Author: Nathan V.
Disclaimer: I have never been to an Old Believer church, nor met anyone else in person who claims to be an old believer, so I am not qualified to write this article. However, I believe that you have to start someplace, and do the best with what you have. I welcome any and all suggestions. If you are reading this, I will assume that you are in a similar situation to me and somewhat isolated.

The first thing to do is to start a habit of doing a private worship service twice a day, morning and evening if possible. In the morning, read the Midnight Office, and in the evening, read Small Compline. Also read a few psalms with each service. These services in English are available at http://www.saintjonah.org/services/horologion.htm
or http://www.orthodox.net/services/index.html. Be aware that these services come from Nikonian texts and that English is really not a proper liturgical language, and that these are acceptable only as a last resort.

The next thing to do is to learn Slavonic. While quite intimidating at first, it is easily accessible with some work. Learn the alphabet, and practice writing it by hand. Learn to read the Lord's prayer and the Creed, and some prayers, such as "O Heavenly King". Download the Midnight Office and the Small Compline and a Psalter in Slavonic and have a goal of using them in your services. These are available from a link on the Great Horologion page. The Midnight Office is named "polunoch.pdf", and the Small Compline is named "malPavec.pdf".

Most importantly, try to find someone who can help you, and ask them questions. Please post any comments, criticisms or questions below.
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I offer a forgiveness bow to you brother Nathan,
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I think you are showing extraordinary braveness here, my compliments to you. As one of many Americans to have begun learning the Old Faith and Practices I will offer you some of my experiences, for what they are worth. In 1995 was the first time I ever heard of Russian Old Believers. As I began to see Old Believers not only as good Christians, but the last Christians, I searched out and bought things like the Erie Old Orthodox Prayer Book. It was in 2002 that I first began to meet Old Believers in America face to face. The only Old Believers that I can say were unwelcoming (that is, unchristian) were some from the Bela Krinitsa group. It is for good reason that many people have departed from them. I have never understood how the reception of their first bishop, Ambrosi, could have been proper. I do not see those acts as having a lot of Christian precedence, much was in contradiction to Christ. Other Old Believers I have met accepted me from the start, saying things like, I already looked Russian, saying also that I could worship just like I was. All I needed was a sash (belt).
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I did however quickly find departures of Faith with the Erie Prayer Book, which caused me to reconsider many things. Life seems to be one of constant considerations, especially with all the confusions these days. What I am trying to say is that it pays to be extremely careful. There is little doubt that you will be meeting Old Believers before too long, and you will learn more from then. Online activities such as this will only take us so far. These things (modern inventions of men and devils) are really counter productive, the more time we spend with them. I wholeheartedly agree with you that we cannot help where we wear born and therefore must start where we find ourselves. For many of us in this world it presently includes using computers. I began using computers when I was only ten. The computer I first went to at that age took up an entire university building. So here we still are, Lord have mercy on us. I have thrown working computers in the dumpster before, simply because I have enough of them. I even ran away to distant forests proving to me that it is not easy to get away from them. So now I work to use computers against their devilish ways. But I am messing around with them less and less as time goes bye. May we all make a good repentance from this sin.
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Learning more of the more strict Old Believer position on such matters made the Truth of this clearer to me. It is truly right, what they say, that it is better to have no icons than risk having a bad one. It is similar in any other kind of liturgical practice, all things surrounding this topic sort of flow together and meld into each other. I am confident that you will agree, for you have already proven your intentions well enough. So I will offer a little more personal testimony here, you may decide for yourself how to take it. It might take time to understand these things, so I do not expect complete immediate agreement. I have learned that in the spiritual life it is best to move slowly.
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For over twenty years I have seriously been seeking what is right before God. This effort has brought me through so much that it would take twenty years to explain it all, but I will focus on prayer, since this seems to be where you are now. How important this place is, the prayers of so many people go unaccepted by God. Understanding this liturgical practice is critical. If the Old Faith is right then it is very important to separate ourselves from everything else and learn at its feet, not distracted by anything else. I strongly feel that this requires our silence, the silence of our heart, so that we can listen and know what is right. The law of God is written on the hearts of each person in this world, so none of us has any excuse. What has happened for most of us in this world is that we were raised and trained in the ways we should not go, so our hearts are hardened, we have to undo all of it and that takes far more than we know at first.
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As my soul longed for liturgical life I began to see the necessity of using words that could not be uttered, prayers that were in fact somewhat silent, if you can understand. So this is where I have come to. Only by taking the proverbial log out of my own eye could I then see clearly as to the truly correct direction I needed to go. What this means is that in prayer I ignore the English language entirely. English is not necessary and is actually spiritually harmful if we make too much of it. I hope you will learn all that this means. I would admonish you to not use any Nikonite influences at all and only to direct yourself toward the real Old Orthodox. Leave the New-Rite where it is, dead in trespasses and sins. It is better to start all over, if you ask me, like a little babe. Anything else will only hurt you.
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The Old Faith ascetical rule (ustav) which goes for all Christians, explains to us that the entire liturgical obligation can be fulfilled by the simplest of prayers, the prayer of Jesus, repeated 3,000 times a day. If practiced properly everything else in our lives passes away and the new life we are all truly seeking is found. I believe you know some of what I am talking about. After beginning at this point then we can work to undertake all the rest, but I suggest going ever so slowly, or we will stumble and fall. If we fall we best get ourselves up, with the help of others around us. There is a great cloud of witnesses to assist us. The Holy Mary Mother of God, it is said, will pull us up, believe it or not, so remember that.
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I will say that online there is no complete example of the proper Sign of the Cross, perhaps we can talk about the Truth of that too. One last comment is about the accuracy of Slavonic. Slavonic was given by Greeks and was based upon a Greek dialect from Thessaloniki. So do not be surprised to see such similarities. Old Belief does recognize the original Greek source. But we should know that it is dangerous to embrace modern Greek ways, so I give a stern warning about making too much of Greek today. I do not think that we can go back now to what has been corrupted and lost, it would be too dangerous spiritually speaking. At present I do not see how Greek can be revived. With God all things are possible, I suppose, but please be ever so careful.
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I hope these words are an encouragement to you, this is the attitude in which I am trying to give them. What I am saying is to not be afraid in giving up everything you have known, because if you do not you will never find what you are looking for. I am happy to say that you are an encouragement to me too. It is acceptable to me if you want to turn this page into running comments on this topic, I will respond as my feeble abilities allow. I am willing to give you much more than online examples for these things, and that would be much better. There is a lot that we can say and do for each other, so keep up the good work. I still consider myself to be at an introductory level to the strict Old Believers, so take this as coming from that place.
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Spasi Xristos
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Forgive, brother John
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