Each of them had his idiosyncrasies, and they regularly disagreed. Russia, 50-85 million
There was plenty of ceremony and beauty, but without the mainline churches affection for keeping up-to-date. The genius of this principle is that it allows us to disagree with other believers, even vehemently so, yet in an edifying fashion with a degree of theological modesty and a perspective that seeks a deeper consensus within the bounds of true faith. If you have a specific question about Orthodox Christianity or the Orthodox Church in America, Orthodox Christians were more inclined to appeal to the ecumenical councils than to a single bishop to settle theological matters. I kept finding myself in conversations with nice people who wanted to assure me that this very thing I was so excited about in Orthodoxy is something they have in their church as well. For employment at a seminary? Bauxite mining would threaten birds, plants, and clean water. John A. Peck, The Apostolic Mission of Journey To Orthodoxy. There is not going to be a restored "Celtic" Orthodoxy or "Anglo-Saxon" Orthodoxy. T he Orthodox Church in the United States has problems. In other words, one cannot embrace Orthodox Christianity without embracing Orthodox Christians. Two points that have been hallmarks of evangelical identity deserve special scrutiny: the relationship between Scripture and tradition, and the relationship between Scripture and the church. What steps would I take to become an Orthodox Christian? Her admirable heritage of perseverance amid terrible fires of persecution has been noted even by non-Orthodox admirers, as one of her strongest attractions and sources of strength. Why did Kievan Rus convert to Orthodox Christianity? Thumb through Calvin's Institutes or a volume of John Wesley's Works and you will see our Protestant forebears thoroughly engaged with patristic tradition. Essential for clergy to pray together, to talk, and to encourage one another in Christ? But every church must have its distinctives, or wed all be in the same church. The Actual Conversion to Judaism: Conversion to Judaism has a few components, which are undertaken under the supervision of an established beit din: Accepting the yoke of the commandments. One who would claim that he or she wishes to embrace the faith but doesnt want to get involved with other people and their lives falls short in his or her understanding of the Church as the People of God and, as such, has yet to make that internal conversion that must take place before one is received into the Church. But that was too little, too late. The sacraments of the Church have helped fill countless young people's lives with meaning in ways that are difficult to find elsewhere. Icons are absolutely central to Orthodoxy, distinguishing it from both Catholicism and Protestantism. I cant be the only one to have done this. One can find people who interpret this ecclesiological exclusivity more leniently; in fact, some would argue that the best Orthodox scholarsGeorge Florovsky and John Meyendorff, to name twowould allow for such leniency. Serbia, 8 million
Applies to RCC too. But it's just fantasies, and they going to get themselves hopeless frustrated when it become clear that the fantasies can't become reality. Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. There is a myth in Orthodoxy that people only became Eastern Catholics under force by Catholic kings. Whereas Western Protestants want to hear the written Word spoken in the sermon, Orthodox believers want to see it in the visual images of iconsas well as hear it in the spoken word. After his marriage Vladimir I officially changed the state religion to Orthodox Christianity and destroyed pagan temples and icons. He sailed to Greenland with a priest to convert the people. I cant be the only one to have done this. Converting to Orthodoxy. Wow, like it very much. People often assume that most Jews by choice convert because they have a partner or spouse who is Jewish. Forgetting early on that Orthodox worship is liturgical and cyclical (i.e. We should expect nothing less of ourselves than total respect for and even love of the history, theology, and culture of Orthodoxy; still, two things ought to be said about Orthodox complaints about Protestant proselytizing. This is a sufficiently serious reason for reproach: We are right to expect that the Church will point out a path toward God, independently of the jolts and shocks of the epoch; that it will remain,. Thus Luther once wrote, "What else do I contend for but to bring everyone to an understanding of the difference between the divine Scripture and human teaching or custom?" Worshipers prostrate themselves before them and kiss them. Toggle signature If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you If they persecuted me, they will persecute you (John 15:18. Your firstand subsequent visitswill help you to discern that to which the Lord is calling you. Well, was it so? Underneath were written the Greek words en toutoi nika, "In this sign, conquer." Because we confess and believe in the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church, this means we are not looking for a Church that fits our own preferences and ideals, but rather one that teaches us what our preferences should be. The Orthodox Faith / I do not wish to antagonize anyone and if there is a place online where I might go to better have my questions answered, please. already I have lost many people I thought were friends but so be it! If anyone is unwilling or not ready to submit to the Church in all areas of life, they should stay awayuntil or unless they are ready to do so. Why didn't Henry VIII go Orthodox, and what would happen if he did? Reaching for the Transcendent on the Streets of New York, http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2007/12/icons-will-save-the-world, cool blog entry by Fr Andrew Damick - Christian Forums, http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/liturgics/athenagoras_remarriage.htm, http://www.oodegr.co/english/ekklisia/marriage_divorce.htm, http://www.oodegr.com/english/ekklisia/marriage_divorce.htm, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/justandsinner/the-church-fathers-interpretation-of-the-rock-of-matthew-1618-an-historical-refutation-of-the-claims-of-roman-catholicism-by-william-webster/. The Orthodox Church is the ancient Church that Christ and the Apostles