As it stands, Asian Culture is so diverse—and each of the respective cultures/religions vary. Thus, I think it’d be difficult to say that the EO Church alone could possibly reach each one of them in a manner that would ensure all needs of each groups are fulfilled. In doing inner-city ministry, I’ve noticed that even with Asian Communities the needs/concerns are very diverse…with certain things more focused upon than with others beyond spirituality.

For more info, some of the following may be beneficial:

—”Urban Ministry: Asian American” ( http://www.urbanministry.org/search/google/Asian%20American?query=Asian%20American&cx=017405804136166701815%3Anc9jskbtk8y&cof=FORID%3A11&sitesearch=#924 )

–”Urban Ministry: Asian American” ( http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/asian-american-podcast/id265080960 )

–”Being an Asian in America” ( http://www.urbanministry.org/being-asian-america-0 )

–”Sebastian Huynh – Connecting to the Asian American Teen- UYWI 2003″ ( http://www.urbansermons.org/f/audio/sebastian-huynh-connecting-asian-american-teen-uywi-2003 )

—”Asian American views on Ethnic Specific Ministry and Multi-ethnic Ministry” ( http://www.intervarsity.org/mx/item/5811/ )

Even outside of that, as others have noted, those from Non-Asian cultures are drawn immensely toward Eastern Religions…desiring something deeper than what it is that they may’ve found soley within their church experiences or background. For the one who grew up outside of Christian fellowship, the desire was to find something that was spiritual/with meaning. For those within the church, the desire was to have something more than simply philosophy or self-discipline without any real kind of purpose and impact…or, as often happens, doing many honorable deeds/social justice for others but then feeling spiritually empty when it came to deeper communion with the Lord.

I noticed a book that was mentioned entitled “Unchristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity” (Baker Books; 2007). I’ve read the book and thought it was excellent when describing what young adults are looking for today, especially as it concerns the thirst for being spiritual and yet not religious where one is simply going to service/going through the motions when engaging in liturgy, be it in Protestant or Catholic or Eastern Orthodox circles. Although the Eastern Orthodox tradition is suppose to emphasize the experiential aspect rather than the doctrinal, it does seem for many leaving Orthodoxy that in many places it was indeed another form of doctrinal that was emphasized when it came to the liturgical practices that seemed to be focused on solely just as one would see in a church always discussing creeds alone.

Additionally, what of those who are Eastern Catholics? Would they also be able to speak to Eastern Religions? For I’m very supportative of them as well for much of the wonderful work they’ve done–even though it often seems that get stereotyped as if they’re exactly the same as most Roman Catholic rites when it comes to things such as materialism and rationalism.

I made a thread on the issue entitled “East Vs West: Is Western Christianity or Eastern Christianity best suited for evanglising those in Eastern Religion?”—as I’ve long appreciated the thoughts of those in Eastern Christianity more so than Western Christianity. They ways in which they emphasize mysticism and philosophy–as well as action—-in one seems to be a good demonstration of what it means to combine orthodoxy with orthopraxy. Many in the West have become immensely tired of living within a world where all that happens is either reading scripture and quoting creeds—-or simply having services and yet feeling disconnected with others.

Forgive me if its an offense for me being here, seeing that I’m not Orthodox (though I have friends who were in it/appreciate it greatly).

It is a wonderful blessing. I’m sure the young man will be a strong witness for the reality of Christianity.

You asked, “the son of the Eastern Orthodox priest knew these things, and if he didn’t then maybe the father assumed his son indirectly picked these points up. Id’ be interested in knowing why the son said that he was making this move?”

The son told his father (the Orthodox priest) that he thought Buddhism (especially pureland Buddhism, akin to non-dualism in Hinduism) revealed a “higher” spiritual level of ‘reality’ than the level of “gods”, among which he included Jesus Christ.

The article was written three years ago. Since then the son left the Buddhist monastery and has become a novice at The Monastery of Saint John of San Francisco (CA) in manton, California!

Kevin, agreed. There’s more than simply correctly the uncanonical situation. At best, that’s a start, but I don’t see how we could realistically do evangelism until that’s corrected. As for the fitness of 90% of our bishops, I couldn’t agree w/ you more. There’s two in the AOCA who I think “get it,” about five in the OCA, and maybe one in the GOA. And that’s a stretch.

