-- --- Issues of Orthodoxy in America --- -- Collected, Evolving Commentaries by Vasos-Peter John Panagiotopoulos II (Opinions taken for discussion - not necessarily author's.) While shallowness often brews in the parishioners who refuse to give up the ancestral language they no longer use or understand, there is good reason to allow immigrant parishes to use their native toungues in services. Schizoparanoid schismatics will often take advantage of the feelings of abandonment in these immigrants if their assimilation is not gradualised; even Vaticanist churches have masses in foreign languages where recent immigrants are numerous. When the language concerned is Greek, there is a special religious aspect involved, namely that Greek is the language or record of Orthodoxy, and indeed of all Christendom, so allowing it extended existance in the New World will allow for better translation and propogation of the faith by those equally proficient in both languages. (Incidentally, all the evangelists wrote or rewrote their gospels in Greek, so claims of Aramaic having such a place is basically baseless. The bible as accepted by the Church as a whole was in Greek.) However, the Greek service in America is much less properly enunciated or comprehensible than that in Athens, even to my American-born ears. Friends who are offspring of religiously-mixed marriages tempted to attend Orthodox services have found nonEnglish (or halfEnglish) services uncomfortable and never returned. And there is no doubt a bureaucratic lethargy which also makes the church slow to change even in something as essential as the language. The Arab churches changed over to Arabic from Greek only in this century, reflecting the Arab invasion of their lands more than a millenium too late. The Russian church was granted full autocephalous Patriarchy only when enough time had passed to be certain traditions were fully understood and properly translated. However, if one has learned the liturgy in one language, it is quite easy to pace one's self with the music even if the liturgy is in a foreign language. From observing the stories told by the icons, to the subliminal incantations, to the hymns sung by the entire congregation, attending liturgy is an all-body crisis-generating experience and not a spectator sport. Political tragedies gave birth to many schismatic groups who still wish to be seen as Orthodox. Fortunately, they are just a very vocal, loud, rude, but very small minority. In many cases, the Church has tolerated these hoping time would heal wounds and return the schismatics to the fold. However, many schismatics find themselves pleasantly beyond inspection and with authority they never had before, and so they wish to breed suspicions among the more ignorant in their flocks, accusing the Church of "Modernism" "Ecumenism" and "Sergianism". These schismatic pharisees of "trueness" even suggest that a change to English is heresy (even Anglicanism!) and go so far to offer the schizo-paranoid suggestion that the USA Constitution was some sort of "masonic" conspiracy. (It is curious how, in this, they resemble their arch-enemy, the Vatican! Yet even some Vaticanists insist that only under some papal bishop in Wisconsin is masonry forbidden.) All while accusing the Church of being too easy on the heterodox, certain schismatics have captured media attention with fraudulent miracles and fraudulent icon thefts, and have been known to threaten the elderly with damnation if they didn't make large contributions, as well as selling quick conversion of heterodox spouses. While the Church does not care if parishes follow the pagan Julian or papal Gregorian calendar, the schismatics generally insist on the old calendar and have hence been misnomered "old calendrists". The schismatics also present definitely untrue fantasies of Athonite complicity in their schismatic ventures. Moreover, in misrepresenting Orthodoxy in such an extremist and maniacal light, the schismatics only aid the enemies of Orthodoxy. However, less schismatic and more populous groups have also found themselves outside the full canonical purview of the church and in so doing show a WASPness-envy and a bigotry towards ethnicity that only further divides the church. In a pluralistic society, Orthodox find it necessary to bear witness of the True Faith amongst various heterodox and even heathens and pagans. Moreover, belonging to many interfaith groups allows for a unified support of common interests of several faiths. This does not (nor should be allowed to) mean surrender to these groups. In most cases it does not matter what groups you belong to, but how you use your membership; if you use your membership in a group to promote Orthodoxy, you do good, if you promote the group to Orthodoxy, you do wrong. The Church does, however, forbid interfaith prayers that suggest any liturgical function or even if they are performed with liturgical vestments. The Church makes clear that NO communicato_in_sacris is intended or implied where heterodox are present. The Orthodox faith functions on the basis of Apostolic synodical consensual due process, and