July 2012 edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I am interested in finding out why all of you converts out there converted to the Coptic Orthodox Church, and not any one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches readily available in so many parts of the world. The move was far more than geographic. You haven't "arrived" in this life. The sacraments of the Church have helped fill countless young people's lives with meaning in ways that are difficult to find elsewhere. I've chosen Oriental Orthodoxy over the Byzantine Church because I believe that ours is closer in doctrine and liturgy to the earliest Christians. Other religions and faiths occupy themselves with this life, with this world. Clickhereto learn more about the deeds we are talking of and to learn how you can become a part of our social ministry and help those in need. For example, on the Feast of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, the chanter launches into this: Of the Father before the morning star Thou wast begotten from the womb without mother before all ages, even though Arius did believe Thee to be created, not God, classing Thee in ignorance and impudence with creatures. John A. Peck, The Apostolic Mission of Journey To Orthodoxy, Armenian Muslims Living in Turkey are Returning to Christianity, Devotion to Orthodox History leads Malaysian Priest to Mount Carmel. During my four years as a visiting professor at Moscow State University (1991-95) I often felt schizophrenic. Debate is more plentiful than research, but also indefinite. What they objected to was the elevation of tradition to the status of Scripture. The more familiar I became with Orthodoxy by serving in a local parish, on a parish council, and as an altar assistant, the more I saw others approach the Church, test the waters, and walk back out the narthex door. He promptly left Constantinople. 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. 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. She is committed to the same, unchanging, absolute truth. He has no good option for dealing with that affection, so hes either sullen or angry. Similar differences and disputes existed within early Christianity, but disputes within Christianity extended also to the place of Mosaic Law or Old Covenant in general in Christianity. By the end of the sixth century, neither group could speak the other's language. The essence of it was to evangelize younger aristocrats, future leaders of the land. These groups mostly came over willingly. Experience Church Services. But the impulse is to exaggerate the differences when you fear being hugged to death. Although it is difficult to gather firm figures, worldwide Orthodox Christians number about 150 million, with 3 million in the U.S. alonemore than most evangelical denominations. Now, the question stands: If one is convinced that Orthodox Christianity possess the fullness of truth and is God . In addition, a new convert must undergo a formal process of initiation. Chrysostom's liturgy says of the Eucharistic sacrifice: "Your own, from your own, we offer you, in all and for all." Scripture and tradition. Why did Vladimir convert to Orthodox Christianity? One who would claim that he or she wishes to embrace the faith but doesnt want to get involved with other people and their lives falls short in his or her understanding of the Church as the People of God and, as such, has yet to make that internal conversion that must take place before one is received into the Church. I had been to the east and discovered something wondrous that I assumed all Christians crave. A priest can provide guidance and support to help converts discern whether the religion is right for them. But that was too little, too late. Around 2-3 months ago I decided that I wanted to convert to Christianity. Who can explain why one has fallen in love with a given person? Intellectuals, like one of my students at Moscow University, often disdain Orthodoxy as a "medieval mentality." Yet, at times there are questions of conscience and matters of principle. What Scripture proclaims by word, the icon proclaims by color. There is another reason someone should not join Our Church. Geoff. What do they find so attractive? Orthodox Christianity offers a third solution, that is faith with an emphasis on symbolism, inner experience, and Church communion. This is particularly notable in the mid-1st century, when the circumcision controversy came to the fore. Unfortunately most "Orthodox Christian" are nominal even despite their active presence they are nominal because they extinguish the Holy Spirit and do not have a relationship with God, they outwardly seem to be praying but like the Pharisee praise themselves for being 'good with God'. Put another way, we must invoke the spirit of irenic disagreement in the formula: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity." Christ is thus "the Offerer and the Offered, the Acceptor and the Distributed," all in such a way that nothing is added to his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. As with liturgy, conversion to Orthodoxy is hardly a prerequisite for a renewed engagement with apostolic tradition. Hello all, forgive me if I am posting to the wrong forum. Even more obnoxious, though, must be the tendency to reject hospitality. * Russian Baptists, Adventists, and Pentecostals feel persecuted. "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 John A. Peck, The Apostolic Mission of Journey To Orthodoxy, 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. Orthodox believers see things very differently. Many people believe the Church is a social group gathering or a place to network with other like minded people. 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?" This could take some timeperhaps a year or more, depending on a variety of circumstancesand should not be rushed. Just as we pray that Gods will, not our own, be done, so too we pray that we might embrace the faith in Gods time, not our own. Home / There is world of difference between going Orthodoxy vs staying pagan. 