Tell Me Father: Our Parochialism Leads to Misconceptions

By Fr. George Papaioannou

Question:

Dear Father George,

This morning I feel excited and upset. I wanted to express my anger, and find some emotional relief but I didn't know how to do it. I thought of you and decided to write this letter. My emotional turmoil was caused by what I read in the Ann Landers column in The Washington Post. She calls our precious Orthodox Faith a sect that was separated "from Roman Catholicism around the year 1000." Did you read it? What do you have to say about it?

A.C.
Silver Spring, Md.

Answer:

For no other subject have I received so many calls and letters as for this subject, namely Ann Landers' column that circulated nationally and internationally on Monday, November 11, 1996, dealing with the origin of religion.

Since my own column deals with questions and answers I must confess I read Ann Landers almost regularly. As in my own situation some of the answers she gives are on target and therefore beneficial.

This time, at least the part that dealt with the origin of Christianity in general and Orthodoxy in particular was off target and to Orthodox people rather offensive. I am sure that Ann Landers must have been bombarded with letters of protest coming from all parts of the country.

One of these responses came from me. My response was not to protest butrather to correct the error.

My response can be summarized as follows:

"Ms. Landers, it is obvious from your column on the origin of religions you have entered into uncharted waters and thus have given false and unfairinformation to your readers.

The first error of your statement is that Jesus is the Founder of Roman Catholicism. The truth is that Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity.

The second error is that you describe Eastern Orthodoxy as a splinter group that broke away from Roman Catholicism. The truth of the matter is that Eastern Orthodoxy is the faith of about 250,000,000 people who adhere to the beliefs that their spiritual ancestors were taught by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. These beliefs were formulated into doctrine by the Eastern and Western Fathers of the Undivided Church in the first Seven Ecumenical Councils.

Third the primary reason for the split of the Christian Church into two parts in the year 1054 was the insistence of the Western Church (now the Roman Catholic Church) on altering some of those beliefs. Eastern Christendom considered those claims and changes to be both biblically and historically incorrect and thus rejected them. Thus the tragic split known as the Great Schism became unavoidable.

Your description, therefore, of Eastern Orthodox Christianity as a sect is not only theologically and historically incorrect but also offensive."

Since I wrote and mailed my response to Ann Landers and reflected on the letters and other conversations on the matter I have come to some conclusions.

I am impressed by the sensitivity shown by our faithful concerning the unfair label given to our faith. I am not concerned by how Ann Landers, who I believe did this out of ignorance, or how other people describe us, butrather I worry about how we are in reality, how we think, how we feel and how we act.

Ann Landers is not the only one who has labeled us a sect. This past July, a well-known and respected Greek theologian and sociologist in a major article about the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America attributed to it the same characteristics of a sect, in fact he called us a sect.

What he saw in us and made him call a sect is that we don't live the purity of the Faith. There is a tendency here in America to do our own thing and drift away from our sacred traditions.

We Orthodox in general and Greek Orthodox in particular, suffer from this virus of parochialism. We speak of Orthodoxy as being a universal Body, but in practice we look ourselves in the narrow confines of the parish.

Without realizing it, we have become splinter groups that have the signs of a sect. That is not Orthodox Ecclesiology but rather sectarian mentality, it is dangerous and has no place in the Holy Orthodox Church. This is what should concern us more as we prepare to enter the third millennium, not the labeling by Ann Landers.