Think about this…

There isn’t an Orthodox Church that’s 100, 75, or even 50 years old that wasn’t started by the evangelical efforts of immigrants or first generation Orthodox Christians from the “Old Country.” Greeks, Russians, Ukrainians, Arabs, Serbians and Orthodox Christians from all over the world, came to America and started churches.

For these missionaries, America was a fertile missionary field. They may not have done things perfectly or even the way we do today but so what?

They used what they had at hand to plant the Church in America. In addition to their faith, what they had was their culture and language.

While culture is important, even under the best of conditions it is always only nominally Christian. The reason for this is that culture–all cultures–is always a mix of different traditions.

That said, culture can be, and often is, our life in Christ. This is as true for American culture as it is for traditional Orthodox cultures.

But however important culture is, we need something more. Why is this?

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory