Old Home Week
14 January 2008 - 8 שבט 5768 by Huw
Yesterday I went back to my former Orthodox parish to say good-bye to everyone in preparation for my move to Buffalo. It had to be yesterday: next week Mom and Dad are coming, and then the week after that is my last week in the Episcopal Parish I’ve been attending. I hope to be in Buffalo the week after that.
The music was awesome (as always). The food was awesome (as always). I didn’t get to see Fr H, which saddened me. I shall have to travel out that way this week or next to see him. My legs, even today, are sore from the metanias. I’d forgotten how much exercise my backside received from just a normal Sunday liturgy!
It was great to see everyone: I made my Pascha Cake because I know the monks like it! At one point, looking around the table, there was a noticeable sugar buzz going on…
While there I heard about a family leaving a very conservative Protestant denomination to become Eastern Orthodox. They were doing this over changes in the doctrine of their home church, seeking a place where doctrine doesn’t change. And I just kind of rolled my eyes: there is no place where doctrine doesn’t change. The problem? Their Southern Baptist preacher had allowed people to believe that God may have used evolution to create the world and life.
The image of someone worried that Theistic Evolution might be too liberal was not unheard of - especially here in the Bible Belt. But it did cause me to tune out the conversation. Although I know what the liturgy of the Orthodox Church says, I’m very aware that within Eastern Orthodoxy there is no official teaching (because there can not be) and a wide spectrum of belief among the Bishops, parish clergy and the faithful.
The development of modern science as we know it is a product of the Enlightenment, therefore no ecumenical council has ever addressed how to integrate it with divine revelation in a coherent and consistent worldview. As a result, there is not a dogmatic treatment examining how to resolve conflicts, whether apparent or real, when scientific findings appear to contradict divine revelation. Many early Fathers were happy to use the primitive science of their day to divine purposes, perhaps suggesting to modern Christians a compatibilist resolution to the question. Other Fathers, however, clearly see conflicts and contradictions which they resolve in favor of their understanding of Christian revelation.
The basic need for that sort of literal certainty (which also drove me into Orthodoxy) is exactly what doesn’t work for me. Although I understand what I was doing, I can’t yet wrap my brain around why I was doing it. I hope this family doesn’t wake up one day and hear the same sort of claim from their new Orthodox Pastor (where ever that is) and find themselves running away from “World Orthodoxy” into one of the pseudo-Orthodox sects.
All too accurate, I’m afraid! And some of the Orthodox sects are quite scary. Of course, they are also found in any movement of any type, whether religious or not.
Sometimes I think that one of Satan’s greatest tricks is the ability to constantly get people who believe stuff that is just close enough to what is true without being true. People get so scared of them that they then get scared of those who are saying true things.
So, for every John Kennedy who says, “ask not what your country can do for you. . .” there springs up a national leader who says, “ask no questions of your country,” or “ask not that your country do something for you,” etc. Thoughts just close enough that Kennedy’s message of selfless giving is lost.
You hit the nail on the head. (I resemble that remark!) I remember a reader a long while ago who had been a member of several “true churches” before he gave up. Once burnt…
I have to say, dear friend, it’s stereotypical but not always true: sometimes one has to just run the “restore factory defaults” cycle. Eventually, the quest for “upward still and onward” comes back.
Maybe you said this before and I internalized it, but I figure that anyone who joins a religion because of what it isn’t is setting themselves up for failure.
Peter, AMEN!!
Huw, if I were to restore factory defaults, then I would be a Latino Roman Catholic. That means I get Carnaval, silver-laden churches with lots of altars, incredible Good Friday processions, etc. Of course, being Cuban, I would also get Santeria, spiritism, and (maybe) flagellating myself on Good Friday.
Hmm, nope, not ready to hit reset just yet. GRIN.