why convert to orthodox christianity why convert to orthodox christianity

If someone is approaching the Orthodox Church from a purely rationalistic standpoint, they will almost surely find it wanting. The church. Instead, an adolescent has to figure out and establish his adult persona in the face of affection. 1:4). A wedding set o, Wedding Icon of Christ the Pantocrator (in Oklad /, A Handmade Bookcover For The Gospel. Interesting comments. . In Protestantism there arose the doctrine of sola scriptura. Yet, at times there are questions of conscience and matters of principle. No doubt, I felt at home when first attending the Divine Liturgy, but this was after months of study and discussion with other Orthodox people. And yet, not all of these journeys have worked out. Forgetting early on that Orthodox worship is liturgical and cyclical (i.e. Your firstand subsequent visitswill help you to discern that to which the Lord is calling you. Also, people should not join the Church in the hopes of solidifying an identity they have in the first place. But the human warts of where they are at and continuing searching within causes them to look elsewhere. The sacraments of the Church have helped fill countless young people's lives with meaning in ways that are difficult to find elsewhere. Icons are, quite literally, a "theology in color.". As Saint Paul reminds us, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another [Romans 12:5; see also Ephesians 4:25]. Indeed, in a letter of 865, Pope Nicholas made it clear that he intended to extend the power of the papacy "over all the earth, that is, over every church." But every church must have its distinctiveness, or wed all be in the same church. The first four enjoy special honor due to their antiquity. I felt like Marco Polo. When the media seized on John Paul II's statement, they not only missed his main point, they missed a wider story. When I visit prisons where floors are shiny, morale is noticeably higher. Thats surely a factor, but I think theres something else going on, more specific to Orthodox converts. Instead, an adolescent has to figure out and establish his adult persona in the face of affection. Orthodoxy appeals to the soulnot just to the intellect or the senses. In this Orthodox view, Scripture stands within rather than above the church, and to distinguish its authority from that of the church is a mistake of method. The so-called Eastern Orthodox Church is actually not one but thirteen "autocephalous" or independent, self-governing churches. He made the decision to convert following his second marriage to actress Rita Wilson in. Orthodox Christians believe you must be converted every day- every day - and everyone must start with this step if they desire to make spiritual progress and be saved. The West used unleavened bread, the East did not. But why is our kind so characteristically obnoxious? If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you If they persecuted me, they will persecute you (John 15:18. Although my parents intentionally raised my brother and me without a focus on . Four important areas deserve ongoing dialogue. The reality of the difficulty of living the Orthodox life then bubbles up, and apostasy from exhaustion is a real risk. So Christianity would not have been completely alien to the Rus, and even Vladimir's grandmother, Olga, would become enamored with Christianity. The genius of this principle is that it allows us to disagree with other believers, even vehemently so, yet in an edifying fashion with a degree of theological modesty and a perspective that seeks a deeper consensus within the bounds of true faith. They insisted that the Bible interprets itself, and through the Holy Spirit, God instructs its readers in a direct and individual manner rather than binding their consciences to the supposedly reliable teaching of the church. The Eucharist, according to the Divine Liturgy of Saint Chrysostom (the normal liturgy for Sundays and weekdays), is "for the purification of the soul, for the remission of sins, for the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, [and] for the Kingdom of Heaven.". While Rome stumbled toward destruction in 476, Constantinople enjoyed relative theological and political stability for another 1,000 years, until it was sacked by the Turks in 1453. Young teens go through a few years when they are trying to understand their own unique identity, and trying to establish it in the face of well, it would be one thing if they had to establish it in the face of hostility, because, even though that would be hard, it would be bracing and clarifying. Young teens go through a few years when they are trying to understand their own unique identity and trying to establish it in the face ofwell, it would be one thing if they had to establish it in the face of hostility, because, even though that would be hard, it would be bracing and clarifying. Most people like to be polite and get along, so they highlight what we hold in common. It depends on where you put the emphasis. Upon joining the Orthodox Church, converts vow to "accept and understand Holy Scripture in accordance with the interpretation which was