This is an important book that has found a new publisher. It used to be priced at a scholastic audience (read: ungodly expensive), but is now just $20. I encourage all interested in the American Orthodox parish system to give it a read.
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(Holy Cross Bookstore) - The American Orthodox Christian presence has been declining in size over the past few decades, even until now. Orthodox parishes are often criticized for being unable to grow spiritually and in numbers. Education, charitable works, outreach to the community, and other signs of vibrant, healthy communities of faith languish, if they exist at all. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer people participate in the liturgical life of the Church, supposedly the cornerstone of Orthodox faith and witness.
The cause for these endemic problems is often laid at the door of ethnophyletism, xenophobia, an extremely parochial and self-serving attitude in Orthodox parishes, lack of faith education, and other ills. In this book, Fr. Nicholas traces the roots of the current distressing situation in American Orthodoxy to another, more radically fundamental issue: the fact that virtually all of the original parishes in America were founded on a congregationalist structure. He argues that this parish structure, radically opposed to Orthodox ecclesiology, is what has allowed and even encouraged the attitudes and problems that continue to plague Orthodox Christianity in America.
His book delineates the factors that have influenced the growth of congregationalism in Orthodox parishes. Fr. Nicholas contends that if there is to be a serious attempt to correct the present, resulting in a reasonable assurance that the American Orthodox presence will have a future, then it is first necessary to understand the past.
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ReplyDelete"He argues that this parish structure, radically opposed to Orthodox ecclesiology, is what has allowed and even encouraged the attitudes and problems that continue to plague Orthodox Christianity in America."
ReplyDeleteThis should seemingly doom the efforts of the even-more atomized nominally Christian churches in the US with zero ecclesial structure. But it doesn't. From what I can see, the protestant, congregationalist tide just keeps rising and rising. And we're not just competing with Protestantism at this point; there's also Islam and Buddhism.
Traditional Orthodox ecclesiology enjoyed something that the Church in the United States will never have: a State-backed monopoly on Christian worship. Otherwise, the sheep scatter into a dozen competing sects; hence the argument for a national church. How will our our arcane theology and elaborate liturgics compete with a democratic faith that tells everybody they're a priest and every two people are a "Church?" I don't think it can..
The prior waves of immigration from Orthodox countries are over. The prior wave of converts to American Orthodoxy are over; people just have too many options. The commentary I'm seeing is from relatively affluent, high-g individuals with enough energy and forward-thinking to ponder their individual spirituality. But most people are just looking for something that can help them knock some of the sharp corners off of their lives.
I don't see anybody giving any thought to how the Church grew after the world became evangelized: large, extended. multi-generational families. Of course, we will never have the advantage of a national Church which the Faith previously enjoyed, but maybe we should give some thought to our own little 'nations.' Shouldn't we be as concerned with driving down the cost of family-rearing? That seems to be the sort of thing people are actually crying for.
As the secular institutions (the State, the Market) become ever more rapacious and anti-human, people (in particular the non-affluent and non-intellectual) are more just looking for community. An institution that puts communal effort into helping them raise good Orthodox families would have more appeal than an institution that tells you good bye and good luck with your individual praxis out there in the cruel World.
To give a concrete example, we lecture our young people on Orthodox chastity. Then we send them out into a sex-saturated culture and tell them to postpone marriage and childbearing while they acquire marketable skills (going in debt to do so) and then prospective spouses in head-to-head economic competition with each other. Our actions do not match our words. We should not be surprised when our children don't take us seriously, and freely exercise any of their dozens of options when they grow up and get to decide these things for themselves.
In sum, the Church in America seems focused on recruitment, not reproduction. This is cult-ish thinking.
In a post-Christian world, attracting new members and retaining our youth will be as simple, and as difficult, as this: "Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you, thousands will be saved." (St. Seraphim of Sarov) Our world is aching for true communion & community (not a Facebook counterfeit), and for people who are living witnesses to the Truth, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, goodness, self-control.
ReplyDeleteAre we becoming something our children will want to follow? Are we drawing them through our love for one another and for those outside the Church in need & distress? Perhaps our actions are speaking so loudly that our beautiful hymns and services and Patristic sayings cannot be heard.
Our world is aching for true communion & community (not a Facebook counterfeit), and for people who are living witnesses to the Truth, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, goodness, self-control.
DeleteSome of the warmest, friendliest people I have ever met were Muslims. I also know Buddhists, Protestant Christians and Jews who exhibit those traits to remarkable degrees. Are you saying this is a matter of being more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, etc., than them?
I don't think you can out-love them, but you certainly can't be less so.
DeleteYou must be at least this loving to ride this ride.
The problem isn't congregationalism. It's hyper-clericalism, inadequate and unqualified candidates for the episcopate (bishops should be elected to 5 year terms), and ethnocentrism. No one is going to learn greek or russian to be a christian. No one is going to be forced to be eastern to be a christian.
ReplyDelete5 year term limits!? Im not Eastern Orthodox, but putting term limits on bishops sounds awfully New World (i.e. American) Protestant to me. That's one thing the Catholics have going for them with their mandatory celibacy, many more candidates to choose from (Im not suggesting Eastern Orthodox adopt this practice, just saying as an observation)
DeleteHow many bishops have we had to forcibly retire in the last 10 years alone? Either because they committed crimes, malfeasance, or mistreated their flocks?
DeleteBishops being elected to anything other than "Until Retirement or Removal by the Synod" is both ahistoric and uncanonical.
ReplyDelete