Healing Nearness

[FrThadd]

Unknown to most of us American Orthodox, the huge majority of us live way too far from the parish we attend and our Orthodox Christian friends (God bless you all that are close!). Many community studies suggest that 10 minutes travel is ideal, but there's never been a study of why this is, or even if it is true. So I'm doing the first Orthodox study of believers' proximity to church and neighbor in order to improve parish health and more successful mission planting. Related topics to my studies are Orthodox intentional communities, homesteading, and parish life outside of services and Sunday coffee hour. PLEASE take 1 minute and fill out this short survey! It will be a blessing to many in the near future.

HEALING NEARNESS: GOD • NEIGHBOR • SELF

A Geographic Proximity Study

docs.google.com

 

[RileyG]

Welcome Father!

I'm not Orthodox, and I live in a state with very few Orthodox Christians. There are a few Churches in Lincoln and Omaha in my state of Nebraska. There is one in Kearney.

I hope you enjoy your stay

 

[The Liturgist]

Unknown to most of us American Orthodox, the huge majority of us live way too far from the parish we attend and our Orthodox Christian friends (God bless you all that are close!). Many community studies suggest that 10 minutes travel is ideal, but there's never been a study of why this is, or even if it is true. So I'm doing the first Orthodox study of believers' proximity to church and neighbor in order to improve parish health and more successful mission planting. Related topics to my studies are Orthodox intentional communities, homesteading, and parish life outside of services and Sunday coffee hour. PLEASE take 1 minute and fill out this short survey! It will be a blessing to many in the near future.

HEALING NEARNESS: GOD • NEIGHBOR • SELF

A Geographic Proximity Study

docs.google.com

I filled it out.

Good luck on your paper.

I think we need many more parishes in the US, and I think, outside of GoArch (with the exception of the very healthy neo-Athonite monastery system established by Elder Ephraim, 19 monasteries in total), that most of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches are showing the kind of growth needed to support those parishes, in terms of converts and immigrants from the Old Country. I also wish we had an Orthodox university, and Orthodox hospitals, and otherwise asserted our presence in a manner that would show us taking the place of the fallen mainline Protestant churches that we have been given a divine mandate to replace, returning the people of the US to communion with Holy Orthodoxy.

 

[FrThadd]

I filled it out.

Good luck on your paper.

I think we need many more parishes in the US, and I think, outside of GoArch (with the exception of the very healthy neo-Athonite monastery system established by Elder Ephraim, 19 monasteries in total), that most of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches are showing the kind of growth needed to support those parishes, in terms of converts and immigrants from the Old Country. I also wish we had an Orthodox university, and Orthodox hospitals, and otherwise asserted our presence in a manner that would show us taking the place of the fallen mainline Protestant churches that we have been given a divine mandate to replace, returning the people of the US to communion with Holy Orthodoxy.

I agree. Another major issue holding the Church back is not having enough clergy, and care for clergy. I know a psychologist who was given access to St. Vladimir's Seminary student files and over time 92% of their ordained graduates left the priesthood. A recent study of the GOA (who has a massive shortage of priests) showed 40% of their priests and wives of priests had diagnosable trauma from being abused by parishioners. But the bishops usually back the laity (for popularity) rather than the priest and his family.

 

[ArmyMatt]

filled out

 

[notRusskiyMir]

I filled it out.

Blessings for your study.

The limit on Orthodox communities - my guess - is due to shortage of clergy, as you touched on in your OP. So, a group of Faithful in an unserved area come together and seek to form the community. I think this is the usual start. The leaders then approach a hierarch or the closest parish priest for periodic Divine services and to make their desires/needs known. At some point their presence is acknowledged as a missionary (term?) parish that is then considered a part of the diocese. If the support is strong enough - aka, money to support a priest - they are in the queue to get a priest.

That is my assumption. Short of a monastery opening nearby that has a priest, that is the pattern. So, it is a bottom up process in almost all cases. Which is as it should be as Orthodoxy is a bottom up governance model. If the people don't agree, it isn't Orthodoxy. The Faithful approve hierarchs and all below them. The Holy Spirit at Work: When two or three are gathered in His name....

Your survey might reveal something about the maximal distance for a Church. It certainly isn't 10 minutes. We are not orthodox Jews that have to walk to the synagogue. Plus travel time in most metropolitan areas is lengthy at best. If a church is alive then the distance will not normally be a major factor, all else considered. Of course, at some point it will be major.

