Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

ORTHODOX CHANTING

The Eastern Orthodox Church is one of the largest single Christian denominations worldwide with an estimated 225 million members. As part of their worship tradition, practitioners use music to express the divine — a concept that drives the practice of Byzantine sacred music. According to their belief, liturgical music transcends voices and text to offer a deeper meaning intertwined with the spiritual.

Emily Lowe from the Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church near Baltimore, Maryland, describes how this unique religious practice helps worshippers express their faith in a more meaningful way. “One thing about Orthodoxy is that it really demands change — and expects change,” Lowe observes. “It expects that you will grow spiritually. That you won't just be the same person that you were the week before or the month before.”