The Orthodox church in America is seeing a greater percentage of it's membership consisting of incoming converts, USA Today reports.
"Today, Mencotti is one of about 250 million Orthodox believers worldwide — and among a significant number of newcomers attracted to this ancient way of worship. The trend is especially notable since so few in the United States know about the Orthodox churches here."
There was one line that somewhat irked me: "Orthodoxy was born from the Great Schism of 1054, when feuds over papal authority and differences in the liturgy split Christianity into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox halves."
Orthodoxy was "born" on the day of Pentecost.
All in all, it's an interesting article.
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3 comments:
I would like to see our growth numbers normalized to the general growth of the US population. I have heard that when compared that way, growth in the Church would be stagnant. I would love to hear otherwise.
Articles like these give a false impression of what is really happening on the ground. How can anyone say that these numbers aren't blown out of proportion? OCA church gains simply aren't offsetting the losses taking place in other immigrant based orthodox churches.
It would be nice to eventually see more cooperation from the various Orthodox churches. Too many of our immigrant churches come to this country and feel that their identity is threatened by everyone, including OCA. At the least, we need to work together to get more cumulative statistics to aid each other in their respective ministries.
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