Feeling at home in a parish is based on many factors with distance not really being in the top 5 or even top 10 things. It can affect children's involvement I suspect, but not so much adults. The reality is that Orthodoxy in the US is a scarce thing. But, efforts need to be made certainly to accommodate growth and the interest from the seekers.

Again, blessings for your study.

 

[E.C.]

Part of the issue just depends on where on lives. I've noticed over the years of traveling and moving that there is a great difference between rural and urban parish life. The greater DC swamp has roughly 27 missions and parishes spread over eight jurisdictions, two states, and one federal district. Hell will freeze before many of them venture beyond jurisdictional lines outside of the parish festival, yet all of them have the same complaints: no Orthodox schools, no opportunities to meet single Orthodox people, being surrounded by craziness, etc. Many of these complaints could be easily solved if they quit making idols over what is different and instead focused on what we have in common. It also does not help that the clergy and laity of the ROCOR cathedral in DC have been carrying out an active smear campaign against the other jurisdictions, particularly against the OCA, since I moved to this area in 2021.

Rural areas, in my experience, tend to be the greatest examples of American Orthodoxy. One of the best places I spent Pascha was in Jackson, Mississippi where the three parishes (OCA, Greek, Antiochian) would traditionally gather in one parish for Agape Vespers and celebrate it together with a huge feast afterwards - unfortunately the Greeks dropped out during COVID and have no intention of returning to this tradition. I had to drive two hours on a Sunday just to get to Liturgy, but it was well worth it.

 

[FrThadd]

I filled it out.

Blessings for your study.

The limit on Orthodox communities - my guess - is due to shortage of clergy, as you touched on in your OP. So, a group of Faithful in an unserved area come together and seek to form the community. I think this is the usual start. The leaders then approach a hierarch or the closest parish priest for periodic Divine services and to make their desires/needs known. At some point their presence is acknowledged as a missionary (term?) parish that is then considered a part of the diocese. If the support is strong enough - aka, money to support a priest - they are in the queue to get a priest.

That is my assumption. Short of a monastery opening nearby that has a priest, that is the pattern. So, it is a bottom up process in almost all cases. Which is as it should be as Orthodoxy is a bottom up governance model. If the people don't agree, it isn't Orthodoxy. The Faithful approve hierarchs and all below them. The Holy Spirit at Work: When two or three are gathered in His name....

Your survey might reveal something about the maximal distance for a Church. It certainly isn't 10 minutes. We are not orthodox Jews that have to walk to the synagogue. Plus travel time in most metropolitan areas is lengthy at best. If a church is alive then the distance will not normally be a major factor, all else considered. Of course, at some point it will be major.

Feeling at home in a parish is based on many factors with distance not really being in the top 5 or even top 10 things. It can affect children's involvement I suspect, but not so much adults. The reality is that Orthodoxy in the US is a scarce thing. But, efforts need to be made certainly to accommodate growth and the interest from the seekers.

Again, blessings for your study.

Thank you! Appreciate your input and observations!

 

[FrThadd]

Part of the issue just depends on where on lives. I've noticed over the years of traveling and moving that there is a great difference between rural and urban parish life. The greater DC swamp has roughly 27 missions and parishes spread over eight jurisdictions, two states, and one federal district. Hell will freeze before many of them venture beyond jurisdictional lines outside of the parish festival, yet all of them have the same complaints: no Orthodox schools, no opportunities to meet single Orthodox people, being surrounded by craziness, etc. Many of these complaints could be easily solved if they quit making idols over what is different and instead focused on what we have in common. It also does not help that the clergy and laity of the ROCOR cathedral in DC have been carrying out an active smear campaign against the other jurisdictions, particularly against the OCA, since I moved to this area in 2021.

Rural areas, in my experience, tend to be the greatest examples of American Orthodoxy. One of the best places I spent Pascha was in Jackson, Mississippi where the three parishes (OCA, Greek, Antiochian) would traditionally gather in one parish for Agape Vespers and celebrate it together with a huge feast afterwards - unfortunately the Greeks dropped out during COVID and have no intention of returning to this tradition. I had to drive two hours on a Sunday just to get to Liturgy, but it was well worth it.

Thank you for your input! I agree (and I even have DC friends!). My gut feeling is that, after ethnocentrism / jurisdictionalism, the U.S. Church suffers from being too city oriented / influenced. Pan-orthodox mapping shows this clearly (orthodoxreality.org) with most parishes being in California cities, or New York cities. Objectively, this must have a major influence on church administration and 'self-image' (aka 'Orthodoxy is city folk'). I don't say any of that disparagingly, it just seems to likely be a major psycho-social influence.

