While Rome stumbled toward destruction in 476, Constantinople enjoyed relative theological and political stability for another 1,000 years, until it was sacked by the Turks in 1453. But one insightful reader asked a penetrating question: "Your book does a fine job comparing the two traditions; why have you not converted to Orthodoxy?" Why did Vladimir convert to Orthodox Christianity? Her allegiance to the perennial truths of Christianity is appreciated by sincere seekers. But that was too little, too late. 20). July 2012 edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I am interested in finding out why all of you converts out there converted to the Coptic Orthodox Church, and not any one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches readily available in so many parts of the world. There are two accounts of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. My husband had been an Episcopal priest for 16 years, and we had gradually moved from an evangelical-style low church to the more liturgically-fancy high church. Orthodoxy looked like taking that escalator up one more floor. An Orthodox priest who lectured to standing-room-only crowds at Moscow State once described Orthodox theology to me as "music made in the conservatory," whereas he described Protestant theology as "music made in the honkytonk bars. Orthodoxy knows where she stands, and she is in no need to re-define herself. Karmiris writes, "Scripture and Tradition are equally valid, possess equal dogmatic authority, and are equal in value as sources of dogmatic truth . Share your feedback here. Second, whatever failings Western missionaries might bring to their work, and whether Orthodoxy likes to admit it, many Russians are responding very positively to a clear, contemporary presentation of the gospel by Protestant missionaries. When the media seized on John Paul II's statement, they not only missed his main point, they missed a wider story. These thirteen churches are united in their understanding of the sacraments, discipline, doctrine, faith, government, and worship, but they administer their internal affairs separately. It is often wrongly assumed that Orthodoxy . It doesnt matter how long they have served, or how extensive their education. Well, was it so? 3:15). Persons wishing to become Orthodox of their own free volition, without any direct or indirect pressure from anyone, should firstly meet with a Priest of the Church. So, you have decided to convert to the Greek Orthodox Christian religion. But whether a non-Orthodox person can even be saved is an open question in Orthodox ecclesiology. It is no small thing for us to hold in common all the early, Christian creeds. Conversion means belief and acceptance in Jesus Christ, the God-man, as the Savior of the world. . The independent Orthodox Church in America (OCA) desires to function as a fully "autocephalous" church, although as yet the oca has not been officially recognized by most of the thirteen patriarchates. The Mission of The Orthodox Church in America, the local autocephalous Orthodox Christian Church, is to be faithful in fulfilling the commandment of Christ to Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In fact, what Orthodox converts "vow to accept" diverges significantly from important, basic tenets of evangelical Protestantism. Each of them had his idiosyncrasies, and they regularly disagreed. Hymns like these offer quite a theological education to anyone who comes to services, and if you didnt catch it all, theres a good chance theyre going to sing it two more times. All rights reserved. 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. With Gossip of the Gospel, the Church Grows in Nepal, After Pushing for UMC Unity, Former Bishop Joins New Denomination, Christian Conservationists Sue to Protect Ghana Forest, Complete access to articles on ChristianityToday.com, Over 120 years of magazine archives plus full access to all of CTs online archives. "The Orthodox Church of Christ never lost the 'unity of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit' and does not accept the theory of the restoration of the unity of those "who believe in Christ," because it believes that the unity of those who believe in Christ already exists in the unity of all of Her baptized children, between themselves and Before you start the process of converting, you will want to speak with a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church. She rightly claims the wholeness of the truth. Romania, 19.8 million For Eastern Christians, this was yet another Roman encroachment upon their autonomy. She rightly claims the wholeness of the truth. Ignatius's followers, however, refused to acknowledge the transition, and eventually both Ignatius and Photius appealed to Pope Nicholas (858-67) in Rome. For the past year or so I have been considering conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Those friends benefit, no doubt, from this opportunity to practice patience and long-suffering. True, Luther and some other Protestants have not viewed baptismal regeneration and justification by faith as mutually exclusive. People are attracted by the permanence of Orthodoxy. In Matthew 16:18, Christ speaks about building His church that "the gates of Hades will not prevail against". The reason Orthodoxy is stable is because she