Posted on 06/03/2006 6:01:26 PM PDT by sionnsar
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Ping
"So, for example, the prayers for the King of England were dropped and a prayer added for the President of the United States. Other similar modifications were made to fit the new circumstances."
I can still remember when we prayed for the Most Gracious and God-fearing King of the Hellenes!
"the Orthodox Churches [which are beginning to come alive and effective in America in terms of outreach and evangelism]"
I think that has been thrust upon us by the culture around us. People are showing up at our door and we've finally learned to welcome them. It has been my experience that the more multi-ethnic a parish becomes, the more welcoming it becomes and the more welcoming it becomes, the likely it is to engage in some form of outreach. Our parish, by the way, just got its second Ethiopian Orthodox family, which is pretty neat, frankly. As parishes like ours develop throughout America, the more Western practice of evangelization and mission activity seems to be increasing dramatically, especially among our young people. Frankly, the future looks pretty good.
This is a Good Thing indeed!
"People are showing up at our door and we've finally learned to welcome them.
This is a Good Thing indeed!"
Well, we still feel bad for them that they're not Greek, but we don't tell them that! :)
Guess we're a step ahead of you then, because whatever "ethnicity" (is this a code word for "race"?) they are, they can always become Anglican. And we actually have quite a mix in our church, far more than any of the Episcopal churches I grew up in: not mentioning the (born) Brits, Americans and Canadians in our midst, we also count a number of Asians and Indians (both kinds, native and otherwise) amongst our midst.
But then again, "ethnicity" in Anglicanism disappeared a long time ago. I remember being told as a boy in Confirmation Class that the "average Anglican" (I quote exactly; as an engineer I might dispute the adjective) was a poor black African woman.
But if the New World Orthodox can "lose" the "ethnicity," I see a big future for you all -- having observed converts who've gone over despite the negatives.
S, I didn't express myself well. Virtually all of our Lebanese, Syrian, Ethiopian, Eritrean/Greek, Russian, Serbian, Albanian, Ukranian, Bulgarian, Roumanian, Egyptian and Turkish/Greek parishioners are really from those countries. My point is that when a single ethnicity Orthodox parish, like mine was, gets a real big influx of other, non Greek (or Arab or Russian, etc) ethnics, what ends up predominating is an American ethnicity with a distinctly Orthodox phronema (Its really astonishing how that Orthodoxy transcends ethnicity; We're a close group). This makes the parish welcoming to ethnically American converts since the old ethnic club mentality dies a relatively quick death.
I assume that this welcome has some sort of "liturgical dance", "social justice", "gnosticism" and "Rite III" filter?
I assume that this welcome has some sort of "liturgical dance", "social justice", "gnosticism" and "Rite III" filter?
I visited Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas during their annual Greek festival fundraiser. The food was great, and I enjoyed baklava for the first time. The Greek tour guide of the church could have done much better if he had known anything about the regional ethnic culture he was living in.
He was showing about 40 of us (Texans) around the church explaining things and all was fine until he came to the baptismal font. He said that the Greek Orthodox Church would accept most Protestant baptisims except baptisims of Baptists, because they didn't believe in the Trinity!
His cultural ignorance couldn't have been worse. The largest Baptist churches in the U.S. are in Dallas, and it became obvious immediately that several in the group were Baptists. Before I could speak, a young man told him very politely that Baptists most certainly believed in the Trinity - a fact could have qualified as the understatement of the year. The guide said he'd been told that years before by a friend and thought it was true.
Everyone showed good manners in church and let it go, but hardly anyone paid attention to the bozo after that. Let's hope that "old ethnic club mentality" does die a relatively quick death
"I visited Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas during their annual Greek festival fundraiser....He said that the Greek Orthodox Church would accept most Protestant baptisims except baptisims of Baptists, because they didn't believe in the Trinity!"
We have a parishioner, the parish treasurer as a matter of fact and a convert, who was a member of that parish. I can't wait to rub his face in that one later this morning! Frankly, your story speaks volumes about the job the priest was doing at that parish. In any event the priest should have been doing the tours but he was probably, sigh, just SO exhausted from all the work he had done for the festival that week. Probably he actually worked 20 hours that week! :)
"Everyone showed good manners in church and let it go, but hardly anyone paid attention to the bozo after that."
You all probably should have been less than nice after that remark. The tour guide might have remembered his lesson that way. This really is a disgrace.
"I assume that this welcome has some sort of "liturgical dance", "social justice", "gnosticism" and "Rite III" filter?"
The only liturgical dance we do is at the parish festival, our idea of social justice is making the workers at the festival pay for their food, we can't spell gnosticism, but we know it when we see it and "Right on 3" is part of the directions to the church!
I assume that this welcome has some sort of "liturgical dance", "social justice", "gnosticism" and "Rite III" filter?
Sorry about the deja vu posts! Sometimes with the handheld, it just seems to happen...
Had I been a Baptist on that tour I might just have had to leave the party.
Neat! :)
Obituary column
The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States,1789-2006.
The PCUSA had become increasingly ill in the last 40 years, and contracted a common form of cancer afflicting churches of its generation. In 2003, the cancer was determined to be terminal, although many of those close to the church refused to believe it.
No services will be held.
Donations may be sent in PCUSA's name to the following hospices for terminal churches: the World Council of Churches, or the National Council of Churches. Donations may also be made to the Sufi Rumi Foundation or the Gladwyn Fund for Pagan/Wiccan Studies.
You may find this essay interesting. I usually don't like her stuff, especially the early stuff, but this is pretty good.
http://www.frederica.com/writings/orthodox-controversies.html
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