Posted on 04/05/2015 10:05:12 AM PDT by NRx
The blessing of the palms at Optina Monastery.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
https://youtu.be/nzvCKyg0rwo
Speaking of the Orthodox, why do they always leave it to the evangelicals to fight the culture wars? Or am I wrong?
We are there, at least on the big stuff like abortion and faux marriage. The problem is that we are easily overlooked. It is likely that the average Sunday attendance (ASA) of all the Orthodox jurisdictions in the US combined is only around a million, with the largest being the Greek Archdiocese. Only three of the jurisdictions can credibly claim an ASA of more than 100,000.
It’s a bit funny because it was reported a few years ago that Orthodoxy was the fastest growing Christian denomination in the United States. But when your numbers barely hit a million and you are at times balkanized along ethnic lines, it’s hard to get a lot of serious attention from the powers that be. But if you go to Europe, especially Eastern Europe, the Church is one of the main forces holding a lot of the liberal idiocy from the West at bay.
“Speaking of the Orthodox, why do they always leave it to the evangelicals to fight the culture wars?”
Because we understand far better than Westerners that we live in a fallen world so we pray while the evangelicals run around whining and predicting the end times.
“We are there, at least on the big stuff like abortion and faux marriage.”
How are we there on “faux marriage”? The Church doesn’t do “faux marriage” and so far as I can see, it’s not on our horizon. Is there something else we are supposed to do beyond simply saying no?
If we pray unceasingly and gradually die to the self so that the nous becomes increasingly focused on the uncreated light of God, what has this to do with us?
The Orthodox usually have a very large presence at March for Life events. The chief hierarch of the OCA usually leads a group of bishops at the marches in Washington, DC on the sorrowful anniversary of the erroneous ruling in Roe v. Wade.
In the same place as the LCMS Lutherans. Small synods don’t make for big splashes.
That, and in the case of the LCMS, we have long memories. Lets just say it is very traditional to view the government as pretty evil. Those of us who were taught well have no desire to worship the Anonymous God of the GOP or the Democrats.
We will, and do, fight in the square for Christ. But that isn’t the same as the GOP.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Anonymous-God-Confronts-Religion/dp/0758608195
A blessed Holy Week to the Orthodox FReepers.
(We heard two words in Church Slavonic in the homily in my Latin Rite parish this morning. You'll hear the same two words next Sunday. :-))
Wishing a Blessed Holy Week to all the Orthodox Freepers. Actually, Orthodoxy is booming with converts in the southern states. My priest’s son lives near Charlotte, and there is a thriving OCA mission church there. It seems that the churches down South have become less “ethnocentric” and more welcoming to seekers from other Christian backgrounds.
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