Romanians Leaving?

Finally a sign of real progress in America! While it can appear to be sad that a group is "leaving" the OCA, isn't it promising that a united Romanian church will be formed here to work with the OCA? Everyone knows +Nathaniel is firmly dedicated to Orthodox unity (he doesn't just "talk the talk" like other hierarchs, but he actually "walks the walk" too). Let's pray for this new direction and thank those who are brave enough to explore it!

Mark,

Your response is thoughtful. There are very good and dedicated parishioners who are "American" converts to the Orthodox Faith and who are all practicing that Faith here in America.

But it is also true that they are under a bishop who follows only Russian rubrics, wears only Russian vestments, celebrates only Russian holidays & customs, follows only a system of Russian church administration, and sits on a Synod of Bishops who predominantly all do the same. Where is this American church? At best it might be hidden somewhere inside the English-speaking remnants of the old Russian Metropolia. I don't mean disrespect. I respect that tradition immensely, but I do want to view the situation for what it really is before we condemn others for their actions.

Could someone please provide a translation of the following document, posted on the ROAA website (in Romanian). http://www.romarch.org/Sf_Sinod.pdf

It bears Patriarch Daniel's signature.

"an atmosphere totally opposed to meeting the needs of ethnic members of the larger flock"

What are the needs of ethnic members? Seriously, what are they? And how are they different from the needs of non-ethnic members?

Is there any such things as "non-ethnic" people anyways. Americans are an ethnicity. Do they have needs?

Orthodox unity -- a falacy or a reality? People in the US only know the Orthodox Christian by its ethnic identify: Greek Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox etc. If an Orthodox Christian identifies himself/herself by Eastern Orthodox Christian, the American citizen does not understand the meaning of the term. Then a dialogue takes place. The Antiochians, the Greek have asked to be self-ruling. The Greek have been refused, and the Antiochians are working towards it. It is time for an Ecumenical Council to be held, in Europe, Middle East, Greece, or North America. The OCA Bishops do not have their act together. It is time for the OCA Snyod to wake up and smell the coffee. The generation that fought in WWII has mostly passed away. Their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren may or may not be practicing Orthodox Christians. There are many "Americans" who have embraced Orthodoxy. And yet, the Orthodox in America are for the most part only known by their Ethnic Orthodox church. We are Orthodox who are citizens of the US, and we pray in English. Yet we do not have an American Typicon. Has anyone been working on a Typicon which takes the best from the Russian and the Greek typicon? Do our bishops of all jurisdictions really communicate and talk with each other. So much is wasted: talent, energy, money, etc. episcopal centers and bishops are spread thin. Orthodox unity in reality is necessary. Perhaps it is just taking some backtracking to get there.

A very stupid move by the Romanians. Since the fall of Communism, this idea of "going back home" is just utterly ridiculous. The Romanians in Romania have nothing to offer the American Romanians. And the same with the Russians, Bulgarians, etc. There is noting overseas, but backward bishops with bad theology who wish to suck more income from America. The .....ethnics who think they are doing something good, are only turning their own churches back 50 years. ...

From the very beginnings of Orthodoxy in North America, the goal has
always been to establish an independent Orthodox Church. Just like a
Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Bulgaria, etc. this is the natural
progression of Orthodoxy in North America. Orthodoxy was very much on
track with this through the 1800's up until 1917. It was never
questioned that the Russian Orthodox Church first established Orthodoxy
in North America and therefore, according to canon law, all Orthodox
churches were under her omophor. This is why the Russian Church in
America had the Syrians, Greeks and others under her and it was NEVER
QUESTIONED! When the Russian revolution took place and Communism took
over Russia, money was cut off from Russia and so were priests, bishops
and any direction. This is where the Greeks turned to their own bishops
over seas, the Syrians, the Romanians, the Russians in America worked
independently of Russia, etc. Every ethnic bishop which came over to
America then started claiming churches and territory for their mother
country. Well, the different ethnic churches grew, but each was on their
own. Canonically this was an irregular situation, but occurred to
preserve the church in North America. Immigration continued and the
churches grew. In 1960, the irregular situation of the North American
Orthodox was well realized and the head of the Syrian Church, Met.
Antony Bashir; the Greeks, Archbp. Iakavos; the Russian Church, Met.
Leonty and others all gathered to form a road to correct all of this.
All of this really came from the forethought of prominent Orthodox
theologians in America like Frs. Georges Florovsky and Alexander
Schmemann. The organization was formed called SCOBA (Synod of Canonical
Orthodox Bishops of America). The immediate crux of this organization
was for the bishops to work together, coordinate information, religious
education, etc. The long-term goal was for an eventual UNITED ORTHODOX
CHURCH IN AMERICA. In fact, at the first or second meeting, it was
decided that the name of this united church of all the Orthodox would be
called, THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA.

In 1970, due to the work of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, the Russian Church
in America which was the ORIGINAL Orthodox Church in North America
called the Metropolia, achieved it's AUTOCEPHALY from the Russian
Orthodox Church and was named THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA (OCA). This
was a great milestone in American Orthodoxy. WHY? First, the Metropolia
were the first Orthodox Churches in North America with canonical claim
to all the Orthodox in North America. Secondly, canonically, when an
Orthodox Church is established in a territory and becomes AUTOCEPHALOUS,
ALL ORTHODOX ARE UNDER HER OMOPHOR. This action would have lead the way
for SCOBA to truly fulfill herself in becoming a united Orthodox Church
in North America. The outline was clear, all ethnic bishops in America
would join the OCA in a synod and elect one Metropolitan to lead the
synod. All the ethnic bishops would rule their own dioceses and all
would be AUTOCEPHALOUS and completely independent of foreign bishops and
their control. Canonically, this was the right course of action and
formally agreed to by all the bishops who orginally formed SCOBA.

