Month: October 2009

Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette picks up Day Two of OCL’s Road to Unity Conference:

Orthodox bishops in America are now free to use the A-word.

That’s autocephaly — meaning a self-governing church that doesn’t answer to an authority overseas. America is now divided into overlapping ethnic jurisdictions, most of which answer to a church in Eastern Europe or the Middle East. Many of those overseas churches had squelched talk of autocephaly for their mission dioceses in places such as the Americas and Australia. But in June they unanimously called for all bishops in each of those regions to assemble and make decisions about their own territories.

“It is a transition that will lead us, as quickly as possible, to our goal of a united, autocephalous American Church,” said Metropolitan Jonah, national leader of the Russian-rooted Orthodox Church in America.

At the conference, the speakers and attendees examined how unity might actually take shape:

Many speakers addressed what American Orthodoxy might look like, urging that it focus on outreach to all Americans. Christopher Shadid, 22, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, said that campus Orthodox fellowships are already models of unity where students worship without ethnic distinction.

“The youth want unity,” he said.

Read Orthodox Christians celebrate independence in America on the Web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that “overall, people who have switched religions consistently exhibit higher levels of religious commitment than those who still belong to their childhood faith, but the differences are relatively modest.”

The analysis finds that people who have switched faiths (or joined a faith after being raised unaffiliated with a religion) are indeed slightly more religious than those who have remained in their childhood faith, as measured by the importance of religion in their lives, frequency with which they attend religious services and other measures of religious commitment. However, the analysis also finds that the differences in religious commitment between converts and nonconverts are generally very small and are more apparent among some religious groups than others.

I don’t see anything specifically here about Orthodox Christians, but you may find parallels. Key findings:

* Slightly more than two-thirds of converts (69%) say religion is very important to them, compared with 62% of nonconverts.

* Half of converts (51%) attend worship services at least once a week, compared with 44% of nonconverts.

* More than eight-in-ten converts (82%) believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with 77% of nonconverts.

* Seven-in-ten converts (70%) pray every day, compared with 62% of nonconverts.

* About three-in-ten converts (29%) say they share their views on God with others at least once a week, compared with two-in-ten nonconverts (20%).

* And slightly more than one-quarter of converts (27%) say theirs is the one true faith, compared with 22% of nonconverts.

Read The “Zeal of the Convert”: Is It the Real Deal? over at Pew.

The Road to Unity; From Vision to Action was the title of the conference that just wrapped up this evening in Ligonier, PA. You can see the topics discussed here, and read some of the day to day activity on Fr. Peter-Michael Preble’s website.

Presentations were very good. Many of the people who spoke were first timers to an event like this although they are very active in their fields but largely unknown in the larger Orthodox world. They represent the new leadership that is emerging and will carry Orthodoxy into American society as we move closer to unity. They include people such as Fr. Antonio Perdomo, Bryan Smith who is the headmaster of an Orthodox School, Sister Elizabeth Oftedehl who runs a home for unwed mothers, Fr. Justin Matthews, Executive Director of FOCUS, and more.

This is ground up work and very exciting and very encouraging to see. It gives you a clearer sense of what can be accomplished if we put out minds to it.

Met. Jonah, Bp. Nathaniel, Bp. Thomas (who has a great sense of humor), and Bp. Melchizedek were the hierarchs present. Met. Jonah in particular stressed that unity among the Orthodox in America is also a function of spiritual maturity.

Nick Katich, occasional contributor to AOI blog, gave a thoughtful and and nuanced summary of his take on the Chambesy Protocols. One thing he mentioned that stood out was that the movement towards Chambesy seems to have come out of nowhere. Asked what he thought might have started it, Nick said that no one really knows.

OCL particpants, many of them veterans of twenty years of action, report a renewed sense of hope and accomplishment at this conference. Some of them were desparing that anything might change. Here they saw new faces, some considerably younger and all accomplished who clearly take their Orthodox faith seriously and see what Orthodox Christianity can contribute to the larger culture and are working out ways to do so.

Two quick points. First, Antiochian Village, the site where the conference was held treated us superbly. The food was very good too. Great choice as a site. Second, conference organizers did a great job planning it.

From the Zenit news service story, With Orthodox: “Little Steps, the Right Direction.”

The Vatican’s official for promoting Christian unity has characterized the most recent session of dialogue with the Orthodox as “little steps forward in the right direction.”

This was the estimation given by Cardinal Walter Kasper to Vatican Radio today as he evaluated the 11th plenary session of the International Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The weeklong session ended Oct. 23 in Paphos.

Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the steps forward are “small and slow,” precisely because the topic under discussion is “very complex — a theme that has carried an emotional weight for many centuries.”

The commission was discussing “The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millennium.”

“What is important, nevertheless,” the cardinal continued, “is that — despite some demonstrations by a few protestors, above all from the Church of Greece — all of the Orthodox representatives have decided that the dialogue should continue.”

“The relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox members of the commission has been very good, friendly and tranquil,” he added.

Fr. Peter-Michael Preble is blogging from the Road to Unity conference here.

Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette covers day one with “Orthodox Christians in U.S. face obstacles before unifying.”

Sister Sara Elisabet Oftedal, co-founder of Martha and Mary House in Escondido, Calif., a small home for women who choose adoption over abortion, said her board has members from the Serbian, Antiochian, and Greek jurisdictions and is incorporated in the Orthodox Church in America.

“As a convert, I’m blind to the differences. But I do think it would be wonderful if we were all together because it would be a much more powerful witness,” she said.

The Rev. Justin Mathews, director of FOCUS North America, a pan-Orthodox ministry to aid poor Americans with food, shelter and employment, said global Orthodoxy has a long tradition of social service, but it has been neglected in America.

Ministry to the poor “is the responsibility of our church and perhaps the beginning of the tangible fabric of unity,” he said. Paying homage to food festivals, he said Orthodox churches in America are ideally suited for soup kitchens because “our churches are full of these commercial kitchens that are used primarily to serve ourselves.”

Achieving administrative unity would benefit social service ministries because they wouldn’t have to approach a half-dozen ethnic bishops for permission each time they wanted to start a project in a given city, he said.