and is held by the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church of the East, our Mother." Two points that have been hallmarks of evangelical identity deserve special scrutiny: the relationship between Scripture and tradition, and the relationship between Scripture and the church. In the East the local parish priest could administer the sacrament of confirmation; in the West only the bishop could. ", Icons are not merely sacred art. My husband had been an Episcopal priest for 16 years, and we had gradually moved from an evangelical-style low church to the more liturgically-fancy high church. Orthodoxy looked like taking that escalator up one more floor. There are two accounts of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. If only you could get them to form two lines.). The Orthodox Church is indelibly marked by the One who is its origin and source. The Orthodox Church has suffered throughout her history. Second, whatever failings Western missionaries might bring to their work, and whether Orthodoxy likes to admit it, many Russians are responding very positively to a clear, contemporary presentation of the gospel by Protestant missionaries. Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. Rather, they are a source of revelation. At each point in their conversions, from initial religious seeking to settling into life as Orthodox Christians, Orthodox converts in Pittsburgh consistently relate a kind of on-going negotiation between self and other, as they research religious differences and experiment with practices and dogmas. And during those years of discovery, my mind was constantly cranking away as I laboured to absorb new ideas and excise stubborn old ones. The pairing of both secular groups with the Orthodox in a religious freedom case is rare they have frequently been on opposite sides on church-state separation issues such as same-sex marriage . Also, while evangelicals wholeheartedly embrace the full-orbed New Testament descriptions of the work of Christ (reconciliation, ransom, redemption, forgiveness, adoption, etc. This is no archaic, dusty doctrine, either. T he Orthodox Church in the United States has problems. Conversion is not only a matter of the intellect, but also of the heart. John 6 Comments Cole Knight, a former Anglican, got Baptized in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church. John A. Peck, The Apostolic Mission of Journey To Orthodoxy, Orthodox Church in Harbin, China Reopens as an Orthodox Church, "When We Speak of Christ, We Must Start With Christ" - An Interview With Fr. For employment at a seminary? But that was too little, too late. According to The Saga of Erik the Red, there were Christians among the people whom Erik the Red brought to Greenland to settle it in the late tenth century. Here, according to Ronald Roberson's 1993 book The Eastern Christian Churches, is a list of these churches and their approximate sizes: Constantinople, 3.5 million In 999, Leif, the son of Erik, was converted to Christianity by Olaf Tryggvason. Orthodoxy affirms the real, physical presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist (as do Catholics, Lutherans, and many Anglicans), yet unlike Catholicism it is content not to explain how this happens. Harakas asked. Albania, 160,000. Copyright 19962023. Missiological concerns surface here, too. Orthodoxy, advocates suggest, reveals and corrects evangelical reductionism and superficiality. An Orthodox priest who lectured to standing-room-only crowds at Moscow State once described Orthodox theology to me as "music made in the conservatory," whereas he described Protestant theology as "music made in the honkytonk bars. During my project I gained. But I slowly came to see that I cant communicate it. John Meyendorff writes that "the Christian faith can in no way be compatible with the notion of sola scriptura." And such a journey can only be spoken of from experience. No new dogmas of faith spring out of the blue in her life. July 26, 2019 By Fr. We are looking forward to our journey in the church. What was the foreign policy of Yaroslav the Wise? Are you sure you heard the Meaning of Christmas? I hope so. True, Luther and some other Protestants have not viewed baptismal regeneration and justification by faith as mutually exclusive. They become clergy in their group. And I would try hard, no doubt to the point of rudeness, to convince them this was not so. The essence of it was to evangelize younger aristocrats, future leaders of the land. All Rights ReservedDesigned by Fr. Do we mean essential for salvation? The Biblical Basis for Holy Tradition., On the Path of Love: From Islam to Christianity, Madagascar: Church Opens Huge Complex with Church, Schools, Orphanage, Old Folks Home, Australia: Orthodoxy Fastest Growing Church amidst General Christian Decline. She has offered more martyrs in the twentieth century under communism than most churches have members. Rich worship taught the faith to literate and illiterate, peasant and emperor, and its essentially the same as our worship today. Nicholas reversed the decision, reinstating Ignatius and deposing Photius. There is a certain chemistry involved, which one cannot so easily verbalize. Yeah, I think Ive gotten it out of my system. This absorbed my attention so much that I was apt to expound my current level of comprehension to anyone who stood still in my vicinity. This perspective presupposes a defective Christologyone that fails to account for the anthropos of the theanthropic (Divine-human) Church. Originally the creed read that the Holy Spirit proceeded "from the Father"; a later Western interpolation (why, where, and by whom are not known), ratified at the Council of Toledo (589), added filioque to indicate that the Spirit proceeded from the Father "and the Son." Orthodoxy attracts seekers with her other-worldliness, with her holiness, with her worship, with her services and sacraments, with the form and content of her religious expression, with her iconography, with her chanting, with her mysticism, with her monasticism, with her life between heaven and earth. One feels that the Church is not just a worldly organization, but a divine-human organism. Why would a Protestant Christian convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity? The Global Methodist Church welcomes Scott Jones, who led Methodists in Texas and had advocated for the extreme center and staying at the table., Emily McFarlan Miller - Religion News Service. Worse, they considered the interpolation to be theologically untrue and a threat to the doctrine of the Trinity. Its not something you can figure out by studying the Church Fathers. But one insightful reader asked a penetrating question: "Your book does a fine job comparing the two traditions; why have you not converted to Orthodoxy?" Heres a clue to a third possibility. Join our newsletter to get the most interesting articles on spiritual issues and learn about the recent news from St. Elisabeth Convent. After being dunked in this sea of hymnography for a few years I began to recognise an underlying unity among all the elements of Orthodoxy the worship, the fasting, the exhortations to humility, the companionship of the saints, all of it. Doing so will make much of what you have read come alive, in the sense of seeing how that about which you have read is actually lived. Think of it in the following way. Search, Learn more about the Orthodox Church in America, Orthodoxy and Cults and Non-Christian Groups. I kept finding myself in conversations with nice people who wanted to assure me that this very thing I was so excited about in Orthodoxy is something they have in their church as well. What was the impact of Vladimir I converting to Greek Orthodox Christianity in the region of Byzantium? The last reason Orthodox converts are obnoxious resembles the reason adolescents are obnoxious. Its just that Orthodoxy still passes on the early churchs knowledge of how to tune in to the presence of Christ. The Spirit of God himself, realizing the sacramental presence of Christ in the church, speaks to us in tradition. So, you have decided to convert to the Greek Orthodox Christian religion. During those years of discovery I labored to absorb new ideas and excise stubborn old ones. However, they rarely spent any time in Orthodox worship services or their local parish, developed no relationship with a priest, and did not engage their spouse or family in their studies and interest in the Church. "The Orthodox Church of Christ never lost the 'unity of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit' and does not accept the theory of the restoration of the unity of those "who believe in Christ," because it believes that the unity of those who believe in Christ already exists in the unity of all of Her baptized children, between themselves and Protestant theologian Adolf von Harnack once described the Orthodox church as "in her entire structure alien to the Gospel and a perversion of the Christian religion, its reduction to the level of pagan antiquity." In many of these lands, Orthodoxy exhibits an unveiled distrust and even xenophobia toward the massive influx of Western missionaries into their backyards. For me, the one and only valid, core reason is because a person desires to be part of the one, true Body of Christ. The Mission of The Orthodox Church in America, the local autocephalous Orthodox Christian Church, is to be faithful in fulfilling the commandment of Christ to Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. "More than a . As we said, conversion is a love affair. Thank you for this post! Most Protestants would experience an Orthodox liturgy as something strange, even exotic. As independent churches, they are not bound together by any unilateral or monarchical organization, nor do they owe allegiance to a single primacy, as Roman Catholics do to the pope. Not to be outdone, the Orthodox could respond in kind. Step Two: Repentance There is no salvation without repentance. Why Are There So Many Curses and Cruelties In The Psalms? While evangelicals might be eager to argue there is no biblical warrant for icons, for the Orthodox it is enough that icons have always been a part of church tradition. Rich worship taught the faith to literate and illiterate, peasant and emperor, and its essentially the same as our worship today.