Conference yukon::christian_v7

207.0. "Eastern Orthodox gaining evangelical converts (w/note on Francis Schaeffer)" by KALVIN::EWANCO (Eric James Ewanco) Thu Jul 22 1993 11:08

>From _The_Pittsburgh_Post-Gazette_, Tuesday 20 July 1993, page B1:


Eastern Orthodoxy gaining converts

Conservative Episcopalians, other Protestants defect to ancient faith

by Ann Rodgers-Melnick
Post-Gazette Staff Writer

To witness the most intriguing new trend among evangelical
Protestants, check out this week's national convention of one of the
oldest Orthodox churches.

Growing numbers of evangelicals -- particularly conservative
Episcopalians -- are becoming Eastern Orthodox, and most of them have
gravitated to the 350,000-member Antiochian Orthodox Christian
Archdiocese of North America.  Although its founders were Syrian, it
has worshiped [sic] in English throughout its 98-year history.

Its weeklong assembly, which started Sunday, will draw 1,800 people to
the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers, Downtown.  About 40,000 Antiochians
belong to 11 parishes in the Tri-State area.

Saturday's featured speaker will be Frank Schaeffer, a novelist and
film-maker who is probably the best known among thousands of
evangelicals who have converted to Orthodoxy in the last few years.

He is the son of the late Calvinist writer Francis Schaeffer, whose
works remain very popular in conservative Presbyterian circles.
Raised Presbyterian, he sojourned in an Episcopal parish for a decade
and seriously considered Roman Catholicism before he turned Orthodox.

"I think a lot of Protestants out there have thoughtfully come to the
conclusion that something has gone wrong with the Protestant
experiment," he said, citing doctrinal and moral confusion among
liberal Protestants and schisms and scandals among conservative
Protestants.

Episcopalians come to Orthodoxy in search of firm theological
moorings, while most other conservative Protestants come seeking
historical ties to the New Testament church, he said.

"One of the things I was rebelling against was the whole idea of
church-shopping, where you go from place to place until you find a
preacher you like and find people that you get on with," said
Schaeffer, whose Protestant years were distinguished by his sharp
criticism of fellow evangelicals.

"I decided quickly that, when I became Orthodox, I would go to the
local parish even if there was one I liked better five minutes down
the road."

That is why he happened to join the Greek Orthodox Church rather than
the Antiochians or the Orthodox Church in America, which is also
attracting many converts.

The first wave of evangelicals into the Antiochians came in 1987, when
2,000 Protestants in 20 evangelical and charismatic congregations
joined en masse.

Now the archdiocese receives an average of six Protestant
congregations a year -- ranging in size from 25 to 250 families.
(Evangelical Protestants are theological conservatives who stress the
authority of the Bible;  charismatics are theological conservatives
who believe God also works through supernatural gifts of the Holy
Spirit such as prophecy and speaking in tongues.)

"I was expecting that [the influx of Protestant refugees]," said
Metropolitan Philip Saliba, 62, head of the archdiocese.

"Because of the chaotic situation that exists on the American
religious scene, and the tremendous desire among so many people to
discover the roots, to discover how the church started... The
Scripture says, 'Seek and ye shall find.'  These people started
seeking, studying, and searching.  And the result was that they
discovered the Orthodox Church, the church which was born on Pentecost
day."

The 20 evangelical congregations that turned Antiochian in 1987 had
pastors who had felt disconnected from first-century Christianity.
They began studying the Bible and other early Christian writings in an
attempt to recreate the earliest church, said the Rev. Patrick
Reardon, pastor of St. George Orthodox Church in Butler.

"They imagined that the church they would find would look prtty much
like an evangelical Protestant or charismatic church."  Reardon said.
"What they found was the centrality of the Eucharist, the creeds,
liturgy, established doctrine and, most surprisingly to them,
bishops."

Because the Antiochians had no priest shortage, the archdiocese will
not accept an incoming clergyman as a priest unless he arrives with a
ready-made congregation of at least 25 families.  The majority of
these converting clergy and parishoners have been evangelical
Episcopalians, which has raised considerable rancor in Episcopal
circles.

But Bishop Alden Hathaway of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh wrote
a letter recently to the [sic] The Living Church magazine, warning
Episcopalians to stop griping and start learning from the Antiochians.

[tomorrow:  Orthodox chief sees united U.S. church]


 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Steve Lammert          | Gulf Tower           | Internet: [email protected]
  System Designer        | 707 Grant Street     | Voice:     +1 412 338-4443
  Transarc Corporation   | Pittsburgh PA  15219 | FAX:       +1 412 338-4404
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
         "No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------