No sooner than the OCA was formed, the EP took serious offense and
looked for every possible way to discredit the formulation of the OCA
and its autocephaly. Ridiculous arguments with the EP stating that only
THEY could recognize and grant autocephaly to Orthodox Churches anywhere
in the world. Well, of course, the EP had already made inroads to
establish her own synod of ethnic bishops in America under themselves.
The Ukrainians, the Carpatho-Russians, etc. The EP wanted it all!

The OCA continued to grow and + Iakavos was even offered to be the
Metropolitan of the new OCA, but refused knowing that the EP would have
nothing of it. The Romanians joined the OCA, the Bulgarians, the
Albanians, etc. but some remained loyal to their mother churches over
seas. In 1994, a great meeting of SCOBA took place in Ligonier, PA to
finally give SCOBA the kick start it needed to move forward with a
united Orthodox Church in North America. A signed commitment was reached
by the attending bishops to move forward. The Ukrainian bishop under the
EP squealed to the EP that + Iakavos was betraying him. The
EP then stepped in, retired + Iakavos, emasculated all the American
Greek bishops making them all report directly to him and virtually
destroyed unity of the Orthodox in America including the Greeks.

With the fall of Communism in Russia in the early 90's, the ROC grew in
size and re-established itself as a dominant force in world Orthodoxy,
yet, it still has a long way to go in development of it's own correct,
Orthodox theology and thought. In it's attempt to re-unite all Russians
world-wide under itself, the ROC pushed and re-united with ROCOR and with
strong immigration of Russians to America, is seeking to reclaim them
unto herself. We also see new waves of immigration from Romania, Serbia,
etc. More and more immigrants from Orthodox countries have arrived in
the US. The mother churches wish to control these immigrants under
themselves and the immigrants want churches which reflect their home land.

Compounding this, the OCA is currently undergoing a "house cleaning"
which has had bad press and gives foreign bishops more of a reason to
force a wedge between the OCA and ethnic churches in turn trying to
reclaim any lost churches or people. The Romanians originally left their
mother church and joined the OCA because it was the correct thing to do
canonically and because of the American-Romanians rift with the
Communist Romanian bishops. Now, the Romanians in Romania wish to "make
nice" and reclaim the American Romanian Church.

What we have here are ethnic American Orthodox Churches wanting to "go
home" and setting their own growth back 50+ years. Thinking that Romania
really has something to offer Romanian-Americans, or Russia really has
something to offer Russian-Americans, etc. What all this really is, are
foreign bishops syphoning monies from Americans under the guise of
something else.

What will happen to the OCA? It will complete it's "house cleaning" and
grow as a TRUE Orthodox Church in America attracting more and more
converts while the ethnic churches march backward.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Thank you, Mark, for your continuing maintenance and editing of this site. It is a gift to all of us. Usually, I agree with your insightful comments and find your comments very evenhanded, but I’m surprised at your reaction to the Romanians wanting to regroup into a larger Romanian body and your impassioned plea for “American Orthodoxy,” and feel that I must respond. Your “vision” of the OCA is not shared by all of us.
Because my work requires me to relocate periodically, I have attended six of our OCA parishes over the past 26 years, and have been an occasional guest at many others. While I have known many, many good priests and laypeople in the OCA who would be a credit to Orthodoxy anywhere, I have also been troubled for years by a tendency in some parishes, and more recently on this website, to think of ourselves as an “elite” group, that “should, would, could” guide Orthodoxy in America –(If only we could put these financial problems behind us and everyone would recognize our good sense and allow us to lead them into a better, brighter future!!! ) Instead, I believe that we need to take a deeper look, not only at our present problems, but at our foundation. Our current problems are symptoms of a much deeper illness.

Some OCA members who write in express regret that the present scandal is getting in the way of what they seem to perceive as our own brand of “manifest destiny”. This elitism is frequently accompanied by disparagement and disdain of “ethnic churches.” But where do we think we have come from? How about instead, expressing gratitude to the two thousand years of “ethnic Christians” that kept the faith so that we can be here? We are members of the Body of Christ, not an entity unto ourselves, and the Orthodox Church is based on a world-wide tradition.

Healthy autocephalous national churches come about after many centuries of forming themselves on their Mother Churches, not by a large influx of new converts, “claiming our rights” to a sanitized, tradition-free Church made to our liking,” We are all relative newcomers, who need to be humble in the face of a very long tradition, not telling others how “we” see Orthodoxy. An Orthodox world-view is not gained by "talking shop" with other converts. If we isolate ourselves into an American ghetto, we will die spiritually.
Even as our foundation crumbles under our feet and we see comments on this website and others yearning for an inclusive “autocephalous” Orthodox Church of America, or asking, “What is happening to our Church??” or pleading “We must save the “mission of the OCA,” as if we are somehow God’s gift to Orthodoxy. We need to realize that we realize that we are only a very, very small minority of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Orthodox Church. We must put not only these present scandals, but our entire fabric as an Orthodox jurisdiction under the same scrutiny as our finances.
I was fortunate enough to begin my Orthodox path several decades ago in two OCA parishes that still had elderly Russian communities, people who lived a traditional Christianity that I had not otherwise found in America. I believe that one of my early pastors was probably a saint, certainly he was a new confessor, and it was the old Russians and Eastern Europeans who, by their lives, "gve me" Orthodoxy, much more than books or disussions on church life. (Yes, this also was the OCA.) With the passing of these traditional Russian and eastern European priests and parishioners, however, many parishes have moved into an American “freedom-loving” mode that increasingly tries to excise links with Orthodox tradition that we perceive in our convert wisdom to be unnecessary.
Orthodox practices have begun to fall by the way in some of our OCA parishes, or are minimized to the point that not only ethnic customs, but fundamental Orthodox practices and teachings we had always held to in the Metropolia and early OCA, such as confession before communion, are more and more being sidelined. For many years, I have told myself “These are just isolated incidents, things will come back around..." but I'm not sure now that they will. I bring up three random examples, that do not finger individuals, but are indicative of progressively nontraditional attitudes in our jurisdiction that are undermining our claim to speak of ourselves as fully Orthodox.

