>More than 70 percent of the roughly 75,000 Antiochian Orthodox Christians in the United States are converts. The Orthodox Church in America, with roots in Moscow and about 85,000 adherents, reports a 50 percent figure. In Greek Orthodox Christianity, by far the largest branch in the United States with almost 480,000 members, it's about 25 percent.
>"We have these ethnic titles in our names, but they refer to where our hierarchies reside," Gilbert says. "None of these [jurisdictions] believes the church is for Greeks or Russians or Serbs. It's a church for humans."
>The strength of Orthodox Christianity— also known as Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy or Greek Orthodoxy — stems from the conviction that its traditions are the same as those practiced by Jesus' original followers, the 12 apostles, and the theologians who codified those practices in their writings over the first few centuries after his death.
>>"We have these ethnic titles in our names, but they refer to where our hierarchies reside," Gilbert says. "None of these [jurisdictions] believes the church is for Greeks or Russians or Serbs. It's a church for humans."
>Sucks Kremlin dick.
Brandon Scott
i think it's so funny that protestants convert to Orthodoxy over Catholicism because they're still brainwashed to hate the pope
Jack Reyes
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Hudson Barnes
>He thinks the pope is good
Sebastian Hernandez
>Utah Mormons and Protestants are rediscovering a reverence for God by converting to Orthodoxy.
>That certainly is the case for Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Christian Church in downtown Salt Lake City. The Rev. Justin Havens says the church, located in a former Jewish synagogue at 355 S. 300 East, had fewer than 100 worshippers when he became its priest nine years ago.
>"We have almost tripled in size since then," Havens says. "I would say 60 percent or more of our parish is made up of converts. About half of those are former LDS [Mormons], and the rest are former Protestants and evangelicals, along with a few former Catholics and Episcopalians." sltrib.com/home/5243596-155/utah-mormons-protestants-finding-new-spiritual
>"At first, I didn't understand a thing. But I kept studying it; I had always wanted to know the truth," she says. "I realized the Orthodox Church had been around for 2,000 years, had carefully guarded their theology and had not allowed popular beliefs to change them."
“This Church, like a chaste virgin, has alone been preserved from apostolic times in its original, immaculate purity; this Church, which with its profound dogmas and small external rituals has, as it were, been brought down from the heavens to the Russian people, is alone able to undo all the knots of doubt and answer all our questions…And yet we do not know about this Church! We have not yet brought this Church, which was created so that we might live, into our lives! Only one kind of propaganda is possible for us—our own lives. We must defend our Church with our lives, for she is life; and we must proclaim her truth by the fragrance of our souls.” -Gogol
Noah Cooper
Go back to orthodoxy, revisionist fags. Especially you gay Anglicans, and Pope-worshiping Catholics
Colton Jackson
>worshipping a man claiming to represent God aka claimibg to be a god Catholics aren't even Christians.
Eli Hall
I've been interested in Orthodoxy but not totally sold on it.
Why should one into apostolic succession? Genuinely curious.
Parker Phillips
If God is on Orthodoxy's side, why did the Soviet Union happen? End of Byzant? Anyone converting to it has to have an IQ around 50
Eli Reed
>traditions >Catholics
Mason Robinson
>Christianity >Martydom faith >hurr durr why is God letting his subjects be persecuted idiot
Jordan Kelly
With that logic, Islam is the true religion.
Ryder Scott
>3109005 See the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch.
Josiah Morris
Meant for
Easton Jackson
So it's not just a meme? People are actually running over to Orthodoxy?
Bentley Morgan
Gee wiz
Thanks Vatican II for ruining Catholicism for the past half a century.
Glad we have a modernist pope and people are literally fleeing the pedo church en masse to escape to the conservative orthodox.
I sure hope we don't learn from our mistakes or correct the conclusions of a non dogmatic council
Jacob Bell
>People are actually running over to Orthodoxy?
Its part of the broader trend of people going to non mainstream churches. See the huge growth in Pentecostalism for instance.
The other thing to remember - and the article mentioned this even if the OP didnt - the majority of converts do so for marriage as Orthodox do not allow inter denomination marriages.
Anthony Nelson
Oh yeah. It will be a major religion in America in twenty years
Cooper Cooper
At my OCA Parish about 40-50% of the congregation are converts. The rest are from various parts of the Orthodox world. The Our Father is usually said in around 8 languages each Sunday.
Jaxson Powell
>Most Catholic adherents are outside of Europe/The West. >Assmad that the Church now caters to them.
Xavier Butler
>More than 70 percent of the roughly 75,000 Antiochian Orthodox Christians in the United States are converts. Get ready to be MacDonaldized and liberalized.
Gender neutral MacOrthotoxy with MLK as saint rising.
Michael Cruz
Pol is drawn to the most conservative form of Christianity they can find, not because they love Christ but because they are looking for an alternative to nihilism and post-modernism, both of which terrify them.
Julian Perry
>More than 70 percent of the roughly 75,000 Antiochian Orthodox Christians in the United States are converts. Prepare to be subverted and destroyed.
Gender-fluid MacChurch of Saint Martin Luther King Junior rising.
You know it´s coming.
Mason Peterson
>Orthodox do not allow inter denomination marriages. That's actually not true. We just don't allow marriage to non-Christians.
