Citizen Columns
Question
What common misconception would you most like to correct about your faith group?
Answer
I identify myself first as Christian, since one of the main misconceptions
about the Orthodox Churches is that they are some other kind of religion.
Both Christianity and Orthodoxy suffer from a common misconception that they
are hopelessly divided. Of course there are thousands of large and small
Christian groups of every possible nuance and interpretation-a small range
of which is found on this page-but I am amazed at the remarkable unity they
share around the person of Jesus Christ. Most of them persist, through the
upheavals of history and culture to orient their lives around the life,
teaching, death and resurrection of a first-century Jewish prophet. They
persist in believing that God entered the world in a decisive new way
through the appearance of Jesus. For non-believers in the 21st century this
is just as foolish as it was in St Paul's day. Nevertheless, despite our
differences, Christians continue to believe that "God's foolishness is wiser
than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength" (1
Corinthians 1:25).
The Orthodox Churches are similarly misunderstood. They are seen as
fractured esoteric enclaves that have little to do with the realities of
Canadian society, except to help illustrate its multicultural mosaic. The
names only reinforce this misconception: Antiochian, Greek, Russian,
Coptic, Ethiopian, Romanian, Serbian, Carpatho-Russian, Ukrainian. Even
"Orthodox Church in America" (my own affiliation) is confusing.
But these churches are united in faith. Historically, they were
geographically divided. They endured centuries of persecution and oppression
(and many churches in the Middle East continue to have severe restrictions).
As immigrant parishes they live largely on their own. But they share a deep
inner unity around faithfulness to the theology, worship and spirituality of
the early church. This has attracted other Canadians with no "eastern"
background to join them, especially in parishes that worship in English or
French. And this surprises even many Orthodox.
Father John Jillions
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