1) In one Canadian OCA church, when I asked a well-educated professional who had been “catechized” and Chrismated several months before, and who attended church regularly, when confessions were heard, his response was, “Confession? What’s that about?” He honestly did not know.
(Yes, many OCA priests encourage confession, but there are also parishes in which this basic sacrament is being side-lined. I believe that this lack has to do with an influx of American converts (myself being one), and that not enough of our American OCA laity or the clergy have immersed themselves in traditional Orthodoxy or stretched beyond their comfort zone to discover what world-wide traditional Orthodoxy is. It has become increasingly possible in the OCA to retain our former Protestant or secular mindset, and choose for ourselves those traditions we want to follow and those we don’t, while adopting a veneer of Orthodox belief.)

2) A few years ago, I met a young Protestant convert to Orthodoxy who told me that after three years of involvement with his OCA parish, he decided to study theology. He visited all of the Orthodox seminaries in the U.S. before making his choice, although his preliminary decision was for St. Vladimir’s. At each seminary, he attended a few classes over three or four days: Holy Cross, Jordanville, St. Tikhon’s, St. Vladimir’s. His first class at St. Vladimir’s was a New Testament class for seminarians, in which the discussion was about one of the Lord’s miracles. At the end of the class one of our future (now presumably ordained) OCA priests asked the professor, “Do you think this really happened?” The professor’s answer was, “Your guess is as good as mine.” The visitor left the campus immediately, not even staying the night.

3) Some years ago I attended a west coast OCA parish for several months in which several of the male choir singers were homosexual, and who, after the service, would sit at a separate table in the trapeze, often making jokes about “breeders”. This was completely ignored by the priest and the other parishioners, and I was asked not to “make trouble” when I said that I did not think that this was appropriate or Orthodox.

Granted these are isolated incidents, each of which may have since been completely rectified (one hopes!) – but I bring them up as three small examples among hundreds of what I increasingly see as our growing drift from traditional Orthodox practice into what we perceive as our “vision of an American Church”, which is more alarming to me than the proven financial abuse, because they strike at the heart of Orthodoxy. Our questioning of ourselves must go far beyond the behavior of our hierarchs. We need to ask what the OCA is and how it came about.

How many of us have ever asked ourselves if our existence as a “separate” body is even pleasing to God? I have pondered this for decades, even as I supported and attended my local parishes, and I have never felt that I had a truly satisfactory answer to give to other Orthodox Christians who question our purpose.

How many of our new converts know that our autocephaly was granted by the Moscow Patriarchate during a Soviet period that no one would consider free, and that Fr. Alexander Schmemann himself admitted to not knowing what was behind it. Nor has it ever been officially recognized by any of the Orthodox patriarchates worldwide, except for the Moscow Patriarchate. Even numerically, our claim to be THE Orthodox Church in America doesn’t hold water. If we are house-cleaning, let’s start by taking an honest look at our own foundation. Could the present scandals just be fruit of a mistaken root?

At http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/bookrev_woerl.aspx . there is a dated but revealing review of a book by former OCA Bishop Gregory of Alaska, copies of which were sent to all of our parishes in the 1990’s to explain our foundation and history. The review is not by an OCA member, but it does raise legitimate questions and provides historical perspective that I had not seen before. It also points to a possible cover-up by our own hierarchs about our very foundation. Does anyone have a real answer to these objections? Isn’t this where we should start?
Finally, I have to say that I have been saddened several times this year by an ambivalent attitude towards the long-awaited Moscow Patriarchal-ROCOR reunion. We should be rejoicing with them over their unification, but instead I’ve been told by several OCA clergy of their worries that “they” (as opposed to “us”??) will “encroach on our territory” and “steal our parishioners.” Your surprising tone about the departure of our Romanian parishes, seems to echo this, Mark. Why, otherwise, are you against these Romanian parishes finally reuniting with what they see as their Mother Church. We should be grateful that we were able to serve our fellow Orthodox by offering them a temporary shelter during a difficult period in history, rather than begrudging them their homecoming.

More power to them, if the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanians, or any other traditional Orthodox patriarchate can awaken souls to the real world-wide Body of Christ, and the depth of spirituality that is still so rich in those cultures, that we as American converts need to learn from. Perhaps they can save the legacy of St. Herman and St. Innocent in Alaska that has been so abused by the OCA and its hierarchs.

If the Truth will set us free, let’s get at it, beyond the worries about financial transparency. Let’s go further than this sanitized “vision of American Orthodoxy” that we repeat like a mantra, and define ourselves in a way that can be accepted by all of the canonical jurisdictions of world Orthodoxy – the Body of Christ of which we claim to be a member. Until we do, we are fooling no one but ourselves.