The darn thing is that our priests (who I think mostly do get it) take their cues from their bishops. I’ve seen more than one priest (and heard about dozens of others) who’ve had the rug pulled out from them by bishops who succumbed to the ethnocentric pull.

One day, sometime after my experience with “my friend” (the demon that was possessing him that Elder Paisios exorcised) in the elders yard, I asked the elder about the yogis. By that time, I had become convinced that the yogis worked in cooperation with demons – but I couldn’t understand how it was possible for anyone to make such a choice. “Elder, I just can’t understand why they would want to be evil men. They are intelligent, educated people with many abilities. They don’t have any reason to be evil.” The elder looked at me and shook his head, but didn’t say anything. Shortly afterwards, as planned, I left the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos the monastic republic in Greece) in order to be with my family for Pascha (Easter) which we would spend in my childhood home of Florina, to which my parents had returned in their retirement.
One afternoon at the beginning of Holy Week (the week preceding Orthodox Easter), having made a stop in Thessaloniki, I was by myself in our home there, when, suddenly, my surroundings vanished. There were no images to be seen, sounds to be heard, or objects to be touched. My five senses had ceased functioning. It was as though the light switch had been flicked and the room plunged into total darkness.
My mind turned its full attention to a spiritual realm that it found utterly riveting and captivating. In one direction, I saw a soft but intense light – brilliant but gentle. In the other direction, I saw a thick, cavernous darkness. Initially, I turned my attention towards the awesome, yet fearful, darkness. It made my flesh crawl, but I was overcome by curiosity, the desire to understand what it was. My mind advanced towards the darkness. It had vast power and, if I dare put it this way, a certain grandeur. It represented a negative perspective on reality, unhesitatingly extending into reality as depth, even as the light stretched infinitely into reality as height. On one side, there was immense love; on the other immense hatred. The light was overflowing with unconditional altruism, while the darkness pulled away in utter self-centeredness.
Though I couldn’t see into the darkness, I could feel the presence of souls in it, leaping about, and shrieking with insane, wicked laughter, as they were pulled deeper and deeper into the ocean of darkness, until the sound of their voices disappeared altogether. Frightened by this savage madness, I headed towards the light, seeking its protection. Just reaching its outskirts, I felt the relief of having been rescued from a grave danger.
Although I didn’t advance very far at all into the darkness, I was able to feel the depths of its evil ocean. I could understand the very essence of the enticing power of sin to tempt, as well as its laughable powerlessness, utter dependence, and shadowy nonexistence. The darkness, I saw, is fearsome when it has won you over, but it is absurd and feeble when you reject it — it cannot defeat even a small child if he does not fall on his own. In the same way I didn’t advance far into the light — only so to speak, skating its edge — but even there I felt confident and comforted by a fullness of life, peace, joy, and knowledge. The light loved me greatly in spite of my unworthiness and granted me its gifts I never dreamed existed. At this point, I realized that the light created the world and every living being. The existential space in which each person dwells is itself a creation fashioned by the light, which also fills and permeates these spaces. On being decided to stay outside of the existential space created by the light, thus creating a sort of space for itself, though only by denying the light, turning from it, and driving it away. The darkness has no existence of its own, but only denies the ever-existing and sovereign light. That is to say, the existence of darkness would have been impossible without the existence of the light; though the light had no need of the darkness for existence, for its existence is self-sufficient. The light respected the free decision of its creation to reject it, and so kept its distance. In this way, a dark existential space made its appearance—the darkness, in this sense became a reality.
The darkness resulted from the inclination of a conscious being, called Satan, who chose such a form of existence though he had no reason to. And this denial made the darkness a reality. Although this act of denial may have resembled God’s act of creation, it was not creation, but an imitation of creation performed in reverse. That is the devil tried to behave like God, but, since he did not have the ability to create on his own, he was capable of only denying God’s creation, energies, light, and grace. He pulled away from the very borders of reality and made non-existence a way of being, thus “creating” death and darkness, but all things are filled with light and life.
Just as the light ‘s love wishes to unite all things, being the source of existence and creation, so the hatred of the darkness wants to divide all things, being the source of nonexistence and destruction. Just as the light extends out into infinite beyond, so the darkness seems to extend into its infinite beyond. Just as there is a grandeur about the simple, yet infinite light of God, with all His attributes and energies, so there is a certain grandeur about the blunt, yet apparently infinite darkness of the devil, with all his deep- rooted and ferocious self-destructiveness, full of stubborn and manic rage.
Having come to such realization, I found myself as with a flip of a switch, surrounded again by familiar sights and sounds of my room. Within a matter of minutes, I had a lesson of immeasurable depth. It was not only a revelation beyond word, of subtle differences of profound meaning and great importance, but also — and even more — a test and a trial of the deepest inclinations and intentions of my heart, to see whom I would follow and who I would leave behind. Fortunately, although my heart initially moved towards the darkness, it ultimately found repose in the light — and fortunately, the light still accepted me.
This experience taught me that, just as God surpasses the human mind, so do His works, His creations, and His gifts. On its own, the human mind can only acquire a relative idea about these realities, producing hypothesis, conjectures, opinions, and imaginary presuppositions to justify its views. However aided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, it can begin to fathom these mysteries.
I also received from this experience a deep appreciation of the mystery of human and angelic freedom, a divine gift beyond human understanding. My experience of light and dark helped me to grasp the fact that God endowed angels and men with free will so that they could move independently, freely and without compulsion in the moral sphere. The elder once told me. “God would forgive the devil if he would just say one ‘Lord have mercy.’ There’s a dear old monk near here who used to pray for the devil, because he felt compassion for him. After all, the devil was one of god’s creatures — in fact, he was an archangel before he fell into such a sorry state. While the elder was praying for him, the evil one appeared in the corner and started to make fun of him. The devil is unrepentant.” He concluded. As I would learn latter, this elder was actually Father Paisios.

