Why did you choose your particular church?

[MilesVitae]

I don't know a great deal about the differences between the difference Orthodox churches within the EOC (Russian Orthodox, Greek, etc.). For those of you who have consciously made to a decision to join a particular church (or remain in one), why did you pick the particular church you did?

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

There is a Greek and a Serbian parish in Fresno. Going to the liturgy, the Serbian/Slavonic liturgy is WAYYYYYY more lovely, powerful, and pious. The icons are lovely, the parish very tight and it's super convert-friendly. The Greek parish is mostly rich folks, more ethnic, they sit a lot during the liturgy, they kneel a lot, the liturgy is only like 50 minutes long, seems rushed, and there isn't the same lovely sense of community, etc. The priest is a great guy, but I wasn't "feeling" that parish one bit! The icons there are hideous, too (not like I base it all on icons, just an observation! LOL). I prefer the Slavonic components to Greek.

I don't know a great deal about the differences between the difference Orthodox churches within the EOC (Russian Orthodox, Greek, etc.). For those of you who have consciously made to a decision to join a particular church (or remain in one), why did you pick the particular church you did?

 

[gzt]

Greeks have better food, Russians have better music. I can cook for myself.

 

[MilesVitae]

Greeks have better food, Russians have better music. I can cook for myself.

Fair enough.

One of the few things I do know about the differences between the Russians and the Greeks is the Russians consider beer an acceptable Lenten beverage. Were I ever to become Orthodox, I'd be inclined toward the Russians.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Fair enough.

One of the few things I do know about the differences between the Russians and the Greeks is the Russians consider beer an acceptable Lenten beverage. Were I ever to become Orthodox, I'd be inclined toward the Russians.

For myself, I based it on the parish, not the jurisdiction.

I was advised by a friend here on CF to visit an Antiochian parish, and in fact, he knew the priest at the local Antiochian Church. I visited, talked the priest, attended liturgy, met the people, went to a Bible study.

But the schedule there didn't suit me very well. They do have Vespers on Wednesday and Sunday, but it's almost an hour drive each way, for a very short service. The priest didn't quite "click" with me. And their Bible study is only once a month.

I checked out the Greek parish too. The priest there used to be Baptist (as was I at one time) so he understood some issues I might have with Orthodoxy. He used to be a teacher, and it really shows in how he explains things. We clicked a lot better. They had weekly Bible study, and at that time they had twice weekly inquirer/catechism classes. When I showed up to help out with preparations for Holy Week, the parish family welcomed me in quickly, and treated me like family.

Yes, they are mostly rich Greeks, but that doesn't seem to matter. This particular parish is FAMILY, and they treat everyone like it. I've been to other Greek parishes that were pretty cold, and non-Greek parishes that treated me like family. So it's really not the jurisdiction, imo. I find the music of different jurisdictions to have its own unique beauty, and I love all of it.

But ultimately, it was being made family, making a good connection with the priest, and having many more opportunities to learn and be involved that made me choose my Church. And now I love the Church and the people so much, and the priest has been such a great help to me, that I don't want to leave. I love my Church (though I've visited some pretty great ones too!).

And yes, the food is awesome, LOL!

 

[E.C.]

I tend to avoid parishes that double as foreign embassies or consulates. Other than that I'll usually stick with OCA or Arab parishes.

The Greeks don't chant the Epistle readings, they sit most of the Liturgy, kneel during part of it (early canon actually prohibits kneeling on Sundays), and like the Irish Catholics of my youth, half of them leave after Communion.

I like parishes with a good Arab population (Antiochian or Jerusalem Vicariate) because they chant Epistles and even though they mostly have pews you still see a lot of people standing. The chant is beautiful when done correctly and the food is amaaaaazing! They'll welcome non-Arabs and if you happen to be a non-Arab who is Orthodox and speak Arabic they will introduce you to their daughters, nieces, granddaughters or cousins of your generation (trust me )
Another thing that I'll give the Arabs a great deal of credit for is the fact that unlike other ethnic groups they acknowledge the fact that the younger generations are becoming more and more Americanized.

Other than Arab parishes I'll tend to go to OCA parishes. I became Orthodox in the OCA and spent most of my Orthodox life in them, so the chants and flow of the Liturgy are key things that, frankly, feel like home more than any other jurisdiction. They're across the board mostly English-speaking parishes and, being the partly American chauvinist that I can be, just like having an American bishop who does not answer to a foreign power.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

You can't really generalize all jurisdictions of Orthodoxy simply because not all Greeks are the same or all Russians, etc. Take my parish. It's Serbian. Yet how many Serbs actually go to our parish? VERY FEW! Our parish is like 10% Serbs, 60% Russians, 40% Protestant or Catholic Anglo converts!!!!

So my "Serbian" parish is only Serbian in that my priest is a Serb and has wife and my bishop/powers-that-be. The actual parishioners are more like me than they are Serbs half the time!

So it really depends on the experience and flavor of where you are.

 

[~Anastasia~]

You can't really generalize all jurisdictions of Orthodoxy simply because not all Greeks are the same or all Russians, etc. Take my parish. It's Serbian. Yet how many Serbs actually go to our parish? VERY FEW! Our parish is like 10% Serbs, 60% Russians, 40% Protestant or Catholic Anglo converts!!!!

