Sunday, November 23, 2025
Orthodoxy in America
is attracting new members, especially young, conservative men. I would be interested in Jack's take on this story in the NYT.
I have attended many services with my Greek friend. I have found some asoects of Orthodox theology to be more in line with my thinking than RC theology, but also that some aspects of Orthodoxy are as bad as or worse than in the RC, such as in its treatment of women. The attraction to young men apparently includes its approach to male and female roles, saying Orthodoxy "affirms their masculinity". I wonder how they define " masculinity"?
The conservative young seem to be taking over the the RC, and Orthodox churches as well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/us/orthodox-christianity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3U8.5h3e.uwLkLhTzY8ZO&smid=nytcore-ios-share
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I was struck by this, "...The Orthodox Church is the only church that really coaches men hard, and says, ‘This is what you need to do,’”....He beamed as he talked about the weekly worship service known as the Divine Liturgy, an hourslong affair at which attendees typically stand the entire time, rather than sitting in the pews or kneeling."
ReplyDeleteApparently the young men want a marine boot camp experience, the article also talked about rigorous fasting.
Some of my late brother in law Tom's family were Syrian Orthodox (they were of Lebanese background, but their church was called Syrian Orthodox) I got the idea that some of what the article describes would have been optional. Tom said most people didn't attend the whole service, mostly the old people. The others came in for the last hour or so. You could kind of be as rigorous as you wanted to be, and most people didn't want to be *that* rigorous. Maybe the Orthodox have kind of a "rad trad" group too.
Orthodoxy is more rigorous than Catholicism. Their services are much longer, and their fasts are far more rigorous even than our pre-Vatican II fasts.
ReplyDeleteBut they are less legalistic than Catholicism. People regularly come late to Vespers and Divine Liturgy. They do not sneak into the back pew but come right up front to kiss the icon of the day that stands at the foot of the icon screen.
While priests encourage people to bring their young children to liturgies, and even to sit them right up front where they can see everything, they also understand that families may need to come in late and leave early.
Similar things in regard to all the fasting. People are encouraged to observe the strict fast but those with health problems mitigate the fast.
I think the "radical traditionalist" phenomena in Orthodoxy like in Catholicism is mostly an online phenomena. I think there are probably fewer radical traditionalist priests in the Orthodox Churches than in Catholic ones. Orthodox priests pretty much do what has been done traditionally in their parishes. If they deviate very far they are likely to hear from their parish members, fellow priests in their deanery, and the bishop who has far less priests to supervise.
We have a new young pastor who regularly consults with other priests and most of all with the bishop before implementing anything different even though in many cases that new thing has a great deal of tradition behind it.
The small Orthodox Church nearby probably has a many converts per year as our large Catholic parishes nearby. The difference is that most Catholic converts are due to marriage, most Orthodox converts occur because anyone they are very welcoming. From the first day I went to our local Orthodox parish I have always felt as a guest of honor. They may not admit me to communion but several people will usually bring me bless bread and wine after communion.