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." Then B. There are no doubt some ways that he is the same person he will always be, and there are ways Orthodoxy and every other church has significant points in common, not least that we love the same Lord. many mercenaries would convert to Christianity. The first is by Lactantius, a tutor to Constantine's son and a good authority. Before long, in Reformation churches the sermon had replaced the Eucharist as the defining moment of the liturgy. Romania, 19.8 million Why Are Protestants Converting To Orthodox Christianity? In the 950s, Olga, the grandmother of Vladimir, was . It is often wrongly assumed that Orthodoxy . For we cannot forget that beauty (Envoys of the Russian Prince Vladimir, after experiencing the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople in the year 987). Interesting comments. Naturally, it is crucial to know what the Church teaches and acquire an Orthodox mindset on the intellectual level, so to speak, but it is equally crucial to grow in identifying with the People of God, the worshipping community, through fellowship. Because everyone has their own presuppositions in which they interpret reality and thus no surprise you'll find people based on these presuppositions won't accept Christianity. This hardly signifies any sort of congregational or ecclesiological democracy, however, for while all believers possess the truth, it is the special duty of church authorities to teach it. And during those years of discovery, my mind was constantly cranking away as I laboured to absorb new ideas and excise stubborn old ones. On another front, under the leadership of founder Bradley Nassif, the Society for the Study of Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism (SSEOE) holds meetings each fall at Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center for the sake of the two traditions learning from one another. This book cover is mad, Worship Gospel Instead, an adolescent has to figure out and establish his adult persona in the face of affection. In time, you will be welcomed sacramentally into the Church and continue your ongoing path to the Kingdom of God. 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. In the year 311, Emperor Constantine moved the political capital of his empire from Rome to Constantinople. If only you could get them to form two lines.). The Puritan John Foxe, for example, insisted that "God conducted the Reformation by printing, writing, and reading." There was plenty of ceremony and beauty, but without the mainline churches affection for keeping up-to-date. Now let's hear from Frederica. But why is our kind so characteristically obnoxious? This should trouble evangelicals (as well as other Protestants), especially when it is combined with the Orthodox idea of who constitutes the church and how one enters the church. Join our newsletter to get the most interesting articles on spiritual issues and learn about the recent news from St. Elisabeth Convent. Most Protestants would experience an Orthodox liturgy as something strange, even exotic. Like baptism, the Eucharist is administered to infants. Kind of like large scale serial monogamous people. Poland, 1 million Then C" The strengths of a group draws them but after a while the weaknesses bubble up. At the 1996 meeting of sseoe, Orthodox representative Stanley Harakas said that the Orthodox, who have lived for 70 years in Russia under Communist oppression, are in a state of weakness, unable to rebuild churches and barely able to educate their parishioners. It is not always easy to advance strong arguments for these conversions. "More than a . Orthodoxy is true to the Lord, to herself and to her past. She is conscious of being the true Church founded by Christ. I can't be the only one who's observed a friend converting to Orthodox Christianity and noticed them instantly, literally overnight, losing their sense of . She has offered more martyrs in the twentieth century under communism than most churches have members. For any convert, it's a spiritual, intense, and private process,. At the beginning, I thought I knew what I was getting into. When you convert, you must verbalize your commitment to live in accordance with all of the Torah 's commandments as they are explained in Torah law. Moreover, evangelicals have some important lessons to learn from Orthodoxy. It also must be noted that embracing the faith involves a running to Christ and His Church as the Ark of Salvation, rather than a running away from somethingother than sin. Through the centuries, theological, geopolitical, cultural, and linguistic factors have combined to differentiate the Orthodox ethos from Western patterns of Christianity. 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. Perhaps this unanticipated experience of encountering something unknown and marvelously organic accounts for the distinctive lapel-grabbing impulse among converts to Orthodoxy. I can remember, after Id been Orthodox a few years, developing an increasing sense of tension or frustration. Thumb through Calvin's Institutes or a volume of John Wesley's Works and you will see our Protestant forebears thoroughly engaged with patristic tradition. Many would find themselves back in Rus with their new faith and establishing Churches (Spinka, 42-44). She stands firm on her dogmatic and moral teachings. It makes no appeal to a doctrine of transubstantiation and instead simply affirms the mystery. The reason Orthodoxy is stable is because she is grounded in the truth. Most people like to be polite and get along, so they highlight our commonalities. Women and men who marry into the Orthodox Jewish faith are required to convertand both genders follow an identical process. It must sound like vague, fluffy religious talk (though in my experience it is anything but). This statement cannot be challenged. For such a question presupposes a particular person's journey of faith. The true details behind her In the end, they concocted a list of reasons for not converting. Antioch, 750,000 Other times it is a youth group or Bible study group inspiring and educating. "I was A. For example, I know someone that spent over a year studying almost every aspect of Orthodoxy, including many fathers of the Church and practically every nuance of both doctrine and history. Yeah, I think Ive gotten it out of my system. Any objective historian can discover that the permanence of Orthodoxy is due to the preservation and the passing on of the apostolic faith unadulterated, pure. Why would a Protestant Christian convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity? 0. Emmanuel Hatzidakis | January 19, 2013. These sacraments are not mere signs, symbols, or reminders. Suspicion and recrimination have often characterized relationships between Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Protestantism. Those friends benefit, no doubt, from this opportunity to practice patience and long-suffering. Also, while evangelicals wholeheartedly embrace the full-orbed New Testament descriptions of the work of Christ (reconciliation, ransom, redemption, forgiveness, adoption, etc. The collapse of the Roman Empire created a power vacuum that was increasingly filled by the growing power of the Roman papacy. 