So my "Serbian" parish is only Serbian in that my priest is a Serb and has wife and my bishop/powers-that-be. The actual parishioners are more like me than they are Serbs half the time!

So it really depends on the experience and flavor of where you are.

Now that I've visited a good many parishes - I think not bad for a year in, lol ... ummm ... I think 9 parishes (most of these I've visited a number of times), having had liturgy with 2 other priests and some of their parishes, and been to a monastery ...

I would not generalize about jurisdictions, at least not about how the people are.

It's true that the Greeks generally have pews and more of the liturgy tends to be in Greek. But I have seen quite a bit of standing even when some sit, and some of us even wear headcoverings.

Otherwise ... I really don't think I'd generalize about the people as far as how they behave toward visitors or in Church. And I see so much mixing in many of these parishes. Mostly I'm assumed not to belong to a Greek parish anyway (most assume I am OCA when they meet me).

I've even seen a parish or two that one might have expected to be ethnically one thing and they are actually mostly something else. I guess other people choose their Church sometimes for reasons other than ethnicity too.

 

[Ignatius21]

It's close to my house, and everything is in English That's why!

 

[E.C.]

You can't really generalize all jurisdictions of Orthodoxy simply because not all Greeks are the same or all Russians, etc. Take my parish. It's Serbian. Yet how many Serbs actually go to our parish? VERY FEW! Our parish is like 10% Serbs, 60% Russians, 40% Protestant or Catholic Anglo converts!!!!

I try not to, but no one's perfect. Sadly moving across the country in the last year has taught me that there are certain trends within jurisdictions that one just can not ignore. It is one thing if X jurisdiction does certain things in one state, but when you see it in almost a dozen parishes in half a dozen states in four time zones one can not ignore reality.

 

[Mary of Bethany]

It's close to my house, and everything is in English That's why!

Those are the reasons I first chose my parish, but what keeps me there (even though I've moved almost an hour away) is that they are very much family. We have a wonderful sense of community in our parish and are welcoming to everyone.

Mary

 

[messierobject]

It's 1 mile away from our house (Greek) compared to 3 miles away (OCA).

 

[inconsequential]

Because we worked too hard growing it from a handful of inquirers and catechumens praying in each other's homes to a nice mission with 25 families. Thanks be to God we are starting weekly DLs this week, up from bimonthly! There is even talk of having Pascha here now instead of driving 2 hours to our mother parish.

 

[xenia]

It's within walking distance.

 

[xenia]

I think we should try our best to attend an Orthodox church closest to our homes. If we have a strong opinion about calendars and languages, widen the circle but I think we should give the closest parish a decent try before we look elsewhere. The neighborhood parish might just be the place God has for us.

 

[ArmyMatt]

first and foremost because the Church is Orthodox
second because the parish is loving
third because the services are in English
fourth because of the proximity

in that order

 

[gzt]

Somewhere in the list should be "no pews", IMO...

 

[sunshineforJesus]

because its close by and Gods spirit is there.

 

[prodromos]

When we were moving back to Australia from Greece, our biggest concern was who we would have as our spiritual father. The priest at a particular parish in Sydney was recommended to us by one of the nuns at the convent near Ormylia in Halkidiki, who grew up in that parish before ultimately moving to Greece to become a nun. It isn't the closest parish to us, infact we probably have a choice of at least 8 closer parishes, but we have no regrets. Our priest is a man very close to God

 

[HalupkiMonster]

I live in a small town - not a large, metropolitan city. As a result, most of the Churches here have been here since my great grandparents came to labor in our mill. They built lots of Catholic Churches in the old part of town - the Italians, the Slovenes, the Irish, the Germans and the Poles all had their own. Then there was one large Orthodox Church with a huge mix of Arabs, Greeks, Russians, Romanians, Hungarians, etc. Our community was given the blessing in the 1910s to create a separate Church for the Greeks (and Arabs).

I hadn't been raised with Church, and at 14 when I wanted to start going, I was disappointed by the severely watered-down Catholic churches I saw around me (even the Polish Church my family had gone to for over a century.)

There were two Orthodox Churches. I tried them both. The one I chose had a better choir, a more consistent schedule of services, and it was pretty well mixed between cradle Orthodox and converts. There were also just enough people of Polish and Austro-Hungarian descent to make Sunday coffee hour feel like my grandmother's house.

I chose the OCA Church, which is heavily Slavic (Serbian, specifically) in its traditions. But that didn't mean a whole lot to me. The Greek Church was nice, but it seems to be treated more as a museum, and only has a few Sunday liturgies per month, whereas the OCA Church has something going on all the time.

The Orthodox community in my town is fairly tight-knit in my community, anyway, and we often go to each other's Churches. It's really just an issue of difference in administration, not in ethnicity. However, finding the small Polish speaking Orthodox community has really helped me deal with the lack of presence of my ethnic culture after the death of my grandmother, which has helped me quite a bit. I guess ethnicity can be good if it's your thing, but it's not the most important.