 years.

The third event is the arrival of the church’s new pastor, Father James Lane, who moved from a parish in Phoenix.

By his own reckoning, Father Lane’s path to his calling was circuitous. Raised in Huntington Beach, the 47-year-old was a table tennis professional and businessman. On a table tennis tour of China some 25 years ago, he was daunted by the lack offreedom he noted there. It was a spark that ignited his faith.

Over time he shifted from Roman Catholicism to that of the Catholic Byzantine Rite, where he found “a supernatural world, something unique and mystical, a place between divine and nature, walking with God on Earth, and the belief that the joys of heaven can be enjoyed now.”

The Byzantine Catholic tradition is indeed different than the Roman Catholic tradition.

The divergence stems from the 1st century when the Apostle Peter established Western Christianity in Rome and his brother, the Apostle Andrew, established Eastern Christianity at a trading center on the straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles, a place then called Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, and now known as Istanbul, Turkey.

For some 900 years, the East and West Catholic traditions were in accord, and then what’s called the Great Schism of 1054 occurred.

The Eastern Church spread throughout Russia, Bulgaria, Albania and Hungary and ultimately took two heavy hits. The first came from Islam, which allowed services but put you to death if you tried to proselytize. The second hit came from communism.

Those developments left the East reeling while the West flourished.

Although both East and West are aligned in the same faith, they express their beliefs in different ways. Deacon John Bradley of St. Anne’s explains it this way:

“The Western Church is like the ‘head’ of the church while the Eastern Church is like the ‘heart’: the Western emphasizes truth, justice, order, logic and knowledge like the father of a family; the Eastern emphasizes love, mercy, compassion, goodness and beauty like the mother of a family. The West promotes common good of self while the East promotes common good of all. The Western Church is rational, the Eastern Church is intuitive.”

“We see heaven as a wedding feast,” adds Father James, “a big party; it’s distinct from the Roman outlook.”

The Western view of heaven is more of a “beatific vision, knowledge and seeing God,” says Deacon John.

In something akin to parallel universes, the East sees the Trinity as three people — but also one. The West sees the Trinity as one — but also three. The West see Jesus as human who is also divine; the East see Jesus as a divine person who is also human. The West sees the Church as unity with a direct connection to the Pope; the East sees the Church as diversity with a connection with the Pope through synods.

In a nutshell, “The East is experiential, the West is more nuts and bolts,” says Father James.

Drop in at St. Anne’s some Sunday morning and you’ll find most of the liturgy being sung; Father James will be facing an altar to the East (as is the congregation) praying directly to God; Deacon John will be facing the congregation, leading about a third of the prayers as a representative of the flock. Icons abound; the worshippers moving through a cappella prayers.

“God’s calling us to something,” says Father James. “We’re connecting with something bigger than ourselves; we crave something beyond this life.”

Amen, Father.

Bill Morem can be reached at bmorem@thetribunenews.com or 781-7852.