jckstraw72
Doin' that whole Orthodox thing
- Dec 9, 2005
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"We promote radical individualism at the expense of community and real human relationships, which does incalculable harm to our notions of personhood and true Christian love, with no end in sight."
As I read the comments on this tread, I asked myself, "what are we going to do about this?" Obviously, coming on here and preaching to the choir isn't going to do anything.
One thing that frustrates me about issues such as this is how there is such a lack of an appropriate response to the ills of society that we bemoan about all the time.
I quoted what Innerphyre said about community because personally, I think that is what has to happen. We Orthodox need to do something similar to what the Amish and Mennonites do. They live in very tight nit communities where the virtues Christian living as they understand it is reinforced by the fact that they live in a semi monastic form of community. And guess what? Everyone knows about the Amish. I've never met anyone who never heard of the Amish. But, do I meet almost every day people who have no idea about Orthodoxy.
I've attempted to propose the idea of living in a much tighter communal setting amongst single Orthodox people and proposed the idea of an Orthodox coffee house that was also going to be adjactent to living quarters for non monastic single Orthodox people.
However, I could not garner enough support for this. Unfortunately, the radical individualism that Innerphyre speaks of has permeated even us. Orthodox people in this country are far more concerned about their careers and their immediate blood family etc.
there are little enclaves here and there throughout the country, but we could certainly stand to have some more. folks from the CSB really seem to understand the value of community and the groups that i am aware of are from Brotherhood people and others in their parishes.
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