 

[The Liturgist]

As a member of the OCA since 2014, I myself really love ROCOR and greatly appreciate them. Indeed the best confessional experience I ever had was with a ROCOR priest, who really greatly assisted me with bereavement. I have also had very good experiences with OCA priests.

In Southern California, Los Angeles has two large ROCOR parishes and an additional Russian Orthodox parish of the OCA, which operates on a sort of dual-calendar system. And in San Francisco, the Russian neighborhood has the massive ROCOR Holy Virgin Cathedral which is home to the relics of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, and is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the Western hemisphere, and nearby is the OCA Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and I would not say the two compete, since the former serves the liturgy primarily in Church Slavonic, and the latter primarily in English, and additionally there is an OCA monastery located near San Francisco dedicated to St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. And beyond, in the very far north of California, is the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St. Herman of Platina, founded by Metropolitan Seraphim Rose, who was a member of ROCOR, and in Washington there is the ROCOR monastery on Vashon Island, which I hope to visit.

 

[FrThadd]

As a member of the OCA since 2014, I myself really love ROCOR and greatly appreciate them. Indeed the best confessional experience I ever had was with a ROCOR priest, who really greatly assisted me with bereavement. I have also had very good experiences with OCA priests.

In Southern California, Los Angeles has two large ROCOR parishes and an additional Russian Orthodox parish of the OCA, which operates on a sort of dual-calendar system. And in San Francisco, the Russian neighborhood has the massive ROCOR Holy Virgin Cathedral which is home to the relics of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, and is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the Western hemisphere, and nearby is the OCA Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and I would not say the two compete, since the former serves the liturgy primarily in Church Slavonic, and the latter primarily in English, and additionally there is an OCA monastery located near San Francisco dedicated to St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. And beyond, in the very far north of California, is the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St. Herman of Platina, founded by Metropolitan Seraphim Rose, who was a member of ROCOR, and in Washington there is the ROCOR monastery on Vashon Island, which I hope to visit.

I grew up in CA and am familiar with most of what and where you've mentioned I've spent time at St. Herman's monastery and Vashon Island too! Glory to God!

 

[The Liturgist]

I grew up in CA and am familiar with most of what and where you've mentioned I've spent time at St. Herman's monastery and Vashon Island too! Glory to God!

Splendid!

I also really love St. Anthony’s monastery in Florence, Arizona (and I also love the Coptic one near Barstow, California, which is actually on the more scenic route to Florence, AZ, if one wants to bypass Phoenix and its traffic jams and travel via Flagstaff and Sedona). I did meet Elder Ephraim, memory eternal, in 2015, and I felt greatly blessed by the experience. Some people have criticized him, but I had an amazing time at that monastery, and I hope to go back soon, ideally within the next six months.

 

[E.C.]

As a member of the OCA since 2014, I myself really love ROCOR and greatly appreciate them. Indeed the best confessional experience I ever had was with a ROCOR priest, who really greatly assisted me with bereavement. I have also had very good experiences with OCA priests.

In Southern California, Los Angeles has two large ROCOR parishes and an additional Russian Orthodox parish of the OCA, which operates on a sort of dual-calendar system. And in San Francisco, the Russian neighborhood has the massive ROCOR Holy Virgin Cathedral which is home to the relics of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, and is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the Western hemisphere, and nearby is the OCA Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and I would not say the two compete, since the former serves the liturgy primarily in Church Slavonic, and the latter primarily in English, and additionally there is an OCA monastery located near San Francisco dedicated to St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. And beyond, in the very far north of California, is the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St. Herman of Platina, founded by Metropolitan Seraphim Rose, who was a member of ROCOR, and in Washington there is the ROCOR monastery on Vashon Island, which I hope to visit.

I've heard good things about the Bay Area communities and it is refreshing to see that they mostly get along. I saw photos recently from the anniversary of either St John's repose or canonization and saw that Archbishop Benjamin of the OCA was concelebrating too despite his Parkinson's.

As someone who grew up in Washington state and used to frequent the Vashon monastery, I can not in good conscience recommend visiting Vashon Island. Abbot Tryphon has drunk the Putin Kool-Aid. The day the war started he posted on his blog in support of Putin's war, declared that Ukraine is a "Communist invention", the government is full of fascists, and that Ukrainian as a nationality and language doesn't exist therefore they deserve war for "betraying their real Russian identity". Anyone who spoke against him he personally accused them of being "woke" and not being "real Orthodox" and that we need to confess our apostacy for not supporting Putin. It is disappointing to see how far he has gone off the rails.