is grounded in the truth. According to The Saga of Erik the Red, there were Christians among the people whom Erik the Red brought to Greenland to settle it in the late tenth century. Further, they identify themselves by reference to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), the "new Rome" of Emperor Constantine, and to the first seven ecumenical councils of the church. "We are Orthodox because (we) follow the same laws like in other Orthodox communities in the world," explains Meyer Sanchez, assistant to a rabbi in Medelln. In addition, a new convert must undergo a formal process of initiation. These groups mostly came over willingly. All Rights ReservedDesigned by Fr. Orthodox churches are full of them. Your firstand subsequent visitswill help you to discern that to which the Lord is calling you. * When we realize that every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle or a matter of conscience, then we are freed to engage fully people with whom we actually have profound differences without compromising our own theological commitments. Those who approach Orthodoxy looking for all their questions to be answered in a neat-and-tidy manner will be deeply disappointed, left rejecting the faith to which theyve only been shortly exposed. The Orthodox Church is the ancient Church that Christ and the Apostles established. I had been to the east and discovered something wondrous that I assumed all Christians crave. This absorbed my attention so much that I was apt to expound my current level of comprehension to anyone who stood still in my vicinity. Is it wrong for Western missionaries to seek to convert the Orthodox in lands like Russia, Romania, or Greece? There are no doubt some ways that he is the same person he will always be, and there are ways Orthodoxy and every other church has significant points in common, not least that we love the same Lord. In the end, they concocted a list of reasons for not converting. That vision is of the Living God revealed in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the life of the Faithful, the hope of the . From the Orthodox perspective, both Catholics and Protestants seek to ground theological authority in an external norm. At the 1996 meeting of sseoe, Orthodox representative Stanley Harakas said that the Orthodox, who have lived for 70 years in Russia under Communist oppression, are in a state of weakness, unable to rebuild churches and barely able to educate their parishioners. The first, most obvious explanation is that some people simply are obnoxious to start with. The conversion of 2,000 evangelicals in 17 congregations "from Alaska to Atlanta" in 1987, recounted in Peter Gillquist's Becoming Orthodox, is only a small window into a larger phenomenon. In 1523-24 the Reformers Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther donned the gown of the university scholar. YouTube | I can't be the only one who's observed a friend converting to Orthodox Christianity and noticed them instantly, literally overnight, losing their sense of . Young teens go through a few years when they are trying to understand their own unique identity, and trying to establish it in the face of well, it would be one thing if they had to establish it in the face of hostility, because, even though that would be hard, it would be bracing and clarifying. Affectionate attempts to obscure this quest feel suffocating. For we cannot forget that beauty (Envoys of the Russian Prince Vladimir, after experiencing the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople in the year 987). 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. It was like seeing a face emerge from a random pattern of dots, and then wink at you. Failing to remember (or be taught) this, we are scandalized and even lose our faith in the Church, not distinguishing between the divine and human natures, or confusing them. Cyprus, 450,000 I hope so. In fact, it promises a Cross and joining with Christ in both suffering and humiliation. We have challenges here in Africa to find such information for, So glorious+++ Most Holy Theotokos save us, Pectoral Cross Theologically, just what is at stake in the differences between Protestant and Orthodox theology? It took awhile because I grasped it through hearing the hymns of the church year, week in and week out. . Assuming that, after subsequent visits, you grow into the conviction that Orthodox Christianity is the fullness of Truth as revealed by Jesus Christ and discern your desire to embrace faith in Our Lord in its fullness, make your desire known to the parish priest, who will initiate the period of instruction and spiritual formation that eventually would lead to your reception into the Church. 