(Editor's note: Writing from Moscow, there is no doubt that the view of the OCA looks different to you than to me. You raise many, and often difficult, challenging questions that should and must be addressed in the coming years. However, you make several false assumptions. First, is that "homecoming" entails leaving the Church in America for an old world Patriarchate. For many of us, America is home. Moscow or BUcharest is just a tourist destination. It is not, nor ever will be " home". Secondly, the OCA has done nothing but publicly, and to the extent I have witnesses privately, rejoiced at the end of the ROCOR schism. That some may grouse, for the reasons you mention, is more evidence of their lack of vision that 300 million Americans await the message of the Orthodox Church, than disapproval of the reunion. And while I am among the first to encourage people to read and study the spiritual writings of our many Russian, Greek, Romanian, (and Finnish!) fathers and mothers, to be fair and accurate you must admit that those same Russian, Greek, Romanian and Finnish Churches read our OCA theologians ( from Florovsky to Schmemann to Meyendorff to Hopko to Behr....) for instruction and guidance as well. We all have much to learn from each other; and are impoverished when any are denied or belittled.)

Ironic. It seems the way to Orthodox unity in the United States is paved in the re-unification of outside churches to their mothers. Just as our own bishops continue to fail to understand finance and public opinion and politics, so to do those patriarchs and metropolitans of the "Old See" and countries, who would rather divide the churches to save their own status than unite it, create a new church and become a powerful political force in this country and abroad. I find it so sad. Christ did not have apostles and disciples on top of one another. Bishops overlap bishops in our church in our country, and those bishops, including the Romanians, waste their resources and finances, believing ultimately that they as individuals act alone for Christ. It's sad.

This is the first Memorial Day our church did not run a bus to St. Tikhon's. Instead, and wrongfully in my opinion, it runs bus trip to Atlantic City. Apathy has firmly set in, and Metropolitan Herman, with his slush account as acknowledged in the last treasurer's report, refuses to get it.

The consequence of it all is me and someday my children potentially not worshipping in an English speaking Orthodox Church, the real reason why I am a member of the OCA. I am an American. I speak English. I value my ancestry, but I am distinctly American. The Catholic Church understands this. Why not our own church?

MH - Please remove yourself before the fall.

Can we all please stay above making this "ethnic" against "non-ethnic". I would be saddened to think that people would consider my family members who converted into the Orthodox Church to be any less Orthodox than anyone else. Ethnicity does not make anyone better or more justified.

Sts Cyrill and Methodius were Slavs from Thessaloniki, not Greeks. See Archbishop Alypy (Gamanovich) Grammar of the Church Slavonic Language

(Editor's note: I once attended a conference on SS. Cyril and Methodios in Europe several years ago in which the Hungarians claimed they worked in Hungary, the Czechs in Bohemia, the Slovaks in Slovakia, the Greeks claimed they were Greek, and the Russians claimed they were Slavs, while the Catholic observer claimed they were both good Catholics; and all had the "evidence" backing up their claims. I think the brothers themselves would be the first to suggest that all of the above was meaningless if it did not bring one closer to Christ and his Church. )

This is all so ridiculous! To put this in perspective, this is like any English speaking American Orthodox going to any country and insisting the Orthodox Church there have English services and be American in nature. Insane! Why can't people understand that this ethnic thinking is just a "power grab" by foreign bishops to take American money. WAKE UP! Orthodoxy in America is weakened by the "divide and conquer" mentality. There is strength in unity; there is death in division!

All right then, I'm an ethnic Orthodox, I'm a born and bred Irish-American Orthodox. I have a need, I need to attend liturgical services in Irish (Gaeilge). Though, quite sadly, absolutely no Orthodox church near me offers anything in Irish, not even a little litany! There are no after church Irish lessons, and no ceili dances on weekday nights in the church hall. I'm floundering, and if I don't have my Irish needs met I may just go down to the closest Catholic church where the priest has Celtic crosses on his stole and knows how to mutter out a few Irish blessings after church.

Yes, I'm being facetious. Look, I've traveled the world and attended Orthodox services in many different countries in many different languages. When in Germany, I expect to attend a liturgy in German. When in Georgia I expect to attend a liturgy in Georgian. When in America...who knows? I think it's sad that churches have to say that they have services in English. That should be the *default*. If you want services in other languages that's fine, but they should be the exception, not the rule. While you're at it, you should also try to offer services in Spanish, Hispanics will outnumber all of us in a few years, I bet a lot of them would show up at our churches if we offered services in Spanish. The Pentecostals are really good at this, but I suppose that's just fine, because who cares unless the Hispanics want to worship in Slavonic?

By the way, St. Vladimir's offers courses in Church Slavonic. Like most of these courses, it is little more than knowing how to sound out Slavonic syllables in a somewhat presentable fashion. So yes, St. Vladimir's can and does turn out priests who can serve in Slavonic, though they themselves don't know what they are saying. I hope the people who do the typesetting for the Jordanville books are doing a good job, otherwise who knows what our priests could be saying in Slavonic!

The OCA can not simply be Russian, anymore than it can be Romanian or Greek or WASP. I envision an OCA which, in good American fashion, mixes together all the best that the old ethnicities and ancient patriarchates have to offer, taking the rites, customs, and traditions of all and bringing all of us together in the service of Christ our God. The OCA has, as you have pointed out, been too long bound to Russianisms (really, Carpatho-Rusynisms from the Melkite past) and hasn't really let them go. Why would the Antiochians want to join with the OCA if all the OCA does is call the differing Antiochian rites "wrong"? If we want unity in America, we all have to come together and leave ethnicity behind, including the OCA, not just the Romanians.

...............

Orthodox bishop shares Communion with Catholics

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=58680

Orthodox bishop shares Communion with Catholics

Timisoara , May. 27, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Romanian Orthodox bishop
has shared Communion with Catholics, causing a sensation in a country
where Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox have a history of tense relations.

At the consecration of the Queen of Peace parish church in Timisoara
on May 25, Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu of Banat asked to
share Communion. The Orthodox metropolitan approached the altar and
received the Eucharist from his own hand.

