-- --- 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.
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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.
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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
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