(EA) - Metropolitan Gregory, Secretary of the Assembly of Bishops, commented, “the new website reflects the revitalized energy of the Bishops, who meet regularly to address the concerns and needs of the Orthodox faithful in the U.S. We look forward to engaging the clergy and laity through the internet, and most especially – when it is again safe to do so – in person.”
The launch signifies the culmination of a consultative process that included marketing, communications, IT and web experts, as well as theologians, lawyers, and graphic designers. The Assembly of Bishops extends its deep gratitude to all the volunteers who worked on the project, as well as the Department of Internet Ministries of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for its continued support.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
US episcopal assembly website gets facelift
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So now our faith is bring "marketed"?
ReplyDeleteWhat's next an Orthodox World theme park?
Shhhh. Don't give them any ideas Michael.
Deletei have 2 in past years. lol
DeleteWhy not, these are desperate times,,,,,we are loosing market share,,,,,we need a new approach or face the fact we will go the route of the shakers,,,,God gave us brains, ingenuity, skills,,,,we need to use all of them to spread his word of forgiveness,love, and salvation and it needs to be couched in terms that generation z understands,,,we made generation z and now need to take on the responsibility to nurture,and evangelize them
ReplyDeleteHow about the responsibility to help knock some of the sharp edges off of life for them? Things like medical care, elder care, getting a job, getting married, home-schooling kids, a social safety net?
DeleteWe are losing ground because we're becoming a middle-aged/elderly book club. To my observation, the religious creeds that are gaining ground are the ones that give their people a definite place in the Cosmos and a patronage network to assist with mundane concerns. I am thinking of the Anabaptists and Hasidim in particular. Merely saying we're the Universal Truth isn't enough; everybody says that.
TAG: Preaching the social gospel now are we? There is no such thing as "universal truth" Truth is always personal and relational and sacramental.
ReplyDeleteThe Fellowship of St. Moses, the Black is bringing the Truth to the racial divide. Racial reconciliation in Christ. Not justice.
What they are preaching and doing with the blessing of every canonical jurisdiction also has the capacity to reconcile the jurisdictions of the Church.
That's great, but like I say, the growing creeds are the ones that seem to be taking care of their people, not dissecting arcane Trinitarian doctrine to distinguish themselves from all the other Christian sects out there.
DeleteJWs and Mormons grow at phenomenal rates. Yes we need to evangelize but we must use our "tools" to present the Faith. Perhaps the decline is inevitable as we prepare to meet the Lord. Many churches in former Soviet union grew strong during the repression because the priest worked and prayed with a small core in his church, who then reached out to the larger community.
ReplyDeleteArchmandrite Gregory: Re heresy growing at a phenomenal rate: an old friend of mine used to say "it is easy too sell a shuck". He knew because he was a religious con man.
DeleteThe tools we have are not so easy to use: repentance, forgiveness, obedience, self-forgetting love based upon a living encounter with the Risen Christ.
We must certainly eschew the ethnic garbage and prejudices. That is part of repentance. We must be incarnate in the lands in which we live.
The western mind is the toughest challenge to communicate the truth. It has built in protections based on centuries of practice. Our hearts are hardened. We no longer love beauty and truth.
Lord have mercy.
Michael: First, I appreciate your thoughtful and sincere commentary.
DeleteI think we need to look at things on a more operational level. A lot of your flock is not going to parse through complex Trinitarian doctrine and ecclesiology. They just want to be relieved of existential dread and reassured of a personal and physical connection to the Divine. (Btw, this is why the COVID restrictions are literally diabolical--we mask our faces so we are not even allowed to see Christ in others, much less kiss our icons and trade the kiss of peace). Lots of Protestantism (Evangelicalism?) does this with weekly emotional highs under the direction of careerist preachers skilled at manipulating people. We have the Pearl of Great Price but it is being out-competed.
There is a very different sense being in a non-secular country (to the extent they still exist), where the praxis is woven into ordinary life. We Anglos once had that with our God be with ye/goodbye, village parishes, etc. Christianity, as I've said, needs a Christendom. But the State has simply gotten too big. If the State/Corpocracy is the ultimate institution in human affairs, managing our lives from cradle to grave, then we really do have fascism (and not the bogeyman haunting the "anti-fascists").
An institution that helps knock off the sharp corners of life for its adherents with mutual aid and networks for marriage, homeschooling and livelihood is something tangible to show people when we say, "Come and see."
"I think we need to look at things on a more operational level....An institution that helps knock off the sharp corners of life for its adherents with mutual aid and networks for marriage, homeschooling and livelihood is something tangible to show people when we say, "Come and see."
DeleteI agree. Of the 6 parishes of various jurisdictions I have been a part of, only 2 had any sense of this, and only one of them had the size/energy/spirit(Spirit?) to actually do it, and then only on a small ways...
In connecticut, a very small state we had circa 50 canonical parishes whci were split between goa-ny, goa-boston, oca-russian , oca-romanian, oca - albanian, romanian -patriarch, rocor, ukrainian, acrod, antiochian archdiocese that is 10 dioceses, 10 ways of doing things, the consistancy is the non consistancy. pure madness. ethnicity trumps chrisitanity.
Deletethose that are growing are christ centered and american,, not ethno centric,the time to be ethnic is over and it is not the church's responsibility to keep ethnic ideals alive, we need to cut the old country ties, they need to live without us. and we need to plow our resources into our american ministry.we need to create american institutions, this is not the old country, nor the 18th century. we need a strategic plan, we need to define what can be changed, what cannot be changed, and what needs to be implemented.....just look at our syriac and coptic brothers with their tv screens showing the text and what is going on in the altar ,, this is an accomodation to keep generation Z involved in the process. also get rid of the pony tails and unkempt beards - we not a kookie sect, so why do we espouse to be one? if we do not realize that change can be good, and delivering the message of christ is good, and that being american in ameria is good,, then we will fail and our churches will be museums ,, we are not part ofthe fabric of the communties in which we live,, we still ghettocize ourselves.,,,,my heart is heavy for i have seen a great decline over the past 75 years and it seems that the decline is not linear any more but eponential.
ReplyDeleteMr. Klancko:
DeleteSir, as an ordained Subdeacon, you don't get to tell priests or deacons whether or not they can wear their hair and beards long. With all the other difficulties we face, when you have priests open communing "married" same sex couples, or blessing kids under eighteen to undergo sex change operations, your constant bellyaching on the same things is getting old. You hang on to your "Tu v Ameryce" BS if you want, leave me out of it. Only my bishop and spiritual father need concern themselves about my appearance. In the words of the drunken Irishman,"Them don't like me,they can leave me alone"
Forgive me if I have offended anyone. I can do nothing about the problems of "THE CHURCH" other than to recognize that if I see it, it is in my heart somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to decry the ethnic orientation of so many. I have. I do. But, truth be told, a part of me likes it. It acts as a buffer for me so I do not have to love others, etc.
Lord have mercy
"Facelift"? How about an enema?
ReplyDelete