Posted on 05/27/2005 7:36:52 PM PDT by Destro
There are similar efforts in both directions, incidentally.
See: Coming Home Network
Thank you"Destro"
""Americans who convert to Orthodoxy know they will be part of a minority faith. That doesn't bother the Rev. Anthony Savas, of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas, who grew up Orthodox among Mormons in Salt Lake City.
''It's wonderful to practice the ancient Christian faith in an environment that doesn't know what to do with it. A minority can be a beacon of light, like the apostles, who took it beyond their own country,'' he said.""thank you good G-D help all good persons
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has a beautiful website that also has a parish search page.
http://www.goarch.org/en/parishes/
Orthodoxy is alive and thriving in Georgia. New churches are going up all over Tbilisi. We walked into town every morning for liturgy at a huge new cathedral.
I hope your trip was as glorious and enjoyable as ours.
Good post. This is an uplifting story about this former Protestant congregation. I suspect they had been studying and preparing in a kind of un-official catechesis for a long time and then 6 mos. under the guidance of whoever Metropoltian PHILIP appointed for the purpose. My point is I don't think they only had 6 months of catechesis but probably included a Part One of their own searching and learning and Part Two: official instruction to round out their knowledge and liturgical practice.
''I felt like there was a gauntlet thrown down in front of me,'' he said.
Or as another EO convert told me "God breathed on my face".
I went to a Greek Orthodox church the first time in my life to attend a memorial service for a friend who was killed at the WTC on 09/11. I was angry and still scared and confused about what happened to us. I did not expect to experience what I did that day. God was there!
+ Memory Eternal Paul Zois +
Well Hello!
We'll expect a full report with pictures :-)
ping to self for later pingout.
I have no objection to parishes being received en masse, in principle. In fact, the phenomenon seems almost inevitable, especially if any kind of larger movement to Orthodoxy develops over the coming decades. But it really needs to take place with great care, and without hurry. And there need to be "sister" parishes that the faithful of the parish are linked to and which they visit and interact with.
While my very first contacts with Orthodoxy were converts, nearly all of the key people in my developing an Orthodox phronema (a process that continues and will continue throughout my life) have been cradle Orthodox or converts who had been in the Church for a very long time. Orthodoxy cannot be learned from a book -- it is highly personal, and I really don't see how anyone could develop into an Orthodox phronema without extensive living contact with long-time Orthodox Christians (cradle or converts.)
The Antiochian Archdiocese seems to have a particular penchant for indulging potential converts in the idea that they are already Orthodox, and that their reception is a mere formality. In fact the Evangelical Orthodox billed their reception into Orthodoxy as a "merger" of their church with the Antiochian Archdiocese! And the priests hit the road in prominent positions in the Archdiocese before the chrism was dry. I heard one of the Evangelical Orthodox "big guns" speak shortly after their reception, and I was so turned off by the sheer goofiness of the presentation of Orthodoxy and the factual errors that it delayed my willingness to explore Orthodoxy by a couple of years.
All of these are growing pains. The point is to learn from these mistakes. Those parishes that left Orthodoxy should particularly be scrutinized, so the hierarchs in question can learn how not to have that happen again. Better not to receive a parish at all than to have that take place.
I AM Orthodox and attend an OCA church.
We are now looking to buy a place just outside of Tbilisi and keep it as a vacation home for the next 5-7 years with eventual plans for retirement there. You are all welcome to visit!
Returning here was among the hardest things I have ever done. I cried as the plane lifted off from Tbilisi. I have already called back to Tbilisi to speak with a friend there. I did not want to hang up the phone.
So, in short, Georgia was a life-changing experience, beyond all words, for me.
My husband has agreed that we will purchase a place outside the city and have a caretaker, through a very good friend I met there. There are many street dogs in Tbilisi and it is very sad. They are hungry. Every evening and morning my son and I took food and bought food and fed the dogs we could find. I fell in love with a small dog there and I kid you not, I am going to ask my friend to find that dog and move it into the place we buy and the caretaker will care for it.
There are many poor people.It was the most powerful experience of my life to stop and give someone the equivalent of five dollars and have them hug you weeping in thanks. (I always pointed upward and told them to thank God.)
In spite of the poverty I felt more at home there than I have ever felt here. It is incredibly inexpensive there and the food is incredibly good. I have been to the Mediterranean before and have always loved the climate. I also love the winding streets, the architecture, and the way that everyone seems to be Orthodox. Policemen stop and cross themselves as they pass churches. Not one person was unkind or unhelpful. I was never afraid, but always felt incredibly loved and in the arms of God. I found it easy to get around and find anything, and we went to liturgy every morning, after walking into town feeding dogs along the way.
I felt as if I had returned home, though I have never been there before. The people love America and Americans and Georgia is on the way to becoming a great country. Which is why we are going to buy a place now, before it becomes too expensive. Things are rapidly changing and for the better.
Just to give you an idea of the prices there, I once walked into a small store with a bill that was roughly equivalent to 10 dollars, and they could not serve me because the bill was so large and they did not have change.
I took the equivalent of 35 dollars to donate at a church and the man there said no one there would touch so much money with their hands. So I put it into the church box. The people are incredibly pious and devout. There are new churches being built everywhere. Life is very simple and delightful, with hardly any complexities as we have here.
I went to the monastery, Bodbe, in Khaketia, eastern Georgia, and brought home water from a spring at the site where St. Nina reposed. I had never had spring water before, and it was delicious. I drank as much of it as I could and stuck my head into it as well. (It is where I spent time with the Abbess, Mother Teodora.)They have a bath you can use to get into the water and offer you robes and slippers to get in, but I was nervous about undressing there, as there were other people at the spring too.My friend Nino came with us and brought her son, Beka, and they did bathe in the water. Mother Teodora said there have been miraculous healings. Beka is three years old and is believed to be "different" from other children.
I was also given some oil from a tomb at a monastery in the ancient capitol Mskheta. I brought some home for our priest to use to anoint sick people.
I took many pictures and brought home many things. I spent every cent I had there and gave money to people right and left. I never paid for anything without paying at least twice as much as they asked.
I am still suffering from terrible culture shock at my return. There were many Americans there and they all loved it as I did, but we did laugh together at some of the Georgian ways. One American told me the white lines in the center of the road were only a suggestion, and that is very true. They have no street signs or street lights and the driving is very unique.
Gee I hope that answered your question. :-) Our plan now is to study the language for the next year and save to return in the spring again. By then we hope to have a place purchased and will begin taking things there to leave.
I am a Presbyterian (conservative denomination with about 10,000 members, so we are REALLY small...but I love the fellowship we have, and we are fully centered on God, not our sinful and worldly needs like many modern Prot churches).
I must say that I admire the Orthodox much more than the Catholic church. There is just something about the Orthodox that does make me go "wow" as a rant against the Catholics. I have problems with some things, obviously. I prefer the balanced Presbyterian form of government (basically is like the U.S. govt. with different levels). I believe the congregation should be involved in DOING everything in worship aside from leading Communion, leading prayer, and speaking the sermon. I hate choirs and other types of performance vehicles that keep the congregation idle.
But, there is still something about the Orthodox that makes me much less apt to critize them than the Catholics, and I don't know quite what it is.
as I rant, not as a rant
St. Nina! How blessed are you. Thank you for sharing this news of your journey and your plans.
" This was startling. David Virtue lists her as an "esteemed colleague" on his site VirtueOnline, "The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism.""
She and her husband are very prominent in Orthodox convert circles. Her husband is, I believe, now an Orthodox priest. She does have a web site, but I don't have the url.
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