Orthodoxy also takes a couple of years to convert to, even your spouse is Orthodox. It's also extremely demanding in terms of things like learning and fasting, so not comparable to Pentecostalism. Retention rate is also much higher
Jason Thompson
Pretty impressive.
However, today Protestant Christianity is spreading in China faster than Christianity spread in the Roman Empire.
So it's unlikely that Eastern Orthodoxy's growth will be that impacting.
Nathan Watson
What denomination of Christianity should I follow.
I was raised as a fundy Methodist/Baptist/Nondenom Christian, but now I'm interested in Lutheranism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy.
What's the best option here?
Carson Ward
Depends, if you want to follow Catholicism, join SSPX or FPS FOR LATIN A E S T H E T I C S. Orthodoxy if you want to find Conservative QTs and learn Greek, Russian, or if you are weird and want to see the roots of Christianity and want to learn Aramaic or Coptic Egyptian, join either of those churches
Josiah Taylor
>That's actually not true. We just don't allow marriage to non-Christians.
Its only not true if you redefine denomination to mean something like Greek Orthodox v Russian Orthodox rather than its common meaning.
I didnt want to start crap with Protestants and Catholics who would get triggered when they hear that Orthodoxy doesn't believe any other group but themselves are Christian.
>It's also extremely demanding in terms of things like learning and fasting, so not comparable to Pentecostalism
That's assuming they practice optimally statistically Orthodox also attend church, and biblical study and pray less frequently than Pentecostals do.
The fact that a vast majority of converts are for marriage suggests that they are not going to be practicing optimally or frequently.
>Retention rate is also much higher
Source?
Aiden Flores
+ those statstics are charitable to the Orthodox Church compared to their own which have that figure much lower
>Its only not true if you redefine denomination to mean something like Greek Orthodox v Russian Orthodox rather than its common meaning I mean we allow marriage to Protestants and Catholics. But ceremony must be Orthodox and the children must be raised Orthodox.
Non Orthodox are considered very much to be heretics, but they can still be Christian in a sense
>That's assuming they practice optimally statistically Orthodox also attend church, and biblical study and pray less frequently than Pentecostals do.
Yes, well I don't count purely ethnic identifiers (which obviously doesn't include converts) as Orthodox.
>The fact that a vast majority of converts are for marriage It's not really for marriage, it's just marrying an Orthodox exposes you to it. Most people who became Orthodox through marriage at my parish, converted years after the marriage
>Source? I don't have one, but if you quit, it will almost surely be during the conversion process, since it is very long and demanding. Sometimes up to four years. You can't convert on a whim, you need to deeply want to over a prolonged period
Pretty much everyone of Greek heritage was baptized Orthodox, regardless of whether or not they or their family ever practiced. The article doesn't count people who never practiced as Orthodox even though they are in parish records. Which makes sense
Jeremiah Roberts
I read somewhere that there's a large number of Roman Catholics in the US converting to Orthodoxy because Catholicism is becoming increasingly liberal and "protestantised"
Don't know if it's true but it wouldn't surprise me if the vast majority of these converts were previously Roman Catholic
Dylan Scott
Ameridoxy will inevitably become protestantized in its turn as well.
Wait for sola scriptura, zionism were patristic doctrines.
Austin Kelly
Hahaha, you don't know anything about Orthodox American converts, they hate Protestantism and Jews as much as they hate the Pope
t. burger convert
William Martinez
More like why God is letting his subjects (apparently Christians) persecuting others? Byzantines were big oppressors of their times. They were worse than the Ottomans until the atrocities of WW1.
Luis Russell
Heretics chimping out because they wanted to be relevant doesn't mean that the Byzantines were "oppressors"
Matthew Jackson
>I don't have one, but if you quit, it will almost surely be during the conversion process, since it is very long and demanding. Sometimes up to four years.
Is this an american thing? a friend of mine who married a greek only took 6-8 months and a full immersion baptism to get married in the church.
Andrew Carter
>traditions are bad
user I...
Carson Lee
I think the Patriarchs floppy ear hat a cute desu
Kevin Parker
>Non Orthodox are considered very much to be heretics, but they can still be Christian in a sense
Can they receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in any way shape or form?
>Yes, well I don't count purely ethnic identifiers (which obviously doesn't include converts) as Orthodox.
At what point does a person become not just an ethnic identifier?
>It's not really for marriage,
So you think the article in the OP is incorrect when it states that?
>The article doesn't count people who never practiced as Orthodox even though they are in parish records. Which makes sense
Which part? It mentions numbers of converts but doesnt make a distinction between those who converted to get married and moved on and those who converted for spiritual reasons
Nolan Rogers
He literally kisses nigger feet and says atheist will go to heaven
Gabriel Flores
>>"We have these ethnic titles in our names, but they refer to where our hierarchies reside," Gilbert says. "None of these [jurisdictions] believes the church is for Greeks or Russians or Serbs. It's a church for humans."
Cuck
Luis Morris
The world would be a nicer place if plebeians like yourself started thinking further than your nose goes.
Wyatt Turner
What's wrong with kissing the feet of the poor and downtrodden? It's better than being tongue-deep in [insert your local secular authority]'s ass like the Orthos are so fond of. And he didn't say atheists will go to heaven. He said that being atheist doesn't mean you're automatically damned, since you can still come back to the Church and find salvation sometime later in your life.