so has used this approved method to arrive at theological decisions and otherwise deal with the incomprehensibility of G*D; those that do not use these methodologies prescribed by the Apostles do not understand the Truth. Moreover, Orthodoxy uses the Apophatic, negational, method of deduction prescribed by St Dionysios Ariopayitis, which constrains clergy against inventing bizarre concepts like purgatory, the filioque, or the "unnaturalness" of contraception. Many Byzantine-Americans (ie, ethnic Orthodox) are easily deceived by Vaticanists who have been taught to patronisingly smother our differences as if we are just an ethnic variant of Vaticanism. (Ignoring that south Italy remained Orthodox a quarter century after the schism, until the Vatican sent in Norman conquerors, many try to attribute the schism to distance between the Patriarchs of Rome and C'ple!) Others easily fall victim to television evangelists, abandoning the clever Orthodox retort "I was born right the first time!" -- as well as the lessons of how writings of the (preConstantine) early church fathers brought many converts to Orthodoxy from Protestanism. Since the Church is unique in providing the fair, unarbitrary, logical, procedural methods for determining universal truths, it would be wrong to allow heretical untruths any legitimation. This is why the Church is stricter against praying with those who have rejected the True Message than it is in using caution in bearing witness before never-believers. This method has provided even for reconciling what may have very well been errors not in theology, but in translation, with the preChalcedonians of Ethiopia, Egypt, Armenia and India; while we await for the preChalcedonians to sign on to the remaining ecumenical councils, it is ironic that the schismatics of this century seek to condemn our effort at reunion as one more example of "ecumenism". Ironically, as well, many times these schismatics find references to adjective "ecumenical" of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as indications of "ecumenism"! It is on the basis of Christian providence that the USA's "Constituauional Anarchy" prefers the anarchy of the sinner to the dictatorship of the Christ-killing pharisee. On the other hand, many are quick to condemn the Church for not moving quickly enough in its acheiving an American Church. It is easier to do these things now that the great immigration waves have stopped and produced American offspring; Moreover, great numbers of Evangelicals and Anglicans are coming to Orthodoxy, the former as they discover the liturgical and episcopal traditions set forth by the Apostles themselves, and the latter as their church sadly crumbles. (Some seriously question if these conversions are lasting, as USA denomination often depends on neighborhood and pastor of a highly mobile and religiously-transient population.) This will occur, but it will take more time to be certain that all the procedural methods of the Church are used to assure that excess haste does not introduce heresies or errors. America has introduced the Church to pews, choir lofts, organs, retreats and Bible studies; while the Church has tolerated these, we must see if they are indeed part of the True Faith, and this will be understood only by trial and error, which inevitably takes time. Do retreats and organs serve the church, or do they allow the laity a selfish escape from more vital duties, like the teaching of catechal ("Sunday") school? Again, the methods of the Church are slow but sure. Nothing can be achieved overnight: it is an intemperate arrogance to think otherwise - indeed it is troubling how totalitarian many appear in trying to impose their view on one another. The Greek word for meek is "praos", meaning inagitable, namely, without passion, just as Christ was begotten without passion. Passions rule men and drive them to do the unintended. Only by abandonment to the total, incomprehensible love of G*D can we find truth. (The mistranslation of "meek" is matched by, for example, the mistranslation of "forgive us or tresspasses", vs "remit our obligations" cf Rev Dr Leonidas Contos, Lenten Covenant, in the Lord's Prayer and the mistranslation of kenodoxia as the vaticomonastologian "self-esteem" instead of "vanity" in the Faber Philokalia. cf GOA Bp Isaiah Liturgical Mistranslations Chr Activist v9 27May98) Yet, we should also seek a militant boldness, an efthikrisia, in which we defend that which is right. St Nicholas is said to have punched Arius on the head and called him an idiot, yet the saint's bones still drip pure water. The martyrs did NOT choose a politically correct option of practicing in private so as to not offend their pagan colleagues. Likewise, the soldier who dies trying to create peace is worth more than the peace demonstrator who is merely trying to avoid military service; too many of the unappealling, ethnocentric, undermotivated and unintelligent clergy that today dilute our message became clergy merely to avoid Vietnam and such clergy find it less taxing to favor the (both religiously and financially) less questioning ethnicists. The