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?" Hymns like these offer quite a theological education to anyone who comes to services, and if you didnt catch it all, theres a good chance theyre going to sing it two more times. The Spirit of God himself, realizing the sacramental presence of Christ in the church, speaks to us in tradition. Orthodoxy is true to the Lord, to herself and to her past. Constantine had once controlled the entire Mediterranean perimeter, and as a result, Christianity flourished. Why have so many Evangelical ministers embraced the Orthodox faith? Another issue is becoming Orthodox because one thinks the Church will reward them in some way for doing so. Bauxite mining would threaten birds, plants, and clean water. In chrismation, performed immediately after rising from the baptismal waters, the priest anoints the infant with a special ointment, making the sign of the cross on various parts of the body, thus acknowledging the gift and seal of the Holy Spirit. Preeminent among the sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist. While the Church is certainly Divine in one respect, She is also comprised of human beingshuman beings that can, and do, err. When celebrating the Eucharist, Catholics mixed the wine with water, while the Orthodox did not. This icon, Wedding Icon of The Mother Of God There was plenty of ceremony and beauty, but without the mainline churches affection for keeping up-to-date. Harakas asked. Nicholas Kim. In the first place, Christians believed Jesus to be the true God rather than a semi-god. Sdn Tim Grace unveils the surprising message of Christmas. Everyone associates Orthodox worship with sensory richness, but its also rich in theological content. Christ is thus "the Offerer and the Offered, the Acceptor and the Distributed," all in such a way that nothing is added to his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. The Orthodox Church has suffered throughout her history. See something we missed? Most Protestants would experience an Orthodox liturgy as something strange, even exotic. Kate Forbes is young, smart, a woman (in the actual sense of the word), but fatally, an orthodox Christian seeking the top office in the land. Required fields are marked *. 1. The sacraments of the Church have helped fill countless young people's lives with meaning in ways that are difficult to find elsewhere. (Of course, for every person insisting that there were no differences, there was another person asking me to explain the differences. They push it down the road that they will be able to transition to that in their new group eventually. I've chosen Oriental Orthodoxy over the Byzantine Church because I believe that ours is closer in doctrine and liturgy to the earliest Christians. Each of them had his idiosyncrasies, and they regularly disagree. It depends on where you put the emphasis. I sincerely wish to know everyone's reasons for converting to Orthodoxy. There is an organic quality here, and the thing itself is inexpressibly alive. that freedom of practice for faith groups should be "defended" in Holyrood's proposed ban on conversion practices and that she believes a trans woman is a "biological male who identifies as a . As if this were not quite enough, during the Fourth Crusade, Western forces stormed Constantinople in 1204 and ransacked the Church of the Holy Wisdom, an unimaginable act of desecration from the viewpoint of Orthodoxy. People often assume that most Jews by choice convert because they have a partner or spouse who is Jewish. Oden, for example, who delights in referring to his theological method as "paleo-orthodox," is now working on a comprehensive patristic commentary on the whole Bible to be published by InterVarsity Press. At each point in their conversions, from initial religious seeking to settling into life as Orthodox Christians, Orthodox converts in Pittsburgh consistently relate a kind of on-going negotiation between self and other, as they research religious differences and experiment with practices and dogmas. Rather, each of the thirteen Orthodox churches has its own head, variously referred to as the patriarch, archbishop, or metropolitan. The essence of it was to evangelize younger aristocrats, future leaders of the land. Most people like to be polite and get along, so they highlight our commonalities. Geoff. Essential for clergy to pray together, to talk, and to encourage one another in Christ? In time, you will be welcomed sacramentally into the Church and continue your ongoing path to the Kingdom of God. This is particularly notable in the mid-1st century, when the circumcision controversy came to the fore. Teachings of Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy appeals to the soulnot just to the intellect or the senses. For example, on the Feast of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, the chanter launches into this: Of the Father before the morning star You were begotten from the womb without mother before all ages, even though Arius did believe You to be created, not God, classing You in ignorance and impudence with creatures 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). Conversion may be unnecessary if you're open to a Reform wedding: Reform Judaism permits interfaith marriages, though roughly half of all Reform rabbis still abjure officiating at them. To support our efforts, join us as a member . Heres a clue to a third possibility. The last reason Orthodox converts are obnoxious resembles the reason adolescents are obnoxious. already I have lost many people I thought were friends but so be it! Despite its historical estrangement from Rome, from a Protestant theological perspective Orthodoxy is similar to Catholicism at several points. "More than a . Thus, while the Protestant principle of sola scriptura places Scripture above tradition, for Orthodoxy the two are complementary means of one organic whole through which the Spirit of God speaks. Why