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Dec 29th, 2019
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Joined: Nov 2001
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Dear Zoe:
Backgrounds are important, and if these converts come from protestant anti-catholic backgrounds, the background remains the same no matter if they are now Orthodox.
This is a good example: I have a friend who was very deeply into hard rock music, dark things and all that fashion that was popular at highschool, he was always blaming christianity with "blasphemous" jokes. But some years ago, he converted to Islam and now he is a radical muslim, although he now rejects all that hard rock thing, he is still against christianity and blames it for everything. The external appeareance is now different, but the conduct is the same.
The backgrounds are sometimes hard to delete.
Going back to the topic. If you see those Evangelicals who have become Orthodox, some of them have already done all the way: evangelical to anglican, anglican to catholic, catholic to byzantine catholic, byzcath to orthodox, and then you find them in those small conservative Orthodox groups.
But there are former evangelicals who convert to Catholicism, and get closely affiliated with Traditionalist groups and they act exactly like their turned-orthodox brothers.
Going back to the Orthodox-turned catholics. It is s normal reaction in many cases. When people have had bad experiences and then find the Orthodox Church (or the religion they choose) they realize how "bad" was their former religion and take a pharisaic actitude. This is the job for our spiritual advisors, it is always good to be critical (a constructive criticism) but they should help people to forgive those who hurted them in their former Church instead of feeding that feeling with anti-catholic things.
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it's the ethos that is totally different. For one thing, here at St. Vladimir's Seminary, half of the students are married and it is simply no big deal. anastasios A Vital and very interesting point. Could you please elaborate? How is the ethos different between Orthodox Churches and authentic Eastern Catholic Churches? What are some of these differences in ethos? thanks much. herb.
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Slava Isusu Christu!
It is interesting hearing that kind of rhetoric from a St. Vlad's man I though they were past that by now; My interjection is thus: There is no different ethos, period. The Byzantine Catholic Church in America is the Ruthenian Orthodox Church; we are Orthodox and equally if not more so than the OCA or any other canonical Orthodox Jurisdiction in America. Same Church, Same Faith, Same God. Period! Straining at gnats to find points of discord is a grave sin. That ignorant nonsense doesn't work anymore and is not acceptable.
Robert
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But Robert,
You are doing the same thing when you presume to question people's motives or claim to see into their soul. It might be a nice sociological model but it is not true.
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ps: re the Married Presybterate thing, in other Byzantine Catholic Churches, no big deal. Indeed it is, I dare say, rather the norm. Originally posted by anastasios:
at St. Vladimir's Seminary, half of the students are married and it is simply no big deal. I have two priests and two deacons living in my apartment complex under the age of 30. Does anyone think it's weird that they're married? No. Their kids fare well--one of the deacons has 4!
anastasios One could say the same thing re the seminarians at Sheptytsky Institute in Ottawa. I believe they even have a programme for getting our married seminarians into a married students' residence. It is normal to see the seminarians [in pidriasnyks] with their wives in the seminary chapel, as well as in the parish church. And as far as I know, same holds for seminarians in the Lviv Theological Academy and in the seminaries in Romania. Again, no big deal. And BTW I am pretty sure that the Ruthenian BC in America will resolve this issue [on the Orthodox side] in the near future.
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Hello: If there is a genuine desire to be faithful to the Gospel, as well as the liturgical and spiritual heritage one has by birth or has chosen, it is noone's business except God and their spiritual father in that decision. I will let God judge those who leave as well as those who come, as the Spirit often moves in strange and diverse ways. While I agree with this, I'd also have to say that I think that Robert is correct in the sense that many of the reasons converts offer themselves to explain their switch involves "them". "They" are the members either Church. Most of the time these reasons seem not strong enough to break with your spiritual family. Most of the time Christ is conspicuously absent from those arguments. Shalom, Memo.
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Originally posted by Remie:
But there are former evangelicals who convert to Catholicism, and get closely affiliated with Traditionalist groups and they act exactly like their turned-orthodox brothers. You can say that again!!!! In my experience, there are many similarities between Catholic ultra-trads and Orthodox sectarians. Both groups have sucked too many lemons or something! It's kinda weird that they often oppose each other so fiercely. One would think that they'd get along fine, since both groups incline toward the same sort of hyper-crabbiness. :eek Hope I haven't offended any lurking ultra-trads!  Blessings, ZT
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