St. Elias the Prophet Melkite Greek Catholic Church will
celebrate its 25th anniversary with special events on Jan. 31 and
Feb. 1. This small parish is located at 4411 Hyland Ave. in San
Jose, but its boundaries are wide, including the entire Roman
Catholic dioceses of Oakland, San Jose and Monterey, as well as the
Archdiocese of San Francisco.
St. Elias the Prophet Melkite Greek Catholic Church will celebrate its 25th anniversary with special events on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. This small parish is located at 4411 Hyland Ave. in San Jose, but its boundaries are wide, including the entire Roman Catholic dioceses of Oakland, San Jose and Monterey, as well as the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Members of the congregation come mainly from the Middle East: Egypt, Lebanon Jordan, Palestine, Syria – the places where Jesus of Nazareth and his apostles had their first-century ministry. They follow an ancient Christian tradition centered in Byzantium (Constantinople), the capital of the Greek-speaking Roman Empire.
Their religious rites and doctrines closely resemble those of the various Eastern Orthodox Churches, but in 1724 a dispute in Damascus arose with the Patriarch of Constantinople. They chose to reunite with the Roman Catholic Church and its head, the Pope. This unified two branches of Christianity which had been separate since the 11th century.
The Melkite Greek Catholics hold fast to their ancient traditions while being in communion with Western (Roman) Catholics. A visitor to St. Elias will notice some interesting differences:
– Roman Catholics will often make the sign of the cross on themselves with Holy Water upon entering a church; Greek Catholics will kiss an icon (sacred religious painting).
– Roman Catholic churches usually have a large platform at the front of the church which contains the altar and seats for the ministers of the Eucharist. Greek Catholic churches have a wall separating the “nave” (public seating area) and “holy place” (altar area). This wall is covered by many beautiful icons of saints. It is penetrated by three doorways which are blocked by curtains and opened only during worship services. These different spaces represent the earthly world of the people and the heavenly world of God.
– Roman Catholic churches usually have three-dimensional statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Greek Catholic churches have large icons showing her (called “Theotokos,” God-bearer) together with her son.
– Roman Christians often kneel to pray; Greek Christians never kneel to pray during the Divine Liturgy but do so while standing (the posture of respect rather than penitence).
– While lay people help distribute communion in Roman Catholicism, only ordained ministers are allowed to do so in the Byzantine Churches.
– The Mass of the Roman church was celebrated for centuries in Latin and in the language of the local people only since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s; the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Churches has always been celebrated in the language of the people. At St. Elias, it is in Arabic, English and Greek.
– Roman Catholics usually receive the sacrament of communion in the form of small wafers of bread (the Host) placed into their hands; Greek Catholic communion bread is a leavened loaf cut into special fragments which are dipped in consecrated wine by the priest and placed on the communicants’ tongues.
Despite all these (and other) differences, Melkite Greeks are fully Catholic in every respect. The Great Vespers service marking the parish’s 25th anniversary will be held in St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica in downtown San Jose, presided over by both Bishop Patrick McGrath of the San Jose Roman Catholic Diocese and Archbishop Cyril Bustros of the Melkite Greek Diocese, symbolizing the excellent relationship between these two branches of Catholicism.
The Rev. James Graham has been pastor of St. Elias since 1995. Father James was raised a Roman Catholic. He has received degrees in English from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and California State University, Sacramento; he spent 12 years in private industry as a technical writer and book/music reviewer in the Sacramento area.
One day he visited a Melkite church at a friend’s invitation; he was captivated by the beauty of the liturgy, “its mystical spirituality.” After attending for 11 years as a lay person, Father James quit his job, gave away his dogs and entered a seminary in Newton, Mass., the church’s U.S. headquarters. He was ordained and served a parish in Connecticut before returning to California.
Father James invites anyone interested in learning more about this Eastern expression of Catholic Christianity to visit St. Elias for the Divine Liturgy on Sundays at 11 a.m. People will receive a “warm welcome” and an opportunity to experience “glimpses of the mystery that is God.”
Also of interest may be the series of programs sponsored by St. Elias, “The Church: Its History, People and Theology.” Upcoming sessions include presentations on Mary, Mother of God; Saints; and the Byzantine Rite Churches.
For more information, call (408) 259-0259 or visit www.steliastheprophet.org.
