Tucked away in a sleepy Northwest D.C. neighborhood is an unexpected sight: a golden onion dome, sitting atop the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Inside, walls covered with ornate icons dazzle visitors, and the smell of incense lingers from Sunday worship. The Rev. John Johnson, one of the priests at the cathedral, is perhaps equally unexpected. The 45-year-old black management consultant converted to Orthodoxy after a spiritual journey that included growing up Baptist, hitting a spiritual “rock bottom” and exploring Catholicism. He became a priest nearly five years ago after feeling a call to serve others. What drew you to Orthodoxy?
The feeling that something was lacking. I was looking for something liturgical. I was actually considering becoming Catholic, which was one of the stations on my spiritual journey. When I came to an Orthodox church and experienced the liturgy, there was a feeling of finally being home. That feeling has stayed with me. That to me is what it means to be a Christian, the feeling that I am home, even here on Earth.
One of characteristics of Orthodoxy is that it’s a full-body experience, and that’s part of what drew me, too. Within the Christian West, worship tends to be a spiritual or an emotional thing. Within Orthodoxy, the entire person worships. It’s not an intellectual exercise; it’s not an emotional state; it’s coming into the presence of God with all of who you are.
Why is beauty in an external, sensory form so important to Orthodox worship?
One of the criticisms leveled against the Orthodox is that we have all of this finery in the church, that it’s materially a very rich church. But all of that serves a purpose, because when we think of God, we think of God as being the author of all that is good and all that is beautiful. What you see in an Orthodox church — the iconography, the vestments that the clergy wear — is meant to call to mind that as splendid as these things are, the God who created them is infinitely greater and more beautiful and more splendid. This is but a pale shadow of what is to come.
How has being Orthodox changed you?
I’ve become more aware of the presence of God in everything around me and in everyone. When we look at the icons, we’re reminded that living people are also icons, that living people also bear the image and likeness of God. Just as we venerate the icons, we really should venerate one another. That’s one of the biggest changes in me — that no matter how much I may not like a person, no matter how much I may detest what somebody has done, nonetheless I’m called to love them. Because in loving them, I’m loving the image of God that resides in them.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia recently reconciled with the church in Moscow. Has the church at large recovered from the Soviet era? What scars remain?
Healing is a process. The church was in subjugation for 80 years. As with anything, it’s going to take time for the people to recover. There are people who are going to have to rediscover their Orthodoxy. What was a church in the catacombs has become a church that is able to worship openly now, and so people are reacclimating to that.
Is it important to you that you are one of only a few African-American Russian Orthodox priests?
No, not really. I tend not to look at things from a racial perspective. I look at people as people. So it’s not really something that occurs to me very often. What does occur to me is that there’s a need to bring that which has been given to us to people who don’t necessarily have leanings toward an ethnic church. In this area there is a large Hispanic contingent. Perhaps in the future we will see more liturgies in Spanish. I would love to see that.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
God is love. Belief in God is not merely a slavish adherence to the rules. It’s participating in the joy that is knowing God, that is knowing Christ. And that is what being a Christian should be. It shouldn’t be being dour because you’re worried about sin. We obviously have to deal with sin and the consequences of it, and that’s a portion of our life in Christ, but it’s not the sum total. A Christian’s life should be a life of joy as well.
– Liz Essley
