Posted on 06/22/2002 10:37:24 PM PDT by Stavka2
Written: Sunday, October 19 1997. Posted: Tuesday, December 02 1997. Section: Articles. Topic: General.
Article summary: Orthodox Christianity, whose roots lie in Eastern
Europe, the Middle East, and Russia, is booming in America. And converts
like Byers are a big reason why.
ORTHODOX CHURCH SEES GROWTH, PAINS
By Diego Ribadeneira, Globe Staff Page: B1 Section: Metro Boston Globe
SUNDAY, October 19, 1997 It was the last place Ruth Byers, a lifelong Methodist,
ever thought she'd be, inside a Greek Orthodox Church, the smell of incense
in the air, the walls adorned with Byzantine icons and the congregants chanting
a liturgy unchanged for centuries.
``The music, the art, the prayers -- my soul feels like it belongs here.
Other churches are more into touchy-feely, contemporary services. The Orthodox
liturgy feels more real,'' said Byers, standing on the front steps of
Annunciation Cathedral in Roxbury after Mass one recent Sunday.
Orthodox Christianity, whose roots lie in Eastern Europe, the Middle East,
and Russia, is booming in America. And converts like Byers are a big reason
why.
An increasing number of Americans with no ethnic ties to the faith are making
a spiritual journey into Orthodox Christianity, which now numbers about 250,000
congregants in Greater Boston. The 1.5 million-member Greek Orthodox church
in America is by far the largest Orthodox group in this country.
The profile of Orthodox Christianity, which has faced divisions recently
over the direction of its leadership, will be raised even higher today when
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million
Orthodox since 1991, arrives in the United States for a monthlong, 16-city
tour. His trip includes a three-day stop in Boston Oct. 28-30.
While the itinerary for the patriarch's first visit to America is filled
with speeches, dinners, and meetings, including one with President Clinton,
Orthodox insiders say his main objective is to reinforce the patriarch's
authority over American Orthodox and urge greater unity among the church's
sometimes fractious ethnic groups.
Locally, disagreements within the American church over the influence of church
leadership abroad came to the forefront last year when Bartholomew forced
the resignation of Archbishop Iakovos, the leader of the Greek Orthodox church
in America for 37 years who led the efforts to unite American Orthodox churches.
Bartholomew, Orthodox insiders say, does want the 13 ethnic American Orthodox
churches to unite -- but under his control. Iakovos, Bartholomew feared,
was leading American Orthodox churches away from the orbit of Istanbul, the
seat of the ecumenical patriarch since the early days of Christianity.
Iakovos's successor in the United States, Archbishop Spyridon, has gotten
off to a controversial start since he took over last year. Critics in the
church say he is an authoritarian leader who is undermining the independence
of the Greek Orthodox church in America.
Spyridon, in turn, has decried an ``invasion of the so-called secular, democratic
spirit into the church.''
Beyond these pulls and tugs over leadership, in recent years hundreds of
new Orthodox parishes have sprouted nationwide, most of them to cater to
converts who relish the faith's traditionalism. Converts are changing the
face of Orthodox Christianity and bringing a faith with a 200-year history
in this country out of the shadows and into the mainstream of American religious
life.
There are an estimated 5 million Orthodox in the United States.
``Finally, after being a fairly obscure player for too long, Orthodox
Christianity is now poised to emerge as a powerful force on the religious
landscape,'' said the Rev. Daniel Harlotian, pastor of St. Mary's Orthodox
Church in Springfield. ``The patriarch's visit . . . is probably the most
important event in the history of the Orthodox Church in America.''
The flourishing of Orthodoxy among Americans is a source of optimism in the
church, a faith with ancient traditions and historic roots tracing directly
back to St. Andrew, one of Jesus's 12 disciples. Christian tradition says
Andrew was the first of the apostles to accept Jesus's teachings and take
them out of Palestine to Greece and beyond.
Many converts are conservative Protestants who had grown disenchanted with
what they perceived to be their former denominations' liberal tilt, particularly
the ordination of women and greater acceptance of gays and lesbians.
``It seemed like the church I grew up in has become more rested in social
and political causes than in teaching the faith,'' said Larry Sampson, who
left an Episcopal church to worship in an Orthodox church in Hartford.
``Our church doesn't encourage change just for the sake of change,'' said
the Rev. Elias Velonis, pastor of St. Luke's Greek Orthodox Church in East
Longmeadow, where as many as one-fourth of the 283 families are converts.
`We still have our backs to the people when we celebrate the Eucharist,
for example. Our liturgies are still chanted.''
Monica Kapurs, who attends Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Worcester, said,
``The smells, the sounds, make it a mystical experience. It's not for the
MTV generation and that's what I like about it.''
Like the Roman Catholic Church, from which it split in the 11th century over
the power of the papacy, Orthodox Christianity opposes abortion, divorce
and homosexual acts. But Orthodoxy does allow married men to be ordained,
and does not prohibit the use of artificial birth control. It holds Bartholomew
to be ``first among equals,'' but not infallible, as Catholics consider the
pope to be.
Many Orthodox bristle at Bartholomew's attempts to rein in American Orthodox
churches that he and other church leaders believe have become too smitten
with Western notions of democracy.
What caused perhaps the most outrage among many church members locally was
Spyridon's firing in July of the president and three faculty members at Hellenic
College and Holy Cross School of Theology in Brookline, which is affiliated
with the Greek Archdiocese.
Critics charge that the four priests were fired for refusing to cover up
an alleged sexual assault. Spyridon said the firings were the consequence
of long-running personal and academic disputes.
Bishop Methodios, who heads the Diocese of Boston and is a defender of Spyridon,
is among Orthodox Christian leaders who bemoan the lack of unity among the
13 US Orthodox jurisidictions, which include Russian, Ukrainian, Albanian,
and other Orthodox churches.
``It's frustrating, because united we would have such a powerful voice in
this country,'' Methodios said. ``Many of us hope that the
patriarch's visit will be a giant step forward toward Orthodox unity.''
So, I won't be fooled by the "ancientness" since I do research, and you don't get fooled by your own self righteousness.
Why don't you fix your own problems first before going on the attack on us? That whole judgement thing out of Mathews.
I am and belong to the Russian Orthodox church, and yes, it is so very true. The ancient smells of frankinsence & myrh, and the ancient hymns that were the actual hymns of the apolstles, does actually make your " soul" just know, this is where you belong. I have been quite surprised at just how many parishoners that have converted from RC, Methodist etc. to the Orthodox faith. It truly is an experience that moves your very soul. Nothing has changed for thousands of yrs. in the Orthodox church.
Most of the "Roman Catholics" my own age I have ever known have NOT had any problem getting a divorce in the Roman Catholic church and getting remarried. They just call it an "annulment". I think they would be surprised you are calling them all adulterers. Where is youe Christian compassion for your fellow Roman Catholics?
PS. We consider that only the Orthodox Catholic Church is "catholic" (i.e having the fulness of the Faith), and you aren't entitled to use the word "Catholic" as though you owned it.
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