Concentrated

Published by the St. Andrew House Discussion Forum on January 24, 2005

Needed: A Concentrated Orthodox effort to Evangelize

Unless there is some civil law stating to the contrary, "faith groups" may use whatever descriptive adjective they wish to entitle themselves. The proliferation of titles which include 'catholic' or 'orthodox' indicate the depths of the morass into which Christians have fallen in their desire to be "true" to what they perceive to be the Gospel and to some identity to nation or particularity. Eastern Orthodox know that they all hold the same faith (some differences in typikon, i.e. "Byzantine"); Oriental Orthodox know that they, too have a unity under that banner. The Roman Catholic Church, under the Bishop of Rome, all have the same faith plus a central and unique authority even if there are many rites (which Vatican II has dignified with the term, "Church", i.e., Ukrainian Catholic Rite is also Ukrainian Catholic Church although it does not have autocephaly although striving for some kind of "patriarch". One can stretch it to say that it has some form of "autonomy" in that the candidates for the head of this Church/Rite will not be other than a Ukrainian national. There are hundreds of differing "Baptist" churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, not to speak of the numerous evangelic denominations, et aliae. Society lumps all Christians together; polls separate us into two major groups, Roman Catholic or Protestant according to percent of the population. Orthodox Christians around the world often find themselves as a minority but this should not imply some form of government control. The Church in Finland, although a recognized second "national" carries on her mission as a minority and does well.

An administratively united Orthodox Church in the USA will not make Orthodoxy more or less acceptable or known per se. What will make Orthodoxy known is, I believe, a concentrated effort to evangelize. We need an institution that trains people for outreach to America. I believe that the main thrust of education and preparation for home evangelism must be the scope of a unique institution. Seminaries will continue their present mode of serving the existing and accepted parish life. Outreach must be emphasized. It seems that those who embrace the Orthodox faith in North America easily position themselves into the "status quo," even though some may rally against the "ethnic" identity of parishes and dioceses; others have no problem in entering an existing ("ethnic") parish and find its acceptance of them spiritually and socially satisfying.

Is the Church in America mature?! Of course she is! She demonstrates this through her obedience to the unity of the Church by listening to the Mother Churches. Those "jurisdictions" which are still tied to the Mother Churches are like the servant in the Psalm which says (vespers of weekdays, apostica verses) "like the eyes of a servant on their masters hand..." meaning that they are waiting for the Mother Church to act in behalf of administrative unity in, among other places, America (Europe, Australia, South America, Asia). The local Synod of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Metropolia in 1905 asked the Russian Church for total Autocephaly and it came, in the strangest of manners and time, 65 years later in 1970, while atheistic communism was governing Russia.

Is there a need for administrative unity in Orthodoxy in the US and also in Canada? Of course. The bottleneck is that Constantinople pretends to be the sole author of autocephaly; the Mother Churches deem it their individual right; the Russian Church claimed it by authority of establishment through missionary effort.

What is needed is that the Church around the world be more open to the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, so that we discern the will of God and shake off the hold of governments and lay aside personal arrogance. We are living in a time when we need to reflect on how to best live the faith and share the promise according to the world of today. We perceive the general fall of communism; secularization of Europe and North America; the advance of Islam; the world economic unification ideal...What the Church needs now is a general council! Shame on those who are leaders and lead not! Shame on those who should speak out but remain quiet, tacit for paltry gain! While we muddle in titles and past glories, the non-Christian world is up building around us.

The Church is One Body, but at this time in history we are acting as the one in the Scripture who throws himself into the fire, who tears at his own flesh, who spews out self-inflicting anathemas and knows not that before us is the Christ who heals those who come to him with and in faith.

The early church pleaded, "Come Lord Jesus, come without delay." Can we pray the same?



Volume 7 Number 5 - Tuesday, February 1st, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY