What’s so appealing about Orthodoxy?

By Rod Dreher

I came to Orthodoxy in 2006, a broken man. I had been a devoutly observant and convinced Roman Catholic for years, but had my faith shattered in large part by what I had learned as a reporter covering the sex abuse scandal. It had been my assumption that my theological convictions would protect the core of my faith through any trial, but the knowledge I struggled with wore down my ability to believe in the ecclesial truth claims of the Roman church (I wrote in detail about that drama here). For my wife and me, Protestantism was not an option, given what we knew about church history, and given our convictions about sacramental theology. That left Orthodoxy as the only safe harbor from the tempest that threatened to capsize our Christianity.

In truth, I had longed for Orthodoxy for some time, for the same reasons I, as a young man, found my way into the Catholic Church. It seemed to me a rock of stability in a turbulent sea of relativism and modernism overtaking Western Christianity. And while the Roman church threw out so much of its artistic and liturgical heritage in the violence of the Second Vatican Council, the Orthodox still held on to theirs. Several years before we entered Orthodoxy, my wife and I visited Orthodox friends at their Maryland parish. As morally and liturgically conservative Catholics, we were moved and even envious over what we saw there. We had to leave early to scoot up the road to the nearest Seventies moderne Catholic parish to meet our Sunday obligation. The contrast between the desultory liturgical proceedings at Our Lady of Pizza Hut and what we had walked out of in the Orthodox parish down the road literally reduced us to tears. But ugliness, even a sense of spiritual desolation, does not obviate truth, and we knew we had to stand with truth – and therefore with Rome – despite it all.

If Catholicism in America had been healthy, maybe we could have held on through the sex abuse trials. But my wife and I had been worrying for some time how we were going to raise faithful Christian children given the loosey-goosey moral teaching in Roman parishes. We considered ourselves orthodox Catholics, meaning we really believed what was in the Catechism, and struggled to live by it. We failed – everybody fails – but the point is, we looked to the church to provide clear moral leadership, and to help us live out the faith with integrity and joy. Here’s the problem: there is very little orthodoxy in the U.S. Catholic Church, and at the parish level, almost no recognition that there is a such thing as “right belief.” It wasn’t that I wanted to throw out all those who don’t live up to Catholic teaching – I would have been the first one shown the door if that had been true – but that I discerned no direction, and no real conviction that parish communities exist for any reason other than to affirm ourselves in our okayness. Though I didn’t have a term to describe it at the time, I was weary to the bone from an ersatz form of Christianity that sociologist Christian Smith calls “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” I had been so hollowed out by despair over all this as a Catholic that when the strong winds of the abuse scandal began to blow, the structure of my Catholic belief did not stand.

I say all this not to disparage the Roman Catholic Church – which I still love, and to which I cannot be grateful enough for introducing me to ancient, sacramental Christianity – but to show why Orthodoxy was so attractive to me. When I interviewed him for my book “Crunchy Cons,” my friend Hugh O’Beirne, a convert from Catholicism to Orthodoxy, told me that for a Catholic wearied by the culture wars raging inside American Catholicism, it is blessed relief to find that in Orthodoxy, there is no “war footing.” The kinds of issues that are tearing apart many other American churches aren’t nearly as contentious in Orthodox practice. Though it would be foolish to pretend these conflicts don’t exist in Orthodox parishes, they simply aren’t nearly as much of an issue.

And then there is the liturgy and music. There is nothing comparable to it in other churches. It is overwhelmingly beautiful and deep, and is largely the same Divine Liturgy (though in the vernacular tongue) that St. John Chrysostom, the 5th century patriarch of Constantinople, formalized. The beauty of that liturgy is utterly transporting, and the reverence it inspires is tonic. And while I miss familiar old hymns (in Orthodox services, we chant prayers and Psalms), there’s a lot to be said for never having to endure “On Eagle’s Wings” and other shag-carpeted hymnody endemic to modern American Catholic worship.

The main reason why Orthodoxy is so attractive to converts, at least to this convert, is its seriousness about sin. I don’t mean that it’s a dour religion – it is very far from that! – but rather that Orthodoxy takes the brokenness of humankind with appropriate seriousness. Orthodoxy is not going to tell you that you’re okay. In fact, it will require you to call yourself, as St. Paul described himself, the “chief of sinners.” And Orthodoxy is going to tell you the Good News: Jesus died and returned to life so that you too might live. But in order to live, you are going to have to die to yourself, over and over again. And that will not be painless, and cannot be, or it’s not real.

Because of that, for all its dramatic beauty and rich feasting, Orthodoxy is far more austere and demanding than most American Christianity. The long liturgies, the frequent prayers, the intense fasts – all make serious demands on the believer, especially comfortable middle-class Americans like me. They call us out of ourselves, and to repentance. Orthodoxy is not interested in making you feel comfortable in your sins. It wants nothing less than for you to be a saint.

It’s common among American converts to hear that men were first attracted to Orthodoxy, and their wives followed. It’s not hard to see why. Many men are tired of a soft, bourgeois Christianity that doesn’t call them to much because it doesn’t ask much of them. Men love a challenge, and that’s exactly what Orthodoxy gives them.

Don’t be misled. Orthodoxy is not, at its core, about rules and practices. The more I progress in my Orthodoxy, the clearer it is to me that Orthodoxy is, above all, a way. It is not an institution, a set of doctrines, or a collection of rituals, though it contains all three. It is rather a way of seeing the world, and one’s place in it, and a map to holiness that is paradoxically both ancient and astonishingly fresh, at least to Western sensibilities. It is the way of liberation.

True, it is possible to find dreary parish life in American Orthodoxy, often among the ethnically-oriented older parishes that see themselves as little more than the tribe at prayer. And because Orthodox churches are full of ordinary American people, they are also filled with ordinary American problems. Anyone who comes to an Orthodox church expecting perfection will be disappointed. What you will find, though, is truth and beauty presented in a way that can be breathtaking to modern Americans, and an ancient Way grounded on doctrinal stability, sacramental reality, and practical Christian mysticism – a mysticism that has been marginalized in most other American churches.

I found in Orthodoxy what I thought I would find when I became Catholic. As my patron saint in Orthodoxy, I chose St. Benedict of Nursia, dear to both churches, and a sign of the unity we used to have, and that we might yet have again. The Catholic church needs to be more orthodox, and the Orthodox church needs to be more catholic. I pray, I really pray, that I will live to see that unity return. Until that time, though, I am grateful to God that He gave me a second chance in Orthodoxy, and showed me the Way I had been searching for all my life. When I first came in the door, a spiritually broken mess, I thought it would be impossible for me to learn to endure these long liturgies, this intense prayer, these prostrations, the strict fasting, and – how to put this? – the weirdness of Orthodox Christianity in an American context. Five years on, I can’t imagine how I ever lived without it. You can’t read your way into Orthodoxy. You have to come and see for yourself.

Rod Dreher is a writer in Philadelphia.

By Rod Dreher
06:31 PM ET, 03/17/2011

"New Converts Flocking to Ancient Church..."

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.

***

"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."


***
"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

"epic tapestry"

Brilliant!!! Why didn't I think if this???

See the rest at Flow of Consciousness

The Premodern Christian

From Byzantine Tx:

On one level, many Orthodox converts are fleeing megachurch Christianity. They are coming because they want something on Sunday morning besides a rock band and a giant plasma TV screen. Converts are also fleeing from mainline Protestantism, which is in the midst of a three-decade statistical nosedive and demographic suicide.

At the same time, I believe that most of these converts are coming out of that core 20 percent of their former churches. They are active, highly motivated people. They read, they think, they sing, and they serve. That hunger for more, that hunger for sound doctrine, is sending them to Orthodoxy.

These Orthodox converts are seeking mystery. They want a non-fundamentalist approach to the faith, but they are not fleeing the faith of the ages. They are trying to get back to the trunk of the tree. All around them are churches that are either modern, postmodern, post-postmodern or post-post-postmodern.

Read the rest here

Pictures from last weekend

click picture to link

"Journey to Orthodoxy"

The following is an article entitled "Journey to Orthodoxy," by Father Bill Olnhausen of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. It comes to us via the Council of Orthodox Christian Churches of Metropolitan Detroit website.

In September 1989, I became a member and priest of the Holy Orthodox Church. Here are my reactions...TEN YEARS LATER.

What I hoped to find in the Orthodox Church
I was seeking stability in the faith. I sought the Church that St. Irenaeus had described, which "carefully preserves" apostolic teachings and "proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down with perfect harmony", throughout the world and from generation to generation. By process of elimination, I had concluded that only the Orthodox Church fit this description. I came to the Orthodox Church demoralized and exhausted, war-weary from the losing battle of trying to maintain traditional doctrinal, liturgical and moral standards in western Christianity.

In ten years in the Orthodox Church, I have encountered not one disbelieving bishop, priest, theologian or layperson. Certainly there are Orthodox who don't take the faith seriously or who are lax in their practice, but so far as I can see no one denies it or is trying to change it. Orthodox unity in the faith still astounds me. I found what I was seeking.

What I feared as I came to the Orthodox Church
(1) That I would never fit in. Those who have grown up Orthodox cannot imagine how forbidding the Orthodox Church can appear to an outsider. I now find it hard to believe that ten years ago people with Middle Eastern and Greek backgrounds seemed very exotic to me. Orthodoxy felt "foreign" and "ethnic" to this German/Welsh/Irish-American. Partly I was a prisoner of my own ethnic background. But also I was afraid I would break some eastern cultural or religious taboo and cause great offense. Orthodox worship appeared very difficult to master, and I was afraid "cradle" Orthodox would laugh at me as I struggled to learn it. I was wrong. Yes, I have encountered some ethnic differences - which have caused me to grow. I have learned to hug and kiss a lot more, and also to express myself more forcefully. (I have had to abandon Anglican subtlety. There's no point in "beating around the bush" with Orthodox people!) I have eaten things I never ate before. The wonderful ethnic diversity of Orthodoxy has been broadening to me in a number of ways. (Ah, the food at our church suppers!)
But my fears were unfounded. Though I still make mistakes (just ask the bishops...), Orthodox worship has not been as difficult as I anticipated. Furthermore, once you learn it, it holds still: no national liturgical commission is trying to revise and modernize Orthodox worship - thank God! The "cradle" Orthodox who have come to Saint Nicholas have, with almost no exceptions, been sweet and tolerant as I have learned Orthodoxy. Indeed I have never felt so loved in my life. And as for the Antiochian Archdiocese... surely the Middle-Easterners who welcomed us into their Archdiocese must sometimes find us converts and our mistakes and peculiar ways hard to take, but I have found only the warmest of welcomes. There has been not the slightest pressure to become anything ethnically other than what I am. After ten years, I feel far more at home in this "foreign" Orthodox Church than I ever felt in my former denomination.

(2) I was afraid I would starve to death. I feared Khouria Dianna and I would have to live in poverty, being supported only by a struggling little mission in a "poor immigrant Church". I was wrong. I can't speak of all Orthodox jurisdictions and parishes - but I am amazed at the amount of money that flows through the Antiochian Archdiocese and through this congregation. My former supposedly wealthy denomination had nothing to compare to Antiochian Village and Conference Center, or to the style of our Archdiocese Conventions and Conferences, or to the proportion of money that goes to good works outside the Archdiocese. I could never have imagined that in ten years our own small congregation would have a fine temple, mostly paid off, and would have given away well over $100,000. The people of Saint Nicholas have supported me more than generously. Khouria Dianna has found it good to work full time, because her health insurance is so good. But we have got our children through college, for the first time in our life we own a home, my automobile allowance allows me to pay cash for my cars, and we have traveled more and farther than ever before in our lives. This has been a great faith-builder: we have far more trust in the power of God to provide. And I was afraid of going hungry!

What else I have found in the Orthodox Church
(1) The Kingdom of God. I have shared this with many of you before: About the fourth Sunday after I became Orthodox, as I stood at the altar at Divine Liturgy, the presence of God and the saints and angels became Real to me. It was not an intellectual discovery (I had believed it before), nor was it a new feeling. The Kingdom was just Present, almost palpable. That was how I began to encounter the common Orthodox experience of worship as "heaven on earth". It has continued at every service since then. At worship in my former denomination, I tried hard to concentrate my mind on God and the saints. Now I don't have to. They concentrate on me; they surround me; they encompass me. Words are inadequate. I can't describe the indescribable. But most Orthodox know from their own experience what I'm trying to say.

(2) That Orthodoxy has the power to change lives, beginning with my own: My despair and weariness have turned to hope and and energy. Inside, I feel younger than I did ten years ago. And I have seen so many in my congregation turn to God in a new way. Again, I don't deny that there are many nominal Orthodox, and none of us practice Orthodoxy as we should. But I see that the Orthodox doctrine of theosis (that God makes us like himself, makes us holy) is not theory: it is a description of what actually happens to people in the Orthodox Church. In my former denomination I always felt that I had to change people by my own words and efforts. Here God and the Church do it, and I'm simply one of those being changed.

(3) Not only great joy but also lots of fun! Starting a new mission was hard work on the part of all of us, and just conducting Orthodox worship is exhausting. (Western services now seem so short.) But I have never enjoyed myself or laughed so much in my life. This has been a delight.

(4) That the outside world looks odder and odder. Partly this is because American culture has kept changing since I became Orthodox, while Orthodoxy has held still. Things which seemed unconscionable in our culture even ten years ago are now commonplace. But also the world seems stranger to me because Orthodoxy is even more counter-cultural than I ever imagined. In the western denominations, radical theology, pop worship, women's ordination and "gay" rights are ever more the order of the day - while in Orthodoxy these things are still not even being debated, nor is there any sign that they will be. The western secular world continues to think that politics and economics and education can solve our problems, and that a just society can be created by man without reference to God and his truth - while Orthodoxy is God and his truth. I watch the evening news and read non-Orthodox religious publications and just shake my head: what ever do these people think they're doing? As an Orthodox I feel far less threatened by what's going on outside the Church, and I find that now it makes me sad instead of angry - but the non-Orthodox world looks ever more peculiar to me.

Has there been any down side?
Scarcely any. Becoming Orthodox has been overwhelmingly a positive experience for me. However...
(1) For some of the reasons mentioned above, I've discovered that Orthodoxy is more difficult to communicate to our society than I would have guessed. At first I felt that if Americans could only be to exposed to Orthodoxy, they would rush into the Church. Certainly Orthodoxy is growing in the world - and our Antiochian Archdiocese has grown by leaps and bounds during the past ten years - but I also now see that many modern Americans find it hard to understand Orthodoxy. They are so accustomed to human-centered, man-made religion that they find it difficult even to grasp the concept of God-centered, revealed religion. Many do not see the purpose of worship. More than a few have come to our Orthodox services (even in English) and have no idea what's going on. "Making America Orthodox" is not as easy as I thought.

(2) As I moved into Orthodoxy and discovered how good it is, for a while I felt unhappy that I had waited so long to become Orthodox. Why did I waste so much time in western Christianity trying to reinvent the wheel, when the real Church was here waiting for me all the while? I could have spent my whole ministry in the Church; we could have raised our children in the Orthodox faith. I'm still sad about this, but I've come to accept that God has his own timing, that he can use even my slowness and stupidity and stubbornness for good.

Would I do it all over again?
Yes! Yes! Yes! These past ten years in Orthodoxy have been the best and happiest and most fulfilling of my life. Thanks to God and thanks to Saint Nicholas for bringing me home.

100 Reasons why You should be an Orthodox Christian

1. Because the Orthodox Church is the original Church; the very same one described in the New Testament.
2. Because the Orthodox Church does not approach the Almighty God in a casual and relaxed way.
3. Because the Orthodox Church is the only church whose teachings can be shown not to have changed since the first century.
4. Because the Orthodox Church is not interested in entertaining you.
5. Because only with the Orthodox Church do you have any reason to believe that your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren will worship and believe the way you do.
6. Because the Orthodox Church prays to and worships the entire Holy Trinity, not just one or two members to the exclusion of the rest.
7. Because only the Orthodox Church believes and practices the Christian Faith in its entirety.
8. Because the Orthodox Church takes the Christian Faith very seriously.
9. Because only the Orthodox Church uses the entire Bible rather than a carefully chosen selection of "proof text" verses.
10. Because the Orthodox Church does not take a minimalist approach to faith and worship.
11. Because only with the Orthodox Church can you be sure that the teachings and worship style will not change with successive pastors.
12. Because the Orthodox Church prays the Lord's Prayer at every single service.
13. Because no other church has so vibrant and robust a prayer life.
14. Because the Orthodox Church expects you to be a participant, not just a spectator.
15. Because only the Orthodox Church still worships Christ with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
16. Because you are not the Pillar and Foundation of Truth (1 Tim 3.15).
17. Because the Orthodox Church had no part in the Crusades, the Inquisition, or the Salem Witch Trials.
18. Because Orthodox worship is intended to imitate heavenly worship.
19. Because no other church so steadfastly refuses to model itself in any way after modern culture.
20. Because the Orthodox Church believes we have much to learn from those who finished the race ahead of us.
21. Because only the Orthodox Church baptizes with triple immersion.
22. Because the Orthodox Church believes that becoming a disciple involves more than just showing up.
23. Because only the Orthodox Church confesses the original Nicene Creed.
24. Because the Orthodox Church believes in the priesthood of all believers (1Pt 2.9-10), and yes, that includes you.
25. Because the Orthodox Church has never needed a Reformation, or a Counter-Reformation, a "restoration," or a "revival."
26. Orthodox Christians know that they worship among a "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12.1).
27. Because the Orthodox Church never takes Bible verses out of context.
28. Only the Orthodox Church worships the way the Apostles did.
29. The theologians and spiritual leaders of the Orthodox Church far outshine those of other Christian traditions.
30. Because you should be an Orthodox Christian.
31. Only in Orthodoxy do you get to hear words like phronema, logismos and troparion.
32. The Orthodox Church uses the same Old Testament canon used by Christ and His disciples, rather than one based on a medieval Jewish manuscript (i.e. the Masoretic Text).
33. Because doctrine matters.
34. No other church gives more appropriate respect and honor to "the mother of my Lord" (Lk 1.43).
35. The Orthodox Church is the only church in which you will hear basso profundo.
36. No other church worships in a manner more consistent with Biblical worship.
37. The Orthodox Church not only survived persecution by two of the most blood-thirsty anti-Christian regimes of all time--the Romans and the Soviets--but thrived as a result.
38. No other church can make a better case to being the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
39. Because the Orthodox Church does not ask "What is the least I have to do to be saved?"
40. The Orthodox Church has no interest in being "cool," "relevant," "sexy," "mainstream," or "politically correct."
41. The Orthodox Church is profoundly, unswervingly, and consistently pro-life (all life).
42. Only within the Orthodox Church will you really begin to see that the entire Old Testament--not just the Prophets--points directly to our salvation in Christ.
43. The Orthodox Church doesn't sacrifice faith for reason...or vice versa.
44. Because St Patrick was an Orthodox Christian.
45. The Orthodox Church recognizes only Christ as the Head of the Church, and does not believe that He needs a "vicar."
46. Because you really should be an Orthodox Christian.
47. Only the Orthodox Church will expect you to take up your cross daily...and will actually show you how.
48. You will, without a doubt, hear more Scripture read in an Orthodox church than anywhere else.
49. The Orthodox Church will never force you to lean on your own understanding (Prov 3.5).
50. You will never see a "clown Mass," a "polka Mass," or a "mariachi Mass" at an Orthodox church.
51. The Orthodox Church does not believe in "works righteousness."
52. Only the Orthodox Church will allow you to worship God with all five of your senses.
53. The Orthodox Church does not believe that you are predestined to Heaven or Hell, but that you are given the freedom to choose one or the other.
54. Because you will never confuse Orthodox worship with a rock concert a variety show or a self-help session.
55. Because Orthodox Christians eat really well!
56. The Orthodox Church includes and embraces all those Bible verses you never underlined.
57. Despite not having an "infallible" pope and Magisterium, the Orthodox Church has somehow managed to maintain the "Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) better than anyone.
58. As an Orthodox Christian you get to celebrate Christmas twice every year!
59. The Orthodox Church does not try to explain the unexplainable God.
60. Because St Nicholas was an Orthodox Christian.
61. Only the Orthodox Church uses the Psalms as they were intended: as prayers to be sung rather than as essays to be studied.
62. Honestly, you really and truly should be an Orthodox Christian.
63. The Orthodox Church doesn't limit the Revelation of the Holy Spirit to the pages of Scripture.
64. No other church celebrates the Resurrection of Christ with such profound joy and energy and enthusiasm and awe.
65. The Orthodox Church doesn't care how much you know, only what you believe, and then what you do about it.
66. Only in the Orthodox Church will you find people worshiping God with their faces to the ground.
67. The Orthodox Church is episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational.
68. Because Orthodox Christians have never been known to set other Christians on fire.
69. Because the Orthodox Church wants you to become holy, not just seem holy, but actually become holy.
70. Because the Orthodox Church knows nothing of purgatory, indulgences, the "rapture," or other theological innovations.
71. Because Sts Peter and Paul and all the Apostles were Orthodox Christians.
72. When you step into an Orthodox house of worship, you know you're in church.
73. As an Orthodox Christian, you have two-thousand years worth of saints and martyrs on your side praying for you.
74. Because Orthodox worship never degrades to touchy-feely, ooey-gooey emotional manipulation.
75. Only the Orthodox Church allows infants and young children to be full members of the Body of Christ.
76. No one comes into the Orthodox Church expecting to change it.
77. Only in the Orthodox Church do you really begin to get a sense of what sin has done to you...
78. ...and, therefore, what a wonderful gift Salvation is.
79. The Orthodox Church is the original pentecostal Church.
80. Because it was the Orthodox Church that first articulated the things you believe about the Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ.
81. Many of the conflicts that divide Catholics and Protestants are simply not issues in the Orthodox Church.
82. Every single Orthodox priest can trace his clerical ancestry all the way back to the Twelve Apostles.
83. Because Orthodox worship is not just mental or emotional, but is physical and substantial as well.
84. Because the problems in the Orthodox Church--and there are a few--are political, not theological or dogmatic.
85. Because only an Orthodox patriarch is given the Holy Fire.
86. Because no one is born an Orthodox Christian...everyone is a convert.
87. No other church actually expects you to fast and tells you how.
88. Because Orthodox worship often includes speaking in tongues: Greek, Serbian, Slavonic, English, Arabic, and Romanian to name a few.
89. Because the Orthodox Church teaches that is it possible not only to sin with our bodies, but also to honor God with them.
90. Because Orthodox Christianity is a lifestyle, not simply something you do on Sunday mornings.
91. Because "a good understanding have all they that do His commandments" (Ps 111.10).
92. No other church worships with such reverence, holiness, joy, and with such complete surrender to God.
93. You will be hard-pressed to find another church with such beautiful hymns and prayers.
94. The Orthodox Church wrote, compiled, and approved the New Testament.
95. You will never hear a secular song in an Orthodox temple.
96. The Orthodox Church is a hospital, not a courthouse.
97. The Orthodox Church is a temple, not a funhouse.
98. The Orthodox Church was preaching the Gospel long before the profusion of unaffiliated organizations trying to pass themselves off as the Church came into existence...
99. ...and will be preaching the Gospel long after they are all but a paragraph in the history books.
100. Because every day you resist joining the Holy Orthodox Church is another day lost.

Hindu Convert

The following is part of the personal testimony of a young woman who converted to Christianity from Hinduism. It is a very interesting piece, which you can read the rest of here.


At the Orthodox church, it wasn't like a memorial service for someone who had passed on to the next world, it was worship...truly believing that God was present, singing to God, not about him, not singing to ourselves, not singing for fellowship, not worshiping his idea, but actually presenting worship as a sacrifice within the presence of God. - and not being casual in his presence, but having a sense of holiness and respect - not because people wanted to be goody-two-shoes, but because if you actually believe that God is present, you'll be alert, rather than coming up with excuses about how God shouldn't care about this or that or the other, but naturally wanting to do your best in the presence of God out of love and respect and acknowledgment of his holiness.


See the baptism video here. And go here for a great follow-up to the above article.

Pastor finds a home in Orthodox Christianity

From the Toledo Blade:

The Rev. Daniel Hackney, a self-professed "ecumenical mutt," has found a home in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church.

Father Daniel, 45, grew up in a Baptist family, was active in the evangelical Jesus movement, attended Assembly of God and Roman Catholic universities, and served as a pastor in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for 10 years.

On Sunday, he was ordained an Antiochian Orthodox priest by Bishop Mark Maymon, bishop of Toledo and the Midwest Diocese, in a ceremony at St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church in Sylvania.

"...I wanted to be a part of something whose worship transcends categories such as traditional and contemporary, something that remains the same so that I can have the assurance that my children and their children will be praying the same prayers, singing the same hymns, and worshipping in the same way."

Father Daniel, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, plans to apply this summer for active duty as a chaplain.


Read the rest here.

Baptism and Chrismation

The following is taken from the article "Baptism and Chrismation," by Bishop Alexander Mileant.

Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, came to Earth to destroy sin and grant mankind an opportunity to obtain eternal and joyful life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Spiritual rebirth begins with a man's faith in Jesus Christ, a true desire to be liberated from the tyranny of sin, and a drive to lead a life in accordance with God’s will. Our Lord Jesus Christ likened this spiritual rebirth to the resurrection of the dead when He said: "Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live" (John 5:25). However, faith and desire by themselves are not sufficient. What is needed is the power of grace, which realizes the spiritual rebirth of an individual. This power of grace permeates the soul of the person submerged in water during baptism.

One who is purified from sin is emancipated from its tyranny and freed to follow a spiritual life. The Holy Scripture calls this spiritual birth the "first resurrection," as opposed to the second, physical resurrection, which will occur before the end of the world (Rev. 20:5). The baptized person becomes a beloved child of God, His adopted son or daughter, by the grace of Christ.

This does not mean that, because of baptism, a person is freed from all temptations or from the spiritual fight. Spiritual struggles are unavoidable for every person who exists in this world of temptation. But a person who is not baptized lacks the power to fight the bondage of sin, and is enslaved to it, whereas someone who is baptized is liberated from sin and receives assistance to fight against temptations.

Just as the death and resurrection of Christ culminated in Pentecost--the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles--so the baptism of a Christian attains its fulfillment in Chrismation. In Baptism, one puts on the death of Christ, and also his resurrection; in Chrismation, one is given the grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus one can see how the miracle of Pentecost is continually renewed in the Church through these mysteries.

The meaning of Chrismation lies in the most important and fundamental words of the mystery, which make up the concluding utterance: "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." They stand as (a) the concluding act confirming the entry of the baptized person into the Church, and (b) the source of grace-filled strength granted to grow stronger and ripen to perfection in the spiritual life.

St. Cyprian writes, "People baptized in church are imprinted with the Lord’s seal just as the christened Samaritans once received the Holy Spirit from the Apostles Peter and John, through the laying on of hands and prayer…What they were lacking, (namely the Holy Spirit, as they were baptized in the name of Christ only), the Apostles Peter and John fulfilled ... That also happens with us ... we become complete with the Lord’s seal" (Acts 8:14-17). St. Cyprian confirms that the ancients, in speaking of birth through water and the Spirit, understood birth through water to refer to physical baptism, while Chrismation was the birth through the Spirit.

During Apostolic times, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were bestowed through the laying on of hands. We read about this in Acts (8:14-17 and 19:2-6): the Apostle Paul met some disciples in Ephesus who had received only the baptism of John. When he learned of this they "were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them."

How was the blessed laying on of hands replaced by anointing with chrism? Most probably, because the Apostles could not physically visit every newly baptized convert and lay hands on him, they replaced this practice by the anointing with chrism, which was blessed by them and distributed to the representatives of many churches. As we are reminded by the Apostle Paul: "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Cor. 1:21-22). The integral words of the Mystery, "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit," thus also have a basis in these words of the Apostle.

Further on, St. Paul writes: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). In the Holy Scripture, the "day of redemption" refers to baptism, while "being sealed" by the Holy Spirit means the seal of the Holy Spirit that follows immediately after baptism.

The oil of the Chrism and no other substance is used in the Mystery of Chrismation, because even in the Old Testament oil was used to endow people with particular spiritual gifts (Exodus 28:41; 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Kings 1:39). The renowned third-century writer Tertullian had this to say: "After emerging from the baptismal font, we are anointed with a blessed oil just like the ancients were anointed for priesthood with the oil from the horn."

The narratives from the Acts of the Apostles confirm that, apart from receiving spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit, the laying on of hands or the Chrismation after baptism served both as a confirmation of the bestowal of Baptism and a seal of the union of those baptized with the Church. That is why these acts were performed by the Apostles themselves, and subsequently, by their successors, i.e., bishops. While a person is born through baptism for a spiritual life, Chrismation makes him a participant in the Church's life of grace.


For further reading:
What is Holy Chrismation?
The Sanctification of the Holy Chrism
Chrismation (OCA)
Chrismation (OrthodoxWiki)
The Sacrament of Chrismation

Conversion

Normally, changing church affiliations is known simply as "attending another church."

When someone decides to stop attending the local non-denominational church and start attending the Lutheran church up the road, for example, he doesn't necessarily consider himself to be "converting." The word "proselyte" doesn't even occur to him.

However, making the move from Protestantism to Orthodoxy involves much more than simply altering the geography of one's Sunday worship; it is more than singing a different set of hymns, or exchanging pews for theater seating, or vice-versa. It is learning a whole new language; it's becoming the country mouse in the big city; it's Alice slipping through the looking glass; it's Dorothy, discovering that simply moving from one grayscale room to another isn't getting her anywhere, and stepping out the front door and into the lush Technicolor land of Oz; it's Butch and Sundance plunging off the cliff; it's "Alea iacta est" and "One giant leap" rolled into one.

I would say that, yes, the word "conversion" would apply here.

