[Martin Tell]

The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is recovering from a serious financial scandal. The key word there, however, is recovering. The OCA recently selected a new Metropolitan, Jonah, a dynamic convert.

I heard there was a sex scandal involving a now closed Orthodox monastery in Texas. I don't know the details.

There is no systematic history of abuse and cover-up like happened in the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps because Orthodoxy has always been wary of institutional power (see Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamozov). That also means, however, the Church does not have dictatorial power to correct abuses. Yet, obedience is stressed. The Orthodox learn to walk in this and many other paradoxes.

As far as reading, The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware is a great place to start. For the view of a convert, I recommend Peter Gillquist's Becoming Orthodox. Anything by Frederica Matthew's Green is good; she also has a number of essays posted on line.

The Greek Orthodox Church has a good web site, http://www.goarch.org/ with lots of links and background info.

There are also Orthodox Internet radio stations, notably Ancient Faith Radio, http://ancientfaith.com/, that have a lot of informational podcasts and Orthodox music. It is said that the real theology of the Church is expressed in its hymns.

Hope this helps!

[ElPatriota]

Thank you Martin. Thank you for the information. I will read.