Romanian Catholic Bishop Alexandru Mesian of Lugoj was the celebrant
of the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Catholic church; Archbishop
Francisco-Javier Lozano, the apostolic nuncio to Romania, was also present.

Although Orthodox and Catholic bishops often join in ecumenical
services, and occasionally participate in each other's liturgical
ceremonies, they do not share Communion-- an indication of the breach
in ecclesial communion between the Orthodox churches and the Holy
See. In Romania, tensions between the Orthodox Church and the
Eastern-rite Romanian Catholic Church have been pronounced, adding to
the surprise created by Metropolitan Corneanu's action.

With some Orthodox believers outraged by the metropolitan's sharing
Communion with Catholic bishops, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Romania
issued a statement saying that at the next meeting of the Orthodox
synod, in July, Metropolitan Corneanu "may be asked to give an
appropriate explanation" for his action.

The statement from the Orthodox patriarchate went on to say that
ecumenical relations with the Catholic Church, "already quite
fragile, cannot be helped, but are rather complicated," by sharing in
Communion.

Metropolitan Corneanu-- who was one of the first Orthodox bishops to
admit that he had cooperated with the secret police under the
Communist regime-- has a record of friendship with Romanian
Catholics. He was among the few Orthodox leaders prepared to return
church properties that had been seized by the Communist government
from Catholic ownership in 1948 and handed over to Orthodox control.

Valentine, I largely agree with you, but you called to mind a recent article I read:

7.27.2006
Baaaad Exegesis

By Fr. Aris Metrakos

Scripture separated from its context can be confusing, misleading, and even destructive. Take the well-worn Bible college criticism of the way Orthodox and Roman Catholic faithful address their clergy, Matthew 23:9 (call no man father). The literal application of Mark 16:19 (snake-handling) is downright scary. Women's southern summertime fashions being what they are, I'm grateful that no one is advocating an exact application of Mark 9:47 (if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out).

The ripping and twisting of scripture is not the sole domain of the folks who think that mega-churches are "non-denominational" and that the Orthodox Church was "founded" in the 19th century with the rise of nationalism. We Orthodox also know how to play the game of "Bible pick and choose." My favorite contemporary Orthodox exegetical distortion is Luke 15:4: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?"
America's Orthodox Christians look at the beautiful image of the Good Shepherd returning home with the lost little lamb around his neck and say to themselves "Let's find all of the people who have ethnically Orthodox last names and get them 'back' in the pews!" Behold, another Lost Sheep Committee is born.

For all of the Lost Sheep Committees that have come and gone, this is an evangelical paradigm that has yielded little or no fruit. Why? Persons with "Orthodox" last names who don't live the life of the Church do so by choice. They are sheep who have fled the flock -- if they are even sheep at all. More importantly, Lost Sheep Committees don't work because they are based on faulty exegesis. Luke 15:4 must be placed in the broader setting of verses four through seven:

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." (Emphasis added.)

Jesus uses the image Luke 15:4-7 to tell us that He is the good shepherd who calls each human being to repentance, and to remind us that His redemptive ministry is focused not on maintaining the status quo of the righteous but on the reclamation of the fallen. If we are to follow the words of the Lord, then we must go after the lost sheep. We just need to make sure that we know who those lost sheep are.

Who the Lost Sheep Aren't

Igor Czht came to the United Stated from Slobovia when he was in his early twenties. After spending a couple of years working for his cousin in Chowderland, USA at the Chowderland House of Pottery (Slobovians are renowned pottery makers), Igor moved south to Countryland, USA. Twenty years after arriving in America, he operates the lucrative Countryland House of Pottery. He spends Saturday evenings consuming copious amounts of Slobovian brandy and playing cards and passes his Sundays fishing on his pontoon boat. He last sat through Liturgy two years ago, when his mother was visiting from the old country.

When Igor is asked why he doesn't come to church, he answers with no hesitation: "They're too judgmental."
"But the priest, Father Boris, is energetic and hard working."

"He's the worst. He hates all Slobovians."

"Have you talked to him?"

"I don't need to. I've heard all about him at the Slobovian Men's Club."

"But Father Boris' dad was Slobovian and he speaks the language. He even co-authored the book "Slobovian Pottery and the Major Feasts of the Church."

"Look," says Igor. I don't need to go to no gee-dee church to be no gee-dee Christian."

Igor might be described as a certain four-legged animal with three letters in its name, but he is certainly no lost sheep. He has never been part of the flock and has no recognition of his need for repentance. Yet, Orthodox churches around the country spend countless hours wringing their hands over the fact that the Igors of the world could care less about the Church.

Am I saying that Igor doesn't deserve a phone call, card, or a visit? Of course not. But wasting too much of the parish resources on getting Igor "back" in Church is irresponsible. Worse than Igor's not participating in the life of the community would be Igor's hanging around the parish with the destructive attitude that he harbors. Instead of reclaiming a lost sheep for Christ, the parish would be deliberately introducing a disease into the flock.

Who the Lost Sheep Might Be

Panagiotis and Panagiota Pappas moved to Countryland three months ago. For a long time they had no idea that there was an Orthodox parish in their new city. The Slobovian parish has a one line listing in the white pages and their website has been under construction since the days of dial-up. When Panagiota finally found the number for the parish, someone answered the phone "Slobovian Church."

Undaunted, she and Panagiotis drove to Liturgy the following Sunday. They drove past the church the first time (the sign is three feet by three feet). Then they drove around the block twice trying to find the entrance into the parking lot. After walking into the narthex, they were shown which were the "one-dollar" and which were the "five-dollar" candles. After the Liturgy, the priest made a point of welcoming "Mr. and Mrs. Panagiotis" and invited them to come next door for coffee hour-where no one spoke to them.