Eastern paths: no Cross, no grave, no descent into Hades, no Resurrection and ascension, no personal unity with the living resurrected and ascended God.

‘Seekers’ not disciples

No sin, no judgement

No need of a Savior, a Lord or a King.

No Holy Trinity, therefore no real appreciation for other’s personhood (thus a caste system as many are persumed to be unevolved souls) and lack of charity

A wholly different cosmology that negates the essence of man as the uniquely created steward of a good creation. The physical world itself is an ‘illusion’
Thus there is a fundamental hatred of the created world and by extension its Creator

Idol worship, not just veneration, which can lead to the experience of demons rather than holiness.

In some forms of Hinduism the passions need to be statified (not transcended)before attempting to worship thus temple prostitution, gluttony, etc.

A degradation of women

I fear that sometimes we have the same communication problems with those of eastern paths as we do with Protestants–using the same words but with differing if not diametrically opposed meanings.

Read “The Gurus, the Young Man and Elder Paisios” for some of the experential differences. Might help the priest who fears he has lost his son as well.

If all we do is preach doctrine, no matter how well and true, we will never experience the depth of true worship and communion with God, each other and the rest of His creation, nor disciple anyone else either.

Even among those who are faithful Orthodox there is difficulty really accepting the Psalm we sing at Nativity: “God is with us, submit yourself all ye nations, for God is with us”

“We all like sheep have gone astray, each one to his own way….”

The first two statements are incompatible with modern egalitarianism and individualism, the third with the complete transcendence of sin, error and evil promised by Buddhism (one does not have to do battle on a daily basis with fallen nature).

Also many American churches lack all understanding and appreciation of genuine community having been overwhelmed by the individual/nuclear family model of society and culture.

Those seeking genuine spiritual depth and formation are most often left to go it on their own or worse, enter into a false ‘spiritual father’ relationship with what essentially amounts to an Orthodox guru. When all that is seen and often experienced is a complicated mass of rituals, rules and incomprehensible theological jargon combined with the distance, lack of pastoral engagement, lack of genuine spiritual authority and often moral turpritude of many of our bishops lends credance to the promises of eastern paths.

I came from a syncretistic mystery cult. I’d never go back, but we do make things unnecessarily difficult when everything BUT the encounter with the living Christ in community is practiced, preached and expected.

R. Catholics are having the same problem. Roman Catholics and Jews make up the largest group of Buddhist converts.