- Dec 27, 2015
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I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Russian Orthodox Church attitudes to other Christian churches, so I was doing a bit of reading on the net. I came across the following Pew Research item, which was instructive. I'm Catholic incidentally.
Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century
While the Russian Orthodox establishment is not particularly welcoming of competitive Christian churches in its home territory, the fact is that overall the Orthodox Church is declining relative both to absolute world and christian populations. Understandably enough since they endured the brunt of Soviet persecution, they don't feel kindly towards well funded interlopers who didn't bear that cross to anywhere near the same extent.
Part of the reason Orthodoxy hasn't expanded much is that it is mainly confined to the Eurasian landmass, whereas Western European explorers and colonists exported Catholicism and Protestantism centuries ago to Africa, Asia, America, Australia and the Pacific.
Yet oddly enough there is a strong Orthodox presence in Ethiopia. How that came about I don't know.
It seems that both Catholicism and Protestantism are growing, but not in the West - in Africa and Asia in particular. US Catholicism is being affected by Latin immigration (although US Protestants are trying to reverse the trend in Latin America).
Meanwhile Christendom remains as divided as ever.
Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century
While the Russian Orthodox establishment is not particularly welcoming of competitive Christian churches in its home territory, the fact is that overall the Orthodox Church is declining relative both to absolute world and christian populations. Understandably enough since they endured the brunt of Soviet persecution, they don't feel kindly towards well funded interlopers who didn't bear that cross to anywhere near the same extent.
Part of the reason Orthodoxy hasn't expanded much is that it is mainly confined to the Eurasian landmass, whereas Western European explorers and colonists exported Catholicism and Protestantism centuries ago to Africa, Asia, America, Australia and the Pacific.
Yet oddly enough there is a strong Orthodox presence in Ethiopia. How that came about I don't know.
It seems that both Catholicism and Protestantism are growing, but not in the West - in Africa and Asia in particular. US Catholicism is being affected by Latin immigration (although US Protestants are trying to reverse the trend in Latin America).
Meanwhile Christendom remains as divided as ever.