The Pappas' are sheep in search of a flock. Meeting their needs requires only a little more money and a little less parochialism. Instead of placing their light under a bushel, the Slobovian parish needs to spend some money on a decent phonebook ad and Web presence. Dare I say it? Even an occasional radio spot would be nice.

Get some signage that helps people find the church. Do something about the parking lot traffic flow. At least pretend to be happy to see visitors. And please, please, please stop calling yourself the "Slobovian Church."

Who the Lost Sheep Are

Jane and John Whitebread live in a 2800 square-foot house in a gated community. Both are educated and have good jobs. Jane was raised Baptist, but hasn't set foot in church for years. John's folks were never part of a faith community.

The Whitebreads work hard. Like most Americans, they enjoy creature comforts that antiquity's royalty couldn't even dream about. John goes through a bottle of scotch per week, and Jane is into retail therapy. Weeknights they fall asleep on the couch and love seat watching cable news. Saturday evenings are spent having gin and tonics with the neighbors.

They wake up with headaches Sunday morning. John stumbles out to the curb and retrieves the Sunday paper. A pot of coffee and a crossword puzzle later it's time to think about mowing the lawn and getting caught up on the laundry.

Meanwhile, the Whitebread kids carry out their Sunday morning ritual. Their 13-year-old son IM's his friends while checking out porn sites. Their nine-year-old daughter is glued to the TV. The six-year old plays video games.

Jane and John feel like something is missing in their lives. They wonder if it might be religion, but abandon the idea. They can't relate to the fundamentalists that are always preaching to them at PTA and neighborhood association meetings. They think preachers in golf shirts and khakis look silly. Pithy church signs, services that start at 4:48 p.m., simplistic answers to complex questions, and moral stances that seem to accommodate society's trends leave John and Jane cold. "Isn't there a religion that offers a set of practices and beliefs that doesn't require you to throw out half your brain or agree that gay marriage is a necessary step in cultural evolution?" they wonder.

The Whitebreads are America's lost sheep. They don't even know it, but they're the reason that God became man. They have a life of comfort that is anything but abundant. What will we Orthodox do to help them out of their stupor and into the light of the Kingdom? This is the defining question for American Orthodoxy.
I don't pretend to know the answer to this question. But I do know that fulfilling the Great Commission means that we must stop squandering our time and energy on going after ornery pottery makers and start going after the real lost sheep. Along the way we might want to make ourselves more visible and accessible.

And if a visitor wants to pay one dollar for a five dollar candle, it's cool. The church pays less than a quarter for them in the first place.

Rev. Aris P. Metrakos is a Greek Orthodox priest and pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Columbia, SC. A former Naval Aviator, he spent seven years on active duty prior to attending seminary.
http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

Right Lydia, I'm sure it's a bogus press release - get real! Most of these bishops in foreign countries have marginal Orthodox theological education. To this fellow, apparently he doesn't know why the Orthodox and RC's aren't in communion - sad, very sad! Let's all go run to the foreign Orthodox bishops who most the time, don't know their left hand from their right. Let ROCOR be dominated by the ROC which has reverted to 18th century Orthodoxy influence by Peter Mogila (Western theology). Fools! The foreign bishops just want American money!

I dare say that you are confusing the ethnic customs with Orthodoxy. Further, you are confusing late Russian practices with Orthodoxy. To the example you pointed to, confession before communion, this issue was dealt with by SCOBA in 1972, see http://www.schmemann.org/byhim/confessionandcommunion.html . If you want to complain about the OCA following that SCOBA decision that's fine, but you're a few decades too late. Frankly, I don't see any need to continue practices here in America which are spiritually destructive just because that's the way they "used to be done" in Russia once upon a time. Is any of the "new" liturgical practices of the OCA contrary to the Church Fathers and the liturgical texts themselves? If not, then stop trying to compare them to what "used to be done" in Russia in order to call them wrong.


1) I have a different view. Most converts, especially ones from Protestantism, are the ones who are most fanatical and fundamentalist in their Orthodoxy. The "Protestant mindset" that most converts come from is not lax in the least. Most of our converts come from Evangelicalism, which has their own subculture, and most converts try to continue this subculture into Orthodoxy, most notably by trying to be more "Russian" than the Russians (or more Greek than the Greeks, etc.) I have been around a number of online Orthodox discussion forums, and for the most part the most fundamentalist members are converts. One example of a poorly catechized convert isn't enough to outweigh my own experience with converts. Sounds to me like the problem isn't with the convert's "Protestantism" or with the OCA, the problem is with the priest who simply isn't paying attention to his job.


2) How do you want to historically prove that a miracle happened? You can't. You can believe that it happened, and believe what that says about who Christ is, but that is a faith statement. I'm not going to go down the road of Protestant verbal plenary inspiration and I'm glad at least one OCA seminary doesn't either. VPI is a Modernist category anyways, and paints one into a historical corner which lacks theological meaning. Best to leave it alone, and simply accept Scripture as Scripture.

3) Does having homosexual attraction make one unfit to sing in the choir? Really?

Finally, I would not rely on orthodoxinfo.com as a source. Or, as I like to call it, orthodoxMISinfo.com. It is slanted and biased.

Hearing confessions in one's native language is important. In my travels I have always tried to find a priest who knows English well enough to hear my confession. Usually, however, I end up confessing to a priest who knows English as a second language, normally quite fluently, but it still occasionally leads to awkward misunderstandings and other difficulties.

