Why is this newsworthy? Because the fact that so many people are seeing past the glitz of modern American "Christian-tainment" and are discovering that the Church of the New Testament hasn't vanished, hasn't abandon the Faith "once for all delivered," and hasn't conformed to the "pattern of this world," is a beautiful and a wonderful thing. Soon, this will be so commonplace that newspapers won't even bother to devote any ink to it.
From the Houston Chronicle:
Like many of his parishioners, Father Richard Petranek came to the Orthodox church in search of the past.
After 30 years as an Episcopalian priest, Petranek converted to the Antiochian Orthodox Church and leads a new but growing parish in west Houston, filled almost entirely with converts to the ancient faith.
"Most people come for the stability," he said. "The same thing that is taught today in the Orthodox church was taught 500 years ago, was taught 1,000 years ago, was taught 1,500 years ago."
At a time when most mainline Christian churches are losing members, Eastern Orthodox churches — which trace their beliefs to the church described in the New Testament - are growing, both in Houston and across the United States.
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"We were amazed the church still existed, and it had never changed," said Lana Jobe, who with her husband, Lloyd, left a Baptist church to join Petranek at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church four years ago. "That was so important to us."
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"People are tired of these worship services that look closer to MTV or the Disney channel than something that goes back into the past," said Schaeffer, son of Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer and the author of books including Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion and Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism). "In the Orthodox church, people are not there for the priest, but for the liturgy."
Jobe points to something else:
"You see churches today splitting over doctrinal issues," she said. "In the Baptist church, there's the Southern Baptists. There's the Texas Baptists. There are controversies over Biblical truths or inerrancy or homosexuality; all kinds of issues come up, and the church wants to vote on it. We don't have to vote on anything, because it was settled from the very beginning."
Read the rest here
