How many times do you pray in a day?

How many times do you pray in a day?

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): Almost all of Indonesian dictionaries should be
revised now especially regarding religious terms as some of them
are no longer suitable.

Some terminology, for years associated with Islam like shalat
or solat or salat, and ruku (deep bow from the waist), now also
belong to Christianity due to the presence of Orthodox Christians
here.

The famous Indonesian-English Dictionary by John M. Echols and
Hassan Shadily, for example, translates salat as "ritual prayers
and actions performed five times daily", whereas congregations of
the Orthodox Churches also perform the ritual, not five but seven
times a day.

The rituals of the ancient Christian religion, which initially
grew in the so called Eastern world, are, indeed, something new
for Indonesians who are familiar with Western Christian religions
like the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant churches.

Congregations of the Orthodox Churches consider that their
denomination is older than Catholicism or Protestantism.

According to the Encyclopedia Americana the Orthodox Churches,
generally called the Eastern Orthodox Churches, are a family of
15 self-governing Christian churches, but those existing in
Indonesia so far are the Greek Orthodox and the Syrian Orthodox
Christians.

Many people might be surprised witnessing Orthodox Christians
performing their shalat rituals just like Muslims.

Prior to a discussion about the Syrian Orthodox Christians on
Jl. Cikini Raya in Central Jakarta last week, for example, the
faithful began with the shalat and chanting of Arabic Holy Bible
verses, the same way Muslim's recite the Koran.

While Muslims have prayers five times daily, both the Syrian
and Greek Orthodox Christians perform the shalat seven times a
day following the tradition of Judaism. This tradition existed
long before Islam, but the ritual was given new exegesis, namely
centered in Christ.

Bambang Noorsena from the Institute for Syriac Christian
Studies said in his paper that the seven-time prayers start at 6
a.m., when the followers, before they do anything, ask God to
purify their hearts.

"The prayer, conducted during sunrise, also reminds us about
the resurrection of Jesus," said the man who once made a special
study on the Syrian Church and its liturgy at Bab Touma Seminary
in Syria.

The second is performed at 9, the time when Jesus was
sentenced to death and His disciples felt the presence of the
Holy Spirit. This is followed by the midday prayer, the time when
He was crucified.

A prayer performed at 3 p.m. is to commemorate the time when
Jesus died. At about 6 p.m. the congregation performs another
prayer to remind of the time when Jesus's body was taken down
from the cross.

The last two shalat are performed before sleeping,
commemorating the entombment of Jesus' body, and at midnight
following His word that He will come again to the world like a
thief at night, that is why people should always be on guard.

The ritual movements include ruku (deep bow from the waist),
and sujud (bow from kneeling position and raising the hands).
The congregation also has their own kiblat (direction) which is
toward the East, at first following the Judaism practice.

"That early Christians performed the prayers, actually, can be
read in the Bible, for example in the book of The Acts of The
Apostles," said Bambang, who introduced the Syrian Orthodox
teachings -- centered in Antioch, Syria, the only church which
still maintains the language of Jesus, the Aramaic language -- in
Indonesia in 1997.

That Christians here, in general, do not perform such prayers,
Bambang said was because of adaptations done by Roman Catholic
popes for the sake of fulfilling modern life pursuits, "the
rituals disappeared further after the Protestant reformation."

Unlike the Greek Orthodox Church, the Syrian one has yet to
established the church here. "We should have a priest if we want
to establish the church. Moreover, I don't have intention to
build one. I just maintain it as a study center.

"I want to show that Christianity did not come only from the
West. The ancient churches, actually, have similar roots with
Islam," said Bambang who claimed that there are about 3,000
people regularly joining his study center.

He hoped that by knowing the "meeting points" between Islam
and Christianity, hostility between them which occurs so often
here could be eliminated.

The Gereja Ortodox Indonesia (GOI -- the Indonesian Orthodox
Church), which is under the patriarch of Istanbul, is located at
the housing complex of film artist Roy Marten in Jatiwaringin
area (East Jakarta).

Every Sunday morning, tens of congregations perform what they
call the holy liturgy in the church which is full of Eastern
Church icons.

The women worshipers wear head scarfs and perform the ritual
separately from the men. You will hear continuous chanting of
prayers of adoration lasting for about two hours. No rows of
chairs, musical instruments or choirs like those at most churches
here.

The church interior follows that of the Greek Orthodox Church
around the world namely having a "holy" room, forbidden to all
but priests and those baptized in the Orthodox way. Within the
room are the implements with which the priests prepare bread and
wine for Holy Communion.

The bread is prepared by the congregation in their homes where
they fast for six hours during the preparation for the sake of
self purification.

"Before the communion, the unleavened bread should be signed
by a cross stamp which we have distributed to our congregations,"
said GOI priest Daniel Bambang Dwibiantoro, who introduced the
Orthodox Christian faith in 1988 and claimed to have about 2,000
followers at present.

Daniel said that the holy liturgy, flavored with incense
fragrance, was a "drama" of Jesus' whole life. "That's why all of
the liturgy's parts are the commemoration of Jesus' life stages,"
said the man who wears long robes everywhere.

Besides the weekly liturgy and shalat, the GOI congregation
also perform other prayers for their daily needs, for instance at
the ceremony to construct a house, to purify a house and before
cultivating the land.