Hearing confessions in Russian, however, is quite a bit different from insisting that services must be held in Slavonic, a language nobody understands. Moreover, the needs of a largely multi-ethnic parish must be considered over the desires of a few to "enjoy" hearing some Slavonic in the liturgy. There are numerous examples of parishes where there was a multi-ethnic community happily worshiping in their shared vernacular, then a new Russian immigration occurs, and they look at the parish, sniff condescendingly, and then inform the priest that they want to attend an Orthodox church, so he simply must include Slavonic in the services. He wants to accommodate them, so he obliges, but more and more Slavonic is demanded, until finally the original members are left standing in church with absolutely no idea what is going on, while the ones who insisted on the Slavonic are downstairs drinking tea. I'm not being facetious here, this (or a similar occurrences) has happened, and is happening. If you want to know why "American Orthodox" fear Slavonic, this is why. Because in the end, if they don't fight tooth and nail for English, it will become subsumed under the All Holy Slavonic very very quickly. And once that happens there is little they can do to end it, because everyone knows that Slavonic is Orthodox, and English isn't.

If you want to have parishes for immigrants that's fine, but it should be understood that these are missions , meeting the spiritual needs of the present members with the eventual goal of integrating them into the larger Orthodoxy of this country. This is what Catholics do, including all the ethnic Catholic parishes you mentioned. What I see instead is that these immigrant parishes start insisting that they are "better" because they are Russian, and because they are Russian they are more Orthodox, and we Americans "just don't get it" with Orthodoxy because we are American and not Russian like them. And goodness knows, anything we do different from them is "Protestant" or "Catholic" or somethings, whatever it is, it's not Orthodox, because they don't do/think that, and since they are Russian they know what is Orthodox and what isn't. Just look at any number of the comments here, and you'll see that this opinion is widely manifested. It is this religious superiority which grates us "Americans". It is hidden within pious pleas of "preserving" Slavonic and "helping" immigrants from the Old Country (who may or may not be even Christians in the first place), but it is little more than religious superiority, and I will not bow down to it.

My feeling is that people are people, and to make general stereotypes is not a wise thing to do. There are rude and un-Christian "Russians/Greeks/whatever", just as there are rude and un-Christian "Americans". I have see it go both ways. We must be careful to judge specific instances and not to cast a bad image on an entire group of people because of the actions of a few.

As for parish life, if the priest in the parish is strong enough to stand for what is needed (language balance), and the bishop is strong enough to support him, then the parish shouldn't fall into being a so-called "ethnic ghetto" and there should be nothing to be afraid of. But if the priest is afraid of "ethnic" from the beginning, I could see how that would most likely lead to problems. Perhaps the seminaries should include (if they do not already) at least one class on the issue of dealing with many cultures in a parish - be it Russian, Greeks, Mexicans, Chinese, or whatever. The Orthodox Church must do everything it can to evangelize to all people, not tell them to "get used to it or go somewhere else".

Are you kidding??? Maybe during communism it was true about the bishops not being totally qualified, but now it looks like it is pretty much the norm for the bishops to be at least doctoral candidates if not holding a doctorate already. Let's not kid ourselves, they "ain't no dummies" over there.

This bishop in question is over what, 90 years old? Until we learn the facts, let's not be so quick to write him off as some kind of idiot and show some respect. Maybe there is a legitimate reason to at leat explain why it happened (perhaps some kind of alzheimers or something, who knows).

And as for the money, when you see many of the palaces in which the bishops in Russia or elsewhere live, don't you think that if they saw the OCA Chancery they would just say "gee, it could make an okay guest house"? Aside from the Greeks, and perhaps the Antiochians (but I am not sure how much is sent other than money for the seminary there), what other patriarchates get such large sums of American money to add to what they already have? Now that is a list I would really like to see - a list of how much money each patriarchate received in 2007 from its jurisdiction here in USA/Canada (and likewise, how much was sent from overseas to here either in cash, salaries or other support). I regularly see people referring to the foreign bishops taking money from here, but I have never seen the facts taken from actual financial reports.

Fr. William,

I agree that we must all work together and we must reach out to people of all backgrounds. The fact that some wish to gather into parishes with strong ties to their national traditions, while it may seem foreign to some of us, is at least good in that they stay with the Orthodox Church and not leave it or simply become Christmas and Easter seasonal Orthodox Christians.

One factual point however, which is related to this page's topic, I believe that the Romanian diocese of the OCA is the only OCA diocese to show a steady growth over the past 10-15 years. Or if it is not the only one (perhaps at least one other diocese showed some growth), it certainly shows the largest gains. (If I am factually wrong, someone please correct me.) And there is little doubt that this is due in large part to the immigrants. Now, the certain challenge is how to retain the next generation, which we all know is no easy task in and of itself.

"Are you kidding??? Maybe during communism it was true about the bishops not being totally qualified, but now it looks like it is pretty much the norm for the bishops to be at least doctoral candidates if not holding a doctorate already. Let's not kid ourselves, they "ain't no dummies" over there."

You are naive at best! "Doctoral candidates?" From where? Doctorates from most of these so-called seminaries is equal to an 8th grade education in the US. Consider the "academies" in Moscow - they are a joke! The blind leading the blind with theological books from 1800 with strong Western influence.

Anyone thinking that putting their trust & church in the hands of foreign bishops haven't done their homework. ROCOR puts up a nice front, but it's a shell of a church lost in 18th century Russia - backward, backward and more backward.

The REAL problem here is SCOBA not fulfilling their promise when formed to become a united, Orthodox Church in North America. Here, almost 50 years later, we still have these stupid ethnic discussions and divisions dividing the American Orthodox.

There is no "going home" - EVER! You can never really go home and home is always a perception and rarely a reality of what one perceives. WAKE UP, people! The real hope for Orthodoxy in North America is here with us, not foreign bishops. If we've screwed things up, let's get up, make things right and continue. Building anything is never without glitches - it's the devil who will continue to try to divide us - don't fall to despair thinking hope is over seas. There is no hope there!