established. Rather, "theosis" (literally, "deification"), or the progressive transformation of people into full likeness to God, in soul and body, takes center stage. Maybe you have to soak in it for years, till the evidence becomes overwhelming. Conversion involves a change or transformation in vision, direction and heart, one rooted in repentance and the acknowledgement of Our Lord as the One Who is truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Who came into the world to save sinners. In Russia, the largest figure usually cited for the Orthodox Church is 85 million people (some estimates are as low as 50 million), which means 100 million Russiansmore than half the countryare not affiliated with Orthodoxy. You can also subscribe without commenting. There is another reason someone should not join Our Church. If anyone is unwilling or not ready to submit to the Church in all areas of life, they should stay awayuntil or unless they are ready to do so. Women and men who marry into the Orthodox Jewish faith are required to convertand both genders follow an identical process. By the end of the sixth century, neither group could speak the other's language. Evangelicals focused on social ethics may also find little comradeship in Orthodoxy, as there is nothing in Orthodoxy comparable to the body of Catholic social teaching, for instance. At times it can be a healing group especially during the Liturgical services in particular the Eucharist and the Holy Prayer Oil services. For such a question presupposes a particular person's journey of faith. One of the problems the Orthodox Church currently suffers in this country is a lack of converts. Conversion is not only a matter of the intellect, but also of the heart. There is a distinct set of conservative converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, which depending on your perspective either left, or was left by, Roman Catholicism in the Great Schism of 1054. But whether a non-Orthodox person can even be saved is an open question in Orthodox ecclesiology. The Biblical Basis for Holy Tradition., On the Path of Love: From Islam to Christianity, Madagascar: Church Opens Huge Complex with Church, Schools, Orphanage, Old Folks Home, Australia: Orthodoxy Fastest Growing Church amidst General Christian Decline. Despite efforts at reunification, to this day the Catholic and Orthodox churches remain estranged. Now, I dont share all of this in order to dissuade anyone from becoming a catechumen, but rather to encourage those who are on such a journeyor who have strayed away from one that began on the wrong foot. They have not given up the idea of being clergy. This simple change of dress symbolized a radical shift that has characterized the Protestant West ever since: that the knowledge of God is mediated primarily through the written Word. Orthodox Christians believe you must be converted every day- every day - and everyone must start with this step if they desire to make spiritual progress and be saved. To be Eastern Orthodox is, above all, to stake a bold and unapologetic theological claim as the one true church of Christ on earth, which alone has guarded right belief and true worship in absolute identity and unbroken succession with the apostolic church. Andrey brings us the news about Orthodox Christianity (the form of Christianity . Bulgaria, 8 million
Theologically, just what is at stake in the differences between Protestant and Orthodox theology? The Orthodox Church is the only Church, originally founded by Christ and still retaining the apostolic succession and the undistorted teaching of the Lord and . Its just that Orthodoxy still passes on the early churchs knowledge of how to tune in to the presence of Christ. Join our newsletter to get the most interesting articles on spiritual issues and learn about the recent news from St. Elisabeth Convent. Why Converts to Christian Orthodoxy can be Obnoxious, People who've found their way back to Orthodoxy, Theophan the Recluse on Spiritual Practice. It is not a religion but rather a way of life. When Martin Luther burned the books of Catholic canon law at Wittenberg's Elster Gate on December 10, 1520, he symbolized an important Protestant distinctive. Thank you for this! Orthodox Christians viewed the filioque amendment to be contrary to explicit instructions by past ecumenical councils not to change the creeds. Your email address will not be published. Christians in the West variously trace their roots to Rome (Catholics), Wittenberg (Lutherans), Geneva (Calvinists), Canterbury (Anglicans), or Oxford (Wesleyans). 20). One thinks, for example, of those committed to full ministerial status for women, the centrality of lay ministry and spiritual gifts, charismatically inclined groups, seeker-sensitive churches attempting to reach baby boomers or Generation X'ers with novel worship formats, and so on. The move was far more than geographic. This should trouble evangelicals (as well as other Protestants), especially when it is combined with the Orthodox idea of who constitutes the church and how one enters the church. we'll be happy to answer it! All Rights ReservedDesigned by Fr. I think people just dont believe me, and I hardly provide a good personal example. So why should someone desire to join the Orthodox Church? They conceded a special honor to the Western papacy but insisted that the bishop of Rome was only the first among equals. Do we mean essential for salvation? Around 2-3 months ago I decided that I wanted to convert to Christianity. When the media seized on John Paul II's statement, they not only missed his main point, they missed a wider story. Why would a Protestant Christian convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity? My ideas havent changed, and Im always glad for a good discussion, but maybe Im past the need to belabor them. Further, Protestants have long enjoyed rich liturgical traditions of their own (see, for example, Bard Thompson's classic Liturgies of the Western Church). A wedding set o, Wedding Icon of Christ the Pantocrator (in Oklad /, A Handmade Bookcover For The Gospel. This icon, Wedding Icon of The Mother Of God 2. In Orthodoxy one encounters the eternal, unchangeable God. It makes no appeal to a doctrine of transubstantiation and instead simply affirms the mystery. These Protestant movements, important in their own right, are liturgical light years from Orthodoxy. The unchangeableness of dogma as well