Converts to Christian Orthodoxy can be Obnoxious, People who've found their way back to Orthodoxy, Theophan the Recluse on Spiritual Practice. Anxious to avoid the siege of his capital, Basil II turned to the Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Further, the Orthodox reject the idea of inherited guilt; we are guilty only for our own sins rather than for the inborn consequences of Adam's fall. Your email address will not be published. Orthodox spiritual life gives central prominence to the sacraments. For me, the one and only valid, core reason is because a person desires to be part of the one, true Body of Christ. In 867, Patriarch Photius of Constantinople told other Christian patriarchs that the Rus' people were converting enthusiastically, but his efforts seem to have entailed no lasting consequences, since the Primary Chronicle and other Slavonic sources describe the tenth-century Rus' as still firmly entrenched in Slavic paganism. Modern speculation is simply just that, speculation, and . ), since the Reformation, justification by faith and substitutionary atonement have enjoyed pride of place in our understanding of the doctrines of sin and salvation. They become clergy in their group. Yet, at times there are questions of conscience and matters of principle. John A. Peck, The Apostolic Mission of Journey To Orthodoxy, 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. First, Christianity had no doctrine to support the Islamic hypothesis about Jesus' modification into a semi-god. By the end of the sixth century, neither group could speak the other's language. Orthodoxy, in contrast, is a thoroughly aesthetic tradition, as attested by the central role played by icons. Andrey brings us the news about Orthodox Christianity (the form of Christianity practiced by Russians). But I slowly came to see that I cant communicate it. Orthodox Christianity has a rich tradition of being mindful. On these points evangelical and Orthodox thinking diverge in significant ways. Icons are, quite literally, a "theology in color.". 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. I had been to the east and discovered something wondrous that I assumed all Christians crave. Clearly this stability is found in no other church. Rather, for Orthodoxy the whole people of God is the protector of apostolic tradition. But it's just fantasies, and they going to get themselves hopeless frustrated when it become clear that the fantasies can't become reality. In the words of contemporary Orthodox theologian Thomas Hopko, "everything in the church flows out of the waters of baptism: the remission of sins and life eternal." Liberalism is not a word in the Orthodox vocabulary. Originally the creed read that the Holy Spirit proceeded "from the Father"; a later Western interpolation (why, where, and by whom are not known), ratified at the Council of Toledo (589), added filioque to indicate that the Spirit proceeded from the Father "and the Son." Antioch, 750,000 When I visit prisons where floors are shiny, morale is noticeably higher. This book cover is made to order i, Hand-painted Icon of Christ the Pantocrator (acryl. An evangelical explores the ancient and alien world of the Eastern church. The theological objections evangelicals have traditionally had with Rome on these two points rightly apply to Orthodoxy. Speaking out against a government that is massively exterminating believers, would only lead to greater persecution. Then bear your cross,, Please, include documents that can be downloaded or printed. Another danger is converting to Orthodoxy simply because it is beautiful. And while it's true that my involvement with Judaism began with a Jewish boyfriend now my husband of 28 years and the father of our two children as Reform Jews, I would not have had to convert to participate in Jewish life and raise Jewish children. But why is our kind so characteristically obnoxious? Orthodox Christians viewed the filioque amendment to be contrary to explicit instructions by past ecumenical councils not to change the creeds. She stands firm on her dogmatic and moral teachings. In the East the local parish priest could administer the sacrament of confirmation; in the West only the bishop could. And such a journey can only be spoken of from experience. One of the problems the Orthodox Church currently suffers in this country is a lack of converts. Take Russia as an example: First, the majority of Russians are non-Christian and unevangelized. Twitter | Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. Its just that Orthodoxy still passes on the early churchs knowledge of how to tune in to the presence of Christ. Contact | its the same every year, year after year), it soon becomes familiar, and perhaps even boring for some. All Rights ReservedDesigned by Fr. The late Orthodox theologian John Meyendorff once remarked that the ultimate conflict between the Orthodox East and the Latin West, both Catholic and Protestant, resided in two different ideas about tradition. Those who were clergy in a former denomination have no guarantees they will become clergy in the Orthodox Church. All Rights ReservedDesigned by Fr. Orthodoxy's size alone warrants our attention, despite its invisibility on the cultural radar screens of most Americans. 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.