The Shepherd, August 2008
POINTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE
“In the Prayer Book there are petitions for ‘pious and Orthodox Christians,’ but I thought that piety was rather frowned upon by the Orthodox - so why promote it by the prayers used in church?” N.P., Manningtree.
I think the problem here is that the word “pious” itself has many connotations in English and, particularly to modern ears, the negative ones spring first to mind. There is absolutely nothing wrong with piety when it signifies devotion, reverence, dedication, God-fearingness, and faithfulness. In fact all these things are what each one of us in the Church should be striving to have. Most of us fail rather miserably, but we must needs keep striving for them and praying for them.
But you are quite right: “piety,” when it connotes sanctimoniousness, self display of religious practices, exaggerated rectitude, striking “pious” poses, or making any sort of display of one’s religiousness, is frowned upon, and indeed is considered a sin.
The Church teaches that we can begin to train our inward disposition by our outward demeanour, but at the same time She warns against any form of self-display. The balance is hard to strike, but I think that to demonstrate what I mean one only has to look at the different ways in which an older generation of Orthodox clergy served as compared with - and I do not mean to judge them, their predispositions were different from ours - the way in which an older generation of High Churchmen in the West served. (I point to the clergy only because their ways are more visible to most of us in church and easier to use as an example.)
In the former, there was a kind of quietness, a respect for the correct liturgical practices but no over-correctness, and at the same time a kind of reverent casualness, an awareness that it is not I but God Who effects what is good. It is hard to describe, but it is something which one recognizes when one sees it. In the latter, there was an almost pedantic observation of what my mother used, rather irreverently, to call “bowing and scrapping,” striking poses (hands dramatically placed palm to palm, noticeably gazing at religious objects, etc), being over dramatic, making oneself the celebrant. This is the kind of “piety” which is foreign to the Orthodox. The Orthodox place themselves always with the Publican and not with the Pharisee, and in doing so nor do they make an exhibition of their being in the place of the Publican.
Of course, we all, at various moments, fall into the wrong kind of piety. One can even be tempted to think that perhaps we are edifying others by our “piety.” How can we cut it out, and cultivate the true piety of the Orthodox? As yet I do not know from experience, but a good first step is stop ourselves whenever a thought of any self-display enters. And, naturally, we have to back this up with prayer, for it is indeed God that effects what is good.
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