empathy Dostoevsky described for Pushkin's centenial is what makes it so easy for Orthodox to assimilate anywhere, just as St. Basil admonished his persecutor that he would gladly go anywhere he might be banished because it too would be part of the same blessed creation. Yet neither the antiethnicists nor those who fear them are correct in predicting a totally nonethnic church as Bayesian probability shows that "birds of a feather flock together" if only because their similar backgrounds facilitate subconscious communication. Asked why the 1980 census showed Orthodox to be the wealthiest and most educated Americans, I once retorted that we had to reconcile St Basil's synopsis of the New Testament as "the Commandment to Become G*D" with St Dionysios Ariopayitis telling us that the ultimate knowledge is the admission of total ignorance. Faced with such a gulf, it is no wonder that we feel obligated to maximally apply all our gifts to the efforts of our individual callings - for each calling, not just the clergy, is an opportunity to offer witness of the True Faith to those still blind to it (in such a way the work of the laity is equally important to the work of the clergy). Given our immense contribution already to the American experience, it should not surprise us to see not only Orthodoxy become American but America become Orthodox. Already, the Vaticanists are starting to neglect us now that they are achieving majority status and do not need us as a junior coalition partner. That is why we should set a goal of achieving a ten percent "market share" by seeking large conversions of liturgical Lutherans and Anglicans. This would make us the third largest faith by, say, 2015, after the Vaticanists (half) and Baptists (quarter). Moreover, it is more complete to seek the conversion of an entire see than an entire parish, more complete to convert a family than an individual, because the group provides a support to make the conversion more lasting. Incidentally, converts also point out that the longer the conversion process, the likelier they shall stay. Furthermore, if it is better to convert a See than a parish, imagine how much greater it is to keep an entire Ethnos, a Nation-Church, in the Church; yet we must realise that the Ethnos here is America, not the land of ancestry: this is the social contract agreed to by any immigrants coming here. Ethnicists who are quick to attach ethnicity to the Church often also fall prey to continuing pagan, preChristian traditions of their ethnicity, which the Church has reluctantly allowed under the doctrine of oikonomia. And the ethnicists usually attend church only on major holidays and even then do not really understand what they hear (for they are just as lacking in their language of birth as they are in English) and their children are often do not speak the ancestral language. On the other hand, ethnicists who do not attend church frequently and who take shortcuts during services may have ancestrally developed such traditions under communist or muslim occupation and should be forgiven for their errors. Special note should be given to how the 28th canon of the 4th ecumenical synod looks at the interrelationships between diasporas and autocephalies - whereas the Pedalion text of this canon does not openly support the C'ple claims, we should find out why this claim has been made. United American Orthodoxy must still be under some spiritual father because, as this article indicates, it is not yet ready for autocephaly - moreover the current views on autocephaly may have been miscolored by the Lutheran-emulating concept of "national church" which led to the Petrine abolition of the Moscow Patriarchate in favor of a synod, as well as to the Greek independence from C'ple. (We should critically examine our census, however, as the USA census counts partial, mixed heritage; GOANSA's 550 parishes, averaging 200 families or 500 parishioners each, as well as the total 4,000 annual funerals and 10,000 annual baptisms suggest GOANSA has only a quarter million souls, and the combined Russian churches only 75,000, and the converts never totalling more than a low, few thousand. Often it is converts who make a fight out of jurisdiction, as ethnic Russian families easily move between ROCOR and OCA.) Many are attracted to Orthodoxy because of spirituality, but they wrongly see Orthodoxy as some sort of anesthetic valium-trance hybrid of Asian and New Age religions or as some sort of schizotypal "Evangelical" "Born Again" experience. Yet true spirituality is more like an agonising withdrawal symptom, a crisis, as the outer garments of the skin are the most addictive and abusive substance of all. Orthodox spirituality cannot be practised via some home-kit do-it-yourself methods, but rather require that one submit to a spiritual father the way Christ Himself submitted to His Father. It is inside the consensual community of the Church that one comes closer to G*D, for alone it is all too easy for heresy to creep into our thoughts. Without submission, the obsessive narcissism of the pharisee creeps in and makes us forget that the