as the purity of rite [are] entrusted to the care not of one hierarchy but of all the people of the church." For church membership? Put more starkly, Orthodoxy explicitly rejects the historic Protestant idea of sola scriptura. Unfortunately most "Orthodox Christian" are nominal even despite their active presence they are nominal because they extinguish the Holy Spirit and do not have a relationship with God, they outwardly seem to be praying but like the Pharisee praise themselves for being 'good with God'. Writing a book on Eastern Orthodoxy and working through the manuscript with my Russian students helped me to compare Orthodoxy and Protestant evangelicalism. But this really begs another question: "Essential" for what? There are other problems as well: overlapping jurisdictions, lack of communication across jurisdictional lines, and a tendency to isolate ourselves from communities in which we live. The percentage of foreign born Orthodox Christians is no larger than the percentage in the population at large. Like baptism, the Eucharist is administered to infants. As independent churches, they are not bound together by any unilateral or monarchical organization, nor do they owe allegiance to a single primacy, as Roman Catholics do to the pope. Any objective historian can discover that the permanence of Orthodoxy is due to the preservation and the passing on of the apostolic faith unadulterated, pure. Orthodoxy, in contrast, is a thoroughly aesthetic tradition, as attested by the central role played by icons. For instance, John of Damascus (675-749), Orthodoxy's most famous systematic theologian, epitomized the Orthodox ethos when he wrote in his The Orthodox Faith, "we do not change the everlasting boundaries which our fathers have set, but we keep the traditions just as we have received them." its the same every year, year after year), it soon becomes familiar, and perhaps even boring for some. But the human warts of where they are at and continuing searching within causes them to look elsewhere. Similarly, Protestants like Thomas Oden, Donald Bloesch, and others have shown that one need not join Orthodoxy to immerse oneself in the patristic past with joy, gratitude, and a sense of accountability to that "great cloud of witnesses" of the last two millennia. John Meyendorff writes that "the Christian faith can in no way be compatible with the notion of sola scriptura." Converts to Orthodoxy usually precede their decision with voluminous reading and research, so their friends must endure agitated lectures on church history, ancient heresies, and what words mean in Greek. But I slowly came to see that I cant communicate it. Since the World Council of Churches' Canberra Assembly in 1991, evangelical and Orthodox believers have joined in a series of wcc-sponsored dialogues on matters challenging historic Christian faith. To the extent, however, one could intellectualize the reasons for converting, he or she would probably summarize them along these lines: In our ever-changing world, in the constant re-design of services and re-evaluation of beliefs, Orthodoxy stands as a mountain of granite, unshakable by fads and movements and political correctness. Its that Orthodoxy still passes on the early churchs knowledge of how to tune in to the presence of Christ. We think the fundamental Christian schism occurred when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church, October 31, 1517. Those friends benefit, no doubt, from this opportunity to practice patience and long-suffering. It took me a few years to sense that there was a whole other something going on. During my four years as a visiting professor at Moscow State University (1991-95) I often felt schizophrenic. As the Body of Christ, the Church is a Divine-human organism, just as with the Person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. Orthodox spiritual life gives central prominence to the sacraments. * This hardly signifies any sort of congregational or ecclesiological democracy, however, for while all believers possess the truth, it is the special duty of church authorities to teach it. In fact, what Orthodox converts "vow to accept" diverges significantly from important, basic tenets of evangelical Protestantism. Geoff Harvey on Thu, 20/11/2008 - 11:15am. On another front, under the leadership of founder Bradley Nassif, the Society for the Study of Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism (SSEOE) holds meetings each fall at Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center for the sake of the two traditions learning from one another. Indeed, what Protestant converts to Orthodoxy have often sought is not only a conscious continuity with the historic, apostolic past, but also a richer experience of God's majesty and mystery through a more liturgical worship setting. This conception lessens the validity and value of the Holy Scriptures as the primary source of Christian dogma." Excellent comment Kosmas, I totally concur. In fact, much of what is basic to Christianity: the nature, sources, and interpretation of God's revelation to us, the meaning of the church and its sacraments, the doctrines of sin and salvation, and even how one enters the kingdom of God. I sincerely wish to know everyone's reasons for converting to Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy provides a full-bodied, full-souled spiritual life that assumes that everything you do as a Christian makes you either more like God or less like Him, and because becoming like God is what salvation consists of, that means that everything you do is critical. Preeminent among the sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist. She is the Church of martyrs. Then the reality sets in. Religion became a state of the Roman Empire, and Christianity became an enormous and influential religion nationwide. And I would try hard, no doubt to the point of rudeness, to convince them this was not so. As Philip said to Nathaniel, Come and see [John 1:46]. Many people believe the Church is a social group gathering or a place to network with other like minded people. She is conscious of being the true Church founded by Christ. Thats just a fraction of a thorough march through what happened at the first Council of Nicaea, and why it was important (including Arius unpleasant death from digestive indisposition: his bowels were torn by a divine hookin a repulsive manner his soul came out).