5:12). Rather, Orthodoxy affirms a single source of revelation, holy tradition, of which Scripture is the preeminent among several forms. To be Eastern Orthodox is, above all, to stake a bold and unapologetic theological claim as the one true church of Christ on earth, which alone has guarded right belief and true worship in absolute identity and unbroken succession with the apostolic church. This is the ultimate reason an ultra-Orthodox Jew would turn to Jesus. Why did Kievan Rus convert to Orthodox Christianity? (Of course, for every person insisting that there were no differences, there was another person asking me to explain the differences. "Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." Turning to Jesus brings you to God, and you begin to understand His plan of salvation. But if you are still intrigued and drawn to the Orthodox Church, considering all of these disclaimers, then do so with faith, reverence, and a healthy fear of God. When the media seized on John Paul II's statement, they not only missed his main point, they missed a wider story. All Rights ReservedDesigned by Fr. Despite its historical estrangement from Rome, from a Protestant theological perspective Orthodoxy is similar to Catholicism at several points. The Orthodox Churches share with the other Christian Churches the belief that God revealed himself in Jesus Christ, and a belief in the incarnation of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection. 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. Converts to Orthodoxy usually precede their decision with voluminous reading and research, so their friends must endure agitated lectures on church history, ancient heresies, and what words mean in Greek. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Included in this liturgy is an anathema on all those who reject icons. We have challenges here in Africa to find such information for, So glorious+++ Most Holy Theotokos save us, Pectoral Cross For the past year or so I have been considering conversion to Orthodox Christianity. One can find people who interpret this ecclesiological exclusivity more leniently; in fact, some would argue that the best Orthodox scholarsGeorge Florovsky and John Meyendorff, to name twowould allow for such leniency. Submitted by Fr. In the history and theology of Orthodoxy it is startling to observe the nearly complete absence of any mention of the doctrine of justification by faith. I can remember that, after Id been Orthodox a few years, developing an increasing sense of tension or frustration. Different from forms of western Christianity, there is no rationalization or theorization of dogma because its focus is on symbology rather than the literal. Nicholas Kim. Thatwould be interesting. Hymns like these offer quite a theological education to anyone who comes to services, and if you didnt catch it all, theres a good chance theyre going to sing it two more times. In 858 Photius was appointed as Orthodoxy's new patriarch at Constantinople, replacing Ignatius, who had been exiled and later resigned his duties. While the Church is certainly Divine in one respect, She is also comprised of human beingshuman beings that can, and do, err. In the security of the Orthodox Church one finds peace, reassurance. An Orthodox Christian Perspective: Overcoming Difficulties in Life, Church Under Soviet Totalitarianism: Suppression, Resistance and Compliance, St Kassia and Her Creations, Still Heard at Todays Divine Services, The feast of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Inexhaustible Chalice, Why Our Catalogue Is More Than Just an Online Store Selling Church Supplies, The List of Musical Instruments Mentioned in the Bible, The First 40 Days after Death Explained by St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, An Old Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign Has Started to Exude Myrrh in the Diocese of Tula, Complete List of Prohibited Marriages in the Orthodox Church. One thinks, for example, of those committed to full ministerial status for women, the centrality of lay ministry and spiritual gifts, charismatically inclined groups, seeker-sensitive churches attempting to reach baby boomers or Generation X'ers with novel worship formats, and so on. As we move constantly between Unity and Trinity in God, so we must move between the parts and the whole in the Church, the whole being infinitely more than the sum of the parts. Rather, "theosis" (literally, "deification"), or the progressive transformation of people into full likeness to God, in soul and body, takes center stage. Several factors must be considered when converting to Greek Orthodox Christianity. Orthodoxy generally affirms the same seven sacraments as Catholicism: baptism, chrismation or confirmation, the Eucharist, repentance or confession, holy orders or ordination, marriage, and holy unction or anointing of the sick. Constantine had once controlled the entire Mediterranean perimeter, and as a result, Christianity flourished. The Orthodox Church does not fit into the paradigms of modernity; it is not a wholly rational faith. Your email address will not be published. There is not going to be a restored "Celtic" Orthodoxy or "Anglo-Saxon" Orthodoxy. Is the church made up of those who have been "regenerated" by infant baptism in an Orthodox church institution, or by those who have experienced new birth and been justified by grace through faith? Maybe you have to soak in it for years, till the evidence becomes overwhelming. Your email address will not be published. Some have argued that evangelicals eager to "contend earnestly for the faith" (Jude 3) will find an ally in Orthodoxy's allegiance to the basic truths of Christianity. 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." Her admirable heritage of perseverance amid terrible fires of persecution has been noted even by non-Orthodox admirers, as one of her strongest attractions and sources of strength. 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. 2. The conversion of 2,000 evangelicals in 17 congregations "from Alaska to Atlanta" in 1987, recounted in Peter Gillquist's Becoming Orthodox, is only a small window into a larger phenomenon. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. 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. 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. Here is an overview of the steps you can take to convert to Orthodox Christianity: Talk With an Orthodox Priest. Christianity had, in fact, penetrated "Russia" by the early 900s, when at least one church had been built in the ancient city of Kiev.