militant, earthly nature of the duophysite Church is but an endless series of imperfect tradeoffs between one sin and another. (Not to say chosing the lesser sin is "ok", for it is still sin.) Many who have tried the spiritual road alone by themselves have risked permanent physicial and psychological damage, as evil seeks to creep into fallen angels because of their irresolute, intemperate and incomplete approach to spirituality. Do not forget that Stalin was once a seminarian! Klimakios warns that the higher one climbs the ladder, the more temptation tries to dissuade him. Only within the Church, within its received and time-tested processes, can one attain spirituality. Then there is the danger of the over-zealous recent converts who almost wish to become monks and bishops overnight; they become anal retentive pharisees who denounce "cradle Orthodox" for not relly being religious. Such mis-converts are often more interested in opposing abortion and "ecumenism," or supporting some geopagan pacifism, than in participating in the whole Church. This behavior can also be manifested by those who turn to the Church as a substitute for their otherwise dysfunctional lives, failing to realise that one must not sacrifice up a failed life but a successful, well-balanced one. It is not fasting to deny oneself that which one would otherwise still not afford. The lessons of the pharisees show us the danger of being too religious, at least in the outward sence. These mis-converts fail to notice for example that none of the major non-ghetto factions in any of the larger SCOBA jurisdictions really oppose assimilation, but instead differ mainly on the question of gradualism, depending on which extremist faction burnt them most in the past. Also, in the interests of church unity, the hierarchy has chosen to quietly appease all the sides, in fear of creating more schisms; such diplomacy, however, is sometimes so obvious as to not be believed by and not gain the loyalty of either side. Unfortunately, this tendency to see oikonomia applied to our differences as appeasement is also due to protestant influences. One must also be careful to note that religious organisations inevitably also double as employers of last resort, and so low-level staff are often totally ignorant of, if not opposed to, many long-term goals. The current anti-assimilative fragmentation of American society and the attendant ethnic community "action" groups (which are usually funded by dominant political machines to keep ethnic groups unassimilated and dependant) is not a uniquely Orthodox problem. One should also not be so quick to thanklessly condemn the ethnic ghettos, who cling to the idea of the Nation-Church with a childlike faith and hence brought Orthodox witness to America. They have a hard time comprehending, even believeing, that in 1872 "phyletikes parasyangoges" (tribal or racial sub-congregations) were condemend by C'ple. Yes, it is offensive to even their US-born children to hear a racist term like "homogeneity" or to refer to US-born Orthodox as "expatriates" of the ancestral land, or to hear the liturgical differentiation between ethnic homeland "nation" and American (ie, unhomogenious) "people", but these people just don't know better and sincerely think they are defending the faith against corrupting influences. While firmly rejecting their errors, we should be lovingly grateful for the foundations they have put for us to stand on. Meanwhile those in the ethnic Orthodox homelands should realise that just as a fatimist-fetishist Irishman has more credibility speaking in America on behalf of Croatia, so does a Greek or Arab Orthodox on behalf of Serbia; hence our assimilation and our partaking more fully in our American birthright is an enhancement and not a rejection of our ancestries. And, lastly, as Klimakios said, anyone can weep with someone else, but he who really rejoices when someone ELSE rejoices is really blessed. ============================================================================= In hopes of keeping us all humble and properly focused (I am greatly troubled by the totalitarian, intolerant way with which everyone tries to impose their solutions on others), I once again present my curmudgeonly, periodic, sad situation analysis of Orthodoxy in America and elsewhere: GOA: Split between Arsedoorians planning eventual return to Greece and secular sellouts who are all playing the papal game that Orthodox are really just an ethnic variant of Vaticanism. Only about a quarter of a million, mostly centered in New York, Boston and Chicago, with growing numbers in Kalipornia. Most Greeks would do anything to make Americans think they are really Italian or French. Greeks have a way of making up their mind what you are going to say before you say it and shutting out any inconvenient information - esp any information that anyone other than their side is capable of winning. While Abp Spyridon had serious misperceptions about what goes on in America, most of his opponents have serious anti-Byzantine and watered-down misperceptions about what Orthodoxy really is. About 85,000 dues-paying