GregConstantine
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- Aug 27, 2012
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@Dalibor, I'm not going to argue with you, because it would be like arguing with a wall.
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I wonder if St Patrick is Orthodox enough, considering he is a Western saint.....
Especially since he was a British, man preaching to the Irish. I think my man Greg is on to something....
"While people who keep ties with their ethnic culture and traditions can retain some connections to the Church those who abandon all that become secularized to point where they are not Christian at all."
a big fat no to this. We are not to cling to our ethnicity, but to Christ, we cling to Christ and preach Him crucified. The solution to avoid materialism and secularism is not to cling to an earthly ethnicity but to Christ. There is neither jew nor greek, slave nor free, male nor female...but all are one in Christ Jesus.
St Paul said "it is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me..." He did not say "but (fill in the blank ethnicity) who lives in me.
That is not a problem, that is a trivial matter.
That's attention-seeking. You didn't become Orthodox to make new friends did you?
Being judgmental of others is a sin. What they do with their lives is none of your business. And blaming lack of virtues because someone is ethnocentric is underlying animosity on your part towards those ethnic groups.
This sounds like a political undertone. Are you sure you are not just angry at us for political reasons but hiding it with attacks on our ethnicity?
Or do you seriously believe if we all abandon our ethnicity/culture/tradition and become westernized or Americanized that suddenly waves of Anglos would flock to our churches embracing Orthodoxy?
Problem of your people is ignorance of Orthodoxy and intolerance. If they can't accept Orthodoxy because Russians are showing their culture or dancing after the service (Oh the horror) than that's strictly your problem and not our fault. Instead of trying to change us you should change yourselves.
My ethnicity IS my nationality. I can live on Mars or on North Pole and still be a Serb and not a Martian or Eskimo. If you really believe in what you say ( and apparently you don't since you are waving your american flag) than you should abandon your american nationality and loyalty to your people. Let's see how would society work if everyone does that.
My ethnicity IS my nationality. I can live on Mars or on North Pole and still be a Serb and not a Martian or Eskimo. If you really believe in what you say ( and apparently you don't since you are waving your american flag) than you should abandon your american nationality and loyalty to your people. Let's see how would society work if everyone does that.
If it's that easy than why isn't OCA the biggest Christian denomination in USA or at least with the same number of members as one of the major protestant groups? What are you people doing over there?
If it's that easy than why isn't OCA the biggest Christian denomination in USA or at least with the same number of members as one of the major protestant groups? What are you people doing over there?
Mabry this is my ignorance being in a land of immigrants but I thought wherever you move you accept the culture. Example if I moved to Russia I would speak Russian and celebrate Russian holidays. When I lived in Korea I celebrated Korean holidays and made Korean friends and tried to learn Korean(turns out my Korean sucked lol). If I moved to Mexico(or even southern Californian) I would learn Spanish.
Orthodoxy should be able to be in any culture.
Also Anglo is a racist term. I for example am English Saxon(not Angle)& Celtic with a smaller amount of Slavic/Balkan DNA(I actually did a genetic test).
In fact my Y-DNA can be traced to anicent Saxon territory.
The Balkan DNA was a surprise.
You are confusing Orthodoxy with culture. Nobody is asking converts to accept Russian or Serbian culture to become Orthodox. You don't go to church to be cultured but to save your soul. The whole problem of some western converts stems from their intolerance of other ethnic cultures.
They claim parishes should only be about faith and nothing else. Yet who is stopping them from having just that? They can simply attend the service and then leave. Who says they should attend cultural activities after the service?
That fact that this bothers them means they seek more than just a spiritual things. They also want a social club but instead of Russian one American social club with american culture. It's very hypocritical on their part.
If you are a citizen of Australia your nationality is Australian. If you don't like it, go back to Serbia.
I would question your loyality to Australia if that's where you live if I were the Australian authorities. I'm an American, and I would question your loyalties to America too if you were an American citizen and said the things you said.
and yeah, I'm going to wave that American flag, and if any foreign invaders dare to step on my shore, I'll assure you I'll fight right alongside my fellow Americans against them and I'll plant that waving American flag right over the defeated enemies and ask: "Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, over the land of the free, and the home of the brave?" The answer would be the same as it was in Baltimore then as it would be now, Yes it does! I would do it as an Orthodox Christian.
Our parish doesn't have a social club related to any ethnicity - not American either. We do have a fellowship hour after services, book / Bible studies, Tuesday morning akathists and brunch for stay at home parents and kids, etc. Why should we have it be about any specific ethnicity? How are we being hypocritical by not embracing the Russian culture in our activities outside of church? Why should the only activities outside of church be specific to a culture?