Posted by Al
on 5/3/2009, 1:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Questions"
Message modified by user Al 5/3/2009, 1:56 pm
David-
You are "preaching to the choir director". The problem lies at the hierarchical level as well with the laity. I do not supprt the current situation, but was simply describing it.
I was received into the Church 41 years ago, and the self imposed barriers to unity and fulfilling the Great Commission have been virtually unchanged over those four decades. Is there anything like the "Alpha Program"? Do our seminaries rigorously teach evangelism - for clergy candidates AND lay persons? Do our bishops promote evangelism? Usually, numbers are confused with evangelizing. 5 new Russian immigrant families will usually be counted as "successful missionary growth".
Keep in mind that by the end of the 12th Century, most of what we would call the "Orthodox World" had been evangelized. Other than the Russian colony of Alaska, Orthodox nations did not explore and colonize anywhere to which they might have spread the Faith. Thus, we really have, within the "corporate soul" of Orthodoxy, nearly a full millenium with no evangelical activity to speak of. We simply "maintained" (and not very much so in Muslim areas) the Faith. That's a lot of inertia to overcome.
If the majority of the Orthodox in America are desirous of maintaining a plethora of jurisdictions, and I suspect they are, then that fragmentation of The Body of Christ will only hamper evangelization.
While I no longer live in the US, I still pray and grieve for the Church there. I was active in the OCA at the parish, diocese and national level. As a career military officer that moved regularly, I was a member of numerous parishes of the OCA, GOA and AOA. I don't claim to know it all, but I experienced serious road blocks to real evangelizing efforts in most places. I'm not saying folks weren't open to inquirers, but, in most cases, efforts were passive, not active. All kinds of behavior, often innocently, that could make a visitor or inquirer feel unwelcome was all too common. Some of these behaviors could be extinguished by gracefully pointing it out, but programs to cure this, such as Fr John Reeves' offered, were voluntary. I knew one bishop who did not want him or that training in his diocese because it wasn't that bishop's idea.
As I have posted elsewhere, most "missions" were "chaplaincies". They provided worship services to existing Orthodox. 20 years ago, we used to joking go through the OCA Yearbook and identify the "Non-Missions", a lenghty list of locations where an occasional liturgy might be served, but was dutifully listed as a "mission". We asked our hierarchs what impression an inquirer might reach if he were to try to contact the "mission" in a search for the Faith, and was told, "We don't know when a priest will be here, but we can call you if one is coming." Other than confused looks, the best answer we would receive was that suddenly dropping all these "missions" from the Yearbook would make it look like the Church was shrinking.
There are some shining stars of evangelism in the American Church, but they can't do it by themselves. It takes bishops, priests and parishioners, and sadly the majority of those people just have never gotten with the program. They need to understand that while All Night Vigils are good for our spiritual life, there are many more souls out there that deserve to hear the Gospel of Christ, accurately and Orthodox style. And reaching out to them is also good for not only our spiritual life, but theirs.
End of rant!
Al
Paros Island, Greece
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