families. USA-Russians: only about 70,000 most of whom vacilate between OCA and ROCOR, ignoring hierarchy rantings. Most Russians would do anything to make Americans think they are really Anglo or German. OCA: Bankrupt concoction of pseudonationalities trying to make another one up. Stuck out on a limb with autocephaly that no one recognises. They see the money in the GOA and get real giddy. About 25,000 dues-paying families. ROCOR: Refugees now without a real enemy, so their paranoia is busy concocting some. Head-in-sand approach is denying them a major opportunity to make Russia (and other Orthodox) a viable, democratic, capitalist power. Used to stay away from other old cal schizmos, but now embracing them. Antiochians: Sometimes they play along with the Greeks, sometimes with the Russians. Sometimes they wanna be WASP, sometimes they pretend to be Christian Jews, other times they insist they are Arab (and that Greek insistance on language scared away Arabs to Islam - except that Greek actually preceded Arabic in their lands - and the Textus_Receptus was undeniably Greek and not Aramaic), other times they say the muslims are Arabs who invaded their countries. About 60,000 dues-paying families. Converts: Some are no doubt for real, but many are mercenaries, maybe unwittingly. (For example, they fight the OCA-ROCOR wars with more gusto than any Russian.) Some are on schizotypal "journeys" and change religion every decade, as they move or get "born again". Some are here, not to be Orthodox, but to win the Orthodox over to some particular cause they support (eg anti-abortion, pro-ecumenism, or something else). Probably in the low four digits - maybe as few as 2,000. Many they are somehow on a mission to save Orthodoxy from the ethnics, like real bad housguests intent on rearranging their host's furniture. While converts average a ten year stay, cradle Orthodox don't last much after the second generation, so they have nothing to brag about either. Old countries: Vacilating between reviving Byzantine Commonwealth and becoming pagan secularist theme park tourist attractions. Greeks mostly wish Council of Florence was revived so they could have papacy helping them against the Turks - and oddly blame the Russians for the Schism. Some Russians see their ENTIRE past, both communism and byzantism, as causes of their problems. They see the media's perception of fringe western ways as being the MAINSTREAM of western ways. In both directions (Europe-US), information funnelled through secularist central city media fails to manifest more spiritual and conservative views. Post-Crimea post-San-Stefano Brit-instigated split between GrecoSerboRomanian and RussoBulgArab camps risks being revived. Both the church in Greece and the one in Russia have taken the Lutheran-emulating national church movement of Peter the Great a lot more seriously than Constantinople has or realises. The Greek left sees the Church as a political entity and they see issues like abortion and women priests as matters of leftward "progress" while viewing monastics as "ayatollahs" and they openly seek to find pagan syncretistic roots to Church traditions in order to prove a continuity of said "progress"; they even seek to play down such hymns as "ypermakho" as being too "militaristic". Even the Greek center seems to see the papacy as a "civilising" influence on "backwards" clergy. ============================================================================= A Short Contacts List of SCOBA-Canonical Orthodoxy in America http://www.theologic.com/links.html http://listserv.indiana.edu/archives/orthodox.html http://platon.ee.duth.gr/data/maillist-archives/orthodoxia news://alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox http://www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru http://www.ecclesia.gr/EngEcclesia http://www.myriobiblos.gr/Text_Indexes/english/prayerbook/cont1.htm Directory listing all SCOBA parishes 800-695-4237 (by OPT) Orthodox People Together (InterOrthodox Arm of SCOBA) 5045 Eldridge Golden CO 80403 (303) 278-0815 GOTelecom (tapes,VISNTV Illuminations) 2709Crescent LIC NY11102 (718) 626-5233 Ecumenical Patriarchate fax 011-90-1-534-9037 Jurisdictions: SCOBA, GOA & Orth Observer 10E79 NYC 10021 (212) 570-2500 goarch.org OCA & Orth Wrld POB675 Rt25a Syosset LI NY 11791 (516) 922-0550 oca.org Antiochian 358 Mountain Englewood NJ 07631 (201) 871-1355 aaron.org AGAIN Evang nwsltr POB 76 Ben Lomond CA 95005 (800) 967-7377 Light & Life Press 4836 Pk Glen Mnpls MN 55426-0421 (also Albanian, Carpathian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Ukranian) Seminaries: Holy Cross 50 Goddard Brookline MA 02146 (617) 731-3500 (has book catalog) National Help "Orthodox ActionLine" (800) 225-0235 St Vlad 575 Scarsdale Crestwood NY 10707 (914) 961-9811 (800) 204-BOOK GTU Orth Inst 2400 Ridge Berkeley CA 94709 (510) 649-2450 Joint Charity: IOCC 711W40#356 Balt MD 21211 (410) 243-9820 011-301-601-3682 ZOE Bookstore (Athens) 14Karytsis GR10561 +301-322-3560 fax1283 Elevtherudthakis Bookstore (Athens) www.books.gr =============================================================================