Since before Kathryn and I married, we attended a church at which we were both very comfortable, where the people were warm and welcoming, where we knew and loved the pastors, where were were able to assist with our time and tithes. It was the church in which we were married, so there was—and is—an emotional connection. We could easily continue for many years to attend and worship at Christ the King and be perfectly comfortable and content there.

But knowing what we know now, we can see that for us to remain at that church, or at any Protestant church, is to be part of a church whose doctrine and practice are demonstrably different from the Church of the first century; it would be to hold the Scripture over the Church, and to believe that my interpretation of the Scriptures is superior to the consistent witness of the Church through the ages; it would be to reject the written testimony of the Early Fathers in favor of Enlightenment scholars, and to believe that, until the Reformation, God reneged on His promise not to allow the gates of hell prevail against His Church.

We recognize now that, despite whatever argument we can devise to justify doing so, for us to continue for another day within any Christian body other than the Holy Orthodox Church would be to remain in willful and obstinate separation from the very same Church of the Apostles, the Church founded on Pentecost.

At approximately 4 o'clock on the afternoon of February 21st, Kathryn and I will be baptized into the Orthodox Church. Any of my readers who feel inclined to attend are invited to do so. It will take place at St. Sabbas Monastery in Harper Woods.*

If, however, between now and then someone can give me reason to believe that there is another Christian body out there that...

...can better or more clearly demonstrate continuity between its present self and the Church established at Pentecost,

…can be shown to have adhered to and taught more steadfastly the "faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,"

…more consistently and accurately reflects the teaching of the Scriptures,

…gives more appropriate respect and honor to “the mother of my Lord,”

…has a fuller and more active and robust prayer life,

...can prescribe more effective means of denying myself and taking up my cross,

...worships in a manner more consistent with Biblical worship,

…can make a better case to being the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,

then we will immediately put the baptism on hold.

However, I don't expect that will happen. I don't believe it can happen. I believe beyond any reasonable doubt that this is the "one fold," this is the fullness of the Faith. This is Christianity as God intended, undiminished, uncorrupted, undistorted.

I invite all my readers who haven't already done so to get out of the black-and-white, and step through the front door into the color. Don't take my word for it: come and see.


*Attendees are reminded to dress appropriately, including skirts and head coverings for women.

Peter Gillquist

One of the most important books I've read during my investigation of Orthodox Christianity has been Becoming Orthodox, by Father Peter Gillquist. It is the story of how he and a couple thousand of his friends found the Ancient Church.

Father Peter accepted Christ in college, and in the 1960's was a major player in Campus Crusade for Christ, which is an evangelical college ministry. He and his Campus Crusade colleagues eventually became dissatisfied with what they saw in Christianity at large, and decided that they would set out to recreate/rediscover the ancient Christian Church. They soon realized, however, that their knowledge of the Church was incomplete: As Evangelicals, they were familiar with the Church of the first century, and as Protestants, they knew all about what had taken place since 1517. But, whatever happened between the end of the New Testament era and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, they had no idea.

So they decided to break off into teams to research what exactly happened to the early Church; what did it look like? What did it teach and believe? How did it worship? How was it administered?

They were shocked at what they found.

They discovered that Christian worship was liturgical and sacramental from the very beginning; that the early Church was made up of bishops, priests, deacons, and laity; that it did not have a book called "The Bible" for the first 350 years of its existence, and yet still managed to preserve the "faith which was once delivered unto the saints." They learned that the early Christians venerated Mary and the Saints, and made the Sign of the Cross over themselves and their meals and their beds.

Furthermore, they discovered that the church they sought to restore, the Church of the first century, the Church described in the book of Acts, the Church established by Christ Himself, still exists, and still teaches the Faith of the Apostles, unaltered, unadulterated, untainted. They learned that the very church of Antioch, whose parishioners were the first to be called Christians, is alive and well today, and that its Patriarch lives in Damascus on the street called Straight.

Their search for the Church of the Apostles led Peter Gillquist and his colleagues straight to the Orthodox Christian Church, into which they and two-thousand of their friends and family members were received in February of 1987. Father Peter was eventually ordained a priest and works today in the Mission and Evangelism department of the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

I'll give my copy of Father Peter's book to whoever wants it, on the condition that you pass it along to someone else when you're done with it.

For more information:
Reverend speaks on his conversion (newspaper article)
An Hour with Father Peter Gillquist (Our Life in Christ--audio)
Fr Peter's articles on Beliefnet.com