"Imagine one Orthodox Christian Church in the United States (and one in Canada), where, in sync with the Quinisext Council, in which church organization is to overlay civic models, each state (or province) is a smaller and thus more manageable diocese with its see in the capital city and one bishop at its head. Each diocese is divided into deaneries, geographic or "ethnic," as needed in that state or province (Arab, Bulgarian, Carpatho-Rusyn, French Canadian, Greek, Hispanic, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, etc.), headed by a protopresbyter (for parishes) or an archimandrite (for monasteries and convents) who answers to the single bishop of the state or province. The canonical requisite for unity while accommodating diversity would thus be achieved. The primate, chair of the synod of bishops, would reside in the capital city of each country. The national church would maintain ministries for each ethnic group to produce uniform liturgical and catechetical materials in their particular languages for use across the dioceses."

That's the most fantastic solution I have ever read. It is both Orthodox and Traditional, sensible and logical, and absolutely practical. It would save us a boatload of money in Administrative costs. Really, the clegy/laity ratio in the OCA is quickly becoming economically unsustainable (while other diocese's here in America are hurting for priests). By collapsing together the top level administration, and caring for the various ethnicities on the deanery level, we may end up having enough money to actually do things, like sponsor more Missions, for example. In fact, I dare say that we would have so much money left over that we could allow each parish to allocate a certain amount of their assessment to be sent as a gift to a "home patriarchate" of their choice. The amount of money being sent "back home" would probably increase substantially under this model. Moreover, most importantly, by having one bishop for one state (or two, some of the New England states could be collapsed into one because of their geographical smallness) bishops could actually visit their parishes more often. As it is, most of the main jurisdictions each have a bishop who covers just about all of the western states, a formidable geographical area to cover. How concerned can a bishop in Kansas be concerned with a small struggling mission in Montana? He can't, even if he wants to, it's really not that feasible. By reducing the geographical size of each diocese by getting rid of overlapping dioceses, we would really strengthen Orthodoxy all over this country.

We may not need 56 (?) bishops at first, or even need that many, but if you count all the bishops of the OCA, GOARCH, Antiochians, Romanian, Bulgarians, etc. I think we presently have more than enough to get started with this project. Granted, it would take massive reorganization and the letting go of preconceived categories (even the OCA) but it really is the best way foward.

I am sorry, but I do have to respectfully disagree with you still. Your comment was:

"Most of these bishops in foreign countries have marginal Orthodox theological education.... Let's all go run to the foreign Orthodox bishops who most the time, don't know their left hand from their right."

Now, do a couple questionable "academies" in Moscow constitute the entirety of Orthodox Theological education throughout the entire "foreign" Orthodox world? To degrade the centuries old institutions in Roumania, Greece, the Middle East, Serbia, Russia and elsewhere in this way is simply ignorant and seems to be done in spite.

What about St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris? (Many clergy throughout Europe, including bishops, have degrees from there also.) Are you saying that Fr. Schmemann and others came over with no better than an 8th grade education and didn't "know their left hand from their right"?

Are our seminaries in North America superior to the others just because of where they happen to be located, but forgetting how they started? Who founded these seminaries here? Who were the first professors, teachers and chaplains? I can't believe they were built-up into the strong institutions they are today having been founded and built by a bunch of "foreign" theologians with no better than an 8th grade education. They were respected, educated theologians from equally respected theology schools in Europe.

So please, if you have a problem with an individual case, voice that specific criticism. But don't show hate and contempt for anyone or anything just because they or it are "foreign."

As for the Romanian Church, it is already here in North America through its Archdiocese and its Archbishop on SCOBA. Isn't it more promising and more "Christian" to work with them, hand in hand, to bring them closer to a united church in America, rather than sit around just calling them sinners? I'd much rather be a publican than a pharisee. Let's wait and see the proposed details before passing judgment.

Who in the Russian episcopate was appointed by Rasputin? Names, please ...

(editor's note: "The New Synod (of 1917) forcefully retired twelve Rasputinite bishops and appealed to the Church to conduct popular elections of bishops as diocesan assemblies. The electroal principle proved a success. Thus, Tikhon, the future Patriarch, was elected Metropolitan of Moscow; Veniamin, a very popular young bishop was elected Metropolitan of Petrograd; and Germorgen, an uncompromising critic of Rasputin, was elected Archbishop of Tobolsk. All three later joined the ranks of the new martyrs: Patriarch Tikhon indirectly, the last two directly."

taken from "The Orthodox Church in the History of Russia: by Dmitiri Pospielovsky (SVS. 1998)
page 201-202.

About your "random examples" - it has been my observation that it has been "cradles" who have been at the forefront of "Americanizing" Orthodoxy. From the time of St. Tikhon many Orthodox parishes installed pews, largely in the old Carpatho-Rusyn parishes of the Rust Belt. Most converts don't really care for pews (I hate them with a passion) but it is impossible to get rid of the pews in these parishes, they were bought with so-and-so's grandfather's hard earned money. And it is normally the most ethnically closed parishes that have an organ, etc. It seems to me, though this is just my observation on the East Coast and Rust Belt, that most of the immigrants tried very hard to simply be Russian or Greek or Serbian (whatever they were) versions of the Anglican Church. As I was bluntly asked once when I went to a Greek Orthodox Church, in not so many words, "Why are you here? There's an Episcopal Church across the street." On the West Coast I don't believe there has been such an "aping" for things Anglican, which is why Orthodox churches there still look so "Orthodox". Therefore, I really don't think this issue can be divided between "cradle" or "convert" camps, or even between "ethnic" and "American" camps, it is an inter-immigrant issue. Blaming the "other" as being "Protestant" is a handy ad hominem attack, but I don't think it is really accurate.