“A Black Man’s Discovery of the Ancient Christian Church”

May 14, 2009 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: African Orthodox, African saints, African-American Orthodox, African-Americans, American Orthodox, Black Church, Black clergy, Black saints, Christianity, church, clergy, conversion, deacons, Detroit, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, evangelism, evangelization, Michigan, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, Orthodox mission, orthodoxy, religion, religious conversion, St. Moses the Black, St. Moses the Ethiopian

…is a talk being given in Detroit by an Orthodox deacon, a convert from Catholicism, Saturday evening.  It’s sponsored by that area’s chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black, and Detroit’s Council of Orthodox Christian Churches.  Details here (link will eventually break).

Progress in China

October 12, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: China, Chinese church, Chinese Orthodoxy, Christianity, Christianity in China, Communist China, Cultural Revolution, Eastern Orthodoxy, Ecumenical Patriarchate, evangelism, evangelization, Hong Kong, Mainland China, missions, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Churches, Orthodox conversion, Orthodox mission, orthodoxy, patriarchate of constantinople, Patriarchate of Moscow, PRC, religion, religion in China, Russian Orthodoxy, Shanghai

Just last week, the “fellowship” in Hong Kong associated with Archpriest Dionisy Pozdnyaev, which I believe includes both ex-patriates and Chinese, was formally reactivated as a parish by the Moscow Patriarchal Synod, 36 years after its closure following the repose of its last pastor.  Many years to the new parish and its new rector, Fr. [...]

Pagans, Jews, and the Early Church

June 18, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: agape, Andrew Greeley, apologetics, charity, Christianity, church history, community, conversion, doctrine, dogma, early church, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, established church, established religion, establishment, evangelism, evangelization, friendship evangelism, Greeks, Hellenism, Hellenistic world, Hellenization, Jewish Christians, Jews, Judaism, Latter Day Saints, LDS Church, love, martyrdom, Mormonism, Mormons, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, paganism, pagans, Providence, religion, religious free market, Rodney Stark, Roman Empire, seminaries, service, social change, sociology, sociology of religion, statistics, theology, urban ministry, urban mission, women's issues

What follows is extracted from this blog post I know nothing else about, which is why I’m giving you what I got out of it here instead of sending you there to try and pinpoint it.  The book-author discussed, Rodney Stark, a sociologist (and BTW, according to Wikipedia he’s not “a Mormon fanatic” as one of [...]

Ecumenism

May 25, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christianity, church, church politics, Eastern Orthodoxy, ecumenical dialogue, ecumenism, evangelism, evangelization, interchurch relations, interfaith dialogue, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, orthodoxy, religion

Christos anesti!  Alithos anesti!
As in all religious groups, in canonical Orthodoxy you will find a spectrum of approaches to other religious groups, from fervent opposition and isolationism to full embrace, and from the laity to Patriarchs, with a variety of justifications offered for each position.
Ironically, Orthodox in ecumenism have a reputation for arrogance and aloofness [...]

Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black

March 22, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: African Orthodoxy, African-American Orthodox, African-Americans, Black Orthodox, Eastern Orthodoxy, evangelism, evangelization, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox mission, orthodoxy, St. Moses

has a website!  They’re an Orthodox, largely-African-American fellowship with a mission:
“The Brotherhood of St Moses the Black is a pan-Orthodox nonprofit organization. Its mission is to minister to Americans the gift of Orthodoxy. In an effort to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God (I Peter 4:10), the organization presents an annual conference that targets those [...]

Frederica Mathewes-Green interview, and a review (sort of)

March 9, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Bible, church history, converts, evangelism, evangelization, Middle East, Orthodox mission, Patristics, religious conversion, Russia, Scripture

The interview, conducted by email by a magazine, is mostly reproduced by another blogger here, though he re-posted it in installments, so start with Number One at the bottom of the page and work your way back up.
I might offer for clarification, first, that there have been several more-or-less intensive missionary periods in Orthodox Church history:

the first [...]

Mission in Orthodoxy

May 18, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Eastern Orthodoxy, evangelism, evangelization, modernity, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox mission, pluralism, witness

By Metropolitan NICHOLAS (Hadjinikolaou) of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki, locum tenens of the diocese of Attica, Greece:
In the Protestant world ierapostoli (mission) is understood as proselytism, as an effort to persuade others to follow that which they preach as the truth. In the Orthodox tradition ierapostoli (mission) means witness and confession. It means to give the [...]