Convert-Shy Priests

December 1, 2009 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Byzantine Christianity, Byzantine Church, Christianity, church, church unity, conversion, diaspora, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, emigration, ethnic religion, faith, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Greek Christianity, Greek Orthodox Christianity, Greek Orthodoxy, history of Christianity, immigrant churches, immigrant ministry, immigration, migration, mission, missions, most segregated hour in America, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, Orthodox mission, Orthodox Unity, orthodoxy, proselytism, religion, sociology of religion, U.S. church history

Weighty possibilities I haven’t come across before for the phenomenon — reportedly not rare — of Orthodox clergy who seem reluctant to receive a convert, especially in the Western world, are presented by a Greek priest in Australia.  (NB: I’ve never heard of a language requirement before.)

His piece reminds us that most Orthodox didn’t come to the West as missionaries.  Of course, most non-Indigenous didn’t come to North America, Australia, etc., as missionaries — their religions basically followed them here.  (Of course, conversion of the Indians was part and parcel of colonial policy in Latin America.)  We easily forget ethnic distinction in religion wasn’t brought here by the Orthodox; to this day many Protestant and Catholic congregations are still predominantly of one or another ethnicity (or two), even if they don’t include it in their buildings’ names anymore.  But active explicit or implicit competition for adherents began apace at least in the U.S. with its (eventual) very “free-market” approach to religion.  Since overall, Orthodox are more-recent arrivals than other Christians, they’re mostly still in that earlier phase so to speak.

Sometimes a little sociological understanding can go a long way….  Kind of a correlate to Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green’s 12th “…Thing I Wish I’d Known…“