ORTHODOXY IN THE GUATEMALAN HIGHLANDS: A LIGHT SHINES BRIGHTLY

Juanita leads the choir in Aguacate

Father John Chakos
Mayan Orthodox Community – July 2014

On the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, in the humble and unspoiled village of Aguacate, we celebrated one of the most moving liturgies of my stay in Guatemala. For the first time in the Altiplano, I had the joy of experiencing uninterrupted worship from “Blessed be the kingdom” to the last “amen.” The choir, in particular, sang so beautifully, and the faithful responded with great fervor to all the petitions. I very much had the sense that the Holy Spirit was moving among us in a powerful way. How fitting indeed it was that we could honor our first missionaries-San Pedro and San Pablo- in such a splendid way. To my surprise and delight, the Mayan choir even chanted their parish hymn of the Annunciation just as the OCMC mission team had taught them two weeks earlier, without missing a note.

The people in this village are so open to the faith, so much so that as I was preaching to them about the Holy Fire in Jerusalem, they seemed to be jumping out of their chairs with excitement. At various times they would break out in applause. At the end of my talk I shouted out, “Cristo ha Resucitado,” and with a thunderous roar they shouted back, “Verdaderamente ha Resucitado. This most recent experience has convinced me that we have turned the corner in this community, thanks to the inspirational leadership of its dynamic priest- Fr. Evangelos Pata, the dedicated catechetical and choral work of Fr. David and Rozanne Rucker and recent efforts of the OCMC music team. We are already planning to send the choir out to some of the other nearby villages, so that they, too, can experience the fullness of Orthodox worship.

This is a much needed outreach, as we have found some apathy towards the Liturgy in other nearby communities. Having no one to teach or inspire them as to the deeper meaning of the Liturgy, they find more solace and stimulation in the more familiar and livelier Christian songs that have taken root in their culture. In one of the larger nearby parishes, for example, most of the younger people are ashamed to come forward and receive the Eucharist. We discovered this at a youth retreat the day before. These young people, unlike those in Aguacate, had a greater exposure to the outside world and its corrupting influence. And so, answering the call of Christ to sup with Him could not overcome their teen inhibitions. We must keep in mind that many of the parishes that joined the Orthodox Church under the leadership of Fr. Andres Giron had not been a part of any church for many years. This one incident only goes to show us that we have much work to do in places where the visit of a priest is such a rarity. Having made a good start in Aguacate, a true lamp stand of the light of Christ, we hope to share the riches of Orthodoxy with many other Mayan villages.

Source: