Fr. Chad Hatfield of Saint Vladimir's Seminary has published a booklet entitled Holy Saturday: Baptism and The Great Commission.
The booklet was included in a mailing seeking financial donations to the seminary. Archpriest Chad Hatfield is the seminary's Chancellor.
Here are some excerpts from this fine booklet:
"The Orthodox Church is in the business of making converts. The Great Commission, given by our Lord in the closing words of Matthew's Gospel, is not an option. Archbishop Anastasios of Albania has stated 'A Church without mission is a contradiction in terms' and 'Indifference to mission is a negation of Orthodoxy.'
I would expand this by saying: 'a Christian not engaged in mission is simply not a Christian.'
For too many in Orthodoxy, words like 'evangelism' and 'outreach' are not claimed as our own and are given over to others. This sad fact keeps 'The Pearl of Great Price' hidden in ghetto worlds where cultural preservation and so-called 'ethnic pride' is substituted for the Gospel Truth. All too easily our faith communities have created a surrogate gospel supported by surrogate ministries that betray our baptismal identities as Orthodox Christians.
If Orthodox Christians are once again to proclaim the glad tidings with boldness, we will need to restore the centrality of The Great Commission. We will need to bring ourselves to a fresh response to the New Testament teaching that we did not choose God but he chose us (John 15:16).
We have many positive signs that a recovery of the centrality of The Great Commission is underway."
I am an Adult Sunday School teacher at the parish I attend. For the next unit of study, we will be looking at The Way course as well as examples and tools available for fulfilling The Great Commission.
I will say it again. If we don't fulfill The Great Commission, others will, to our loss and discredit.
We have a stiff challenge to meet. We only have to look at the example of the Anglican Church of North America and / or the Anglican Mission in the Americas to see christians with a healthy regard for The Great Commission. My challenge to my fellow Eastern Orthodox Christians is to rise to the level and zeal that our Anglican brothers and sisters are demonstrating.
We have a faith free from Anglican errors such as Calvinistic "Predestination" and the denial of a full Sacramental Christianity (I'm thinking here about our freedom to ask the Saints to pray for us and the freedom to believe in their relics as effective helps to our spiritual life in Christ).
With a "fuller gospel" we need to Preach The Gospel.
Fr. Hatfield has issued us a proper challenge as the Chancellor of one of our seminaries. Let's meet his challenge.
Blessings in the Holy Trinity,
Columba Simon
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2 comments:
Got a lot of work to do. This is not the only way that the Orthodox are backwards. How many Orthodox hospitals do you see in America? Collegess and universities? Social outreach. AS a matter of fact, we could not raise one penny at the parish you attend for help for foster youth. AMAZING! But I do see signs of life. There is a new generation of priests in Eastern Orthodoxy, some of them converts themselves. I think some good news is on the way, if in fact we can overcome the ethnic ghetto mentality -- which I think is by virtue of life span of 80 or so years dying off on its own. Now the question is if the young generation will pick up the challenge -- some challenge which is being given by a new generation of young parish priests.
It's going to be tough. We've got to be willing to take on and learn from the best ideas of others who are obeying the Great Commission well.
The challenge is to stick with Orthodoxy and not be tempted by those who are better organized than we are.
Sometimes its easier to switch than to fight. It won't do us any good if we are constantly reinventing the wheel.
If we work hard, we can leave what I call a "better infrastructure" in place for later generations to build on.
But we all need to examine what the Anglican Church of North America is doing. Just drop by their website and you'll see how serious they are about planting churches. The ACNA is our nearest competition for converts, and this is especially the case with the Orthodox Western Rite.
There is a new Orthodox College starting up in San Diego that looks promising. Saint Catherine's College
is starting off with their first class in the Fall of 2011. But this college is only the second Orthodox college in the entire country besides Holy Cross on the East Coast.
The Ethnic Ghetto Mentality is not just an "Eastern Rite" thing, either. We sometimes have our own Ethnic Ghettos in the Western Rite.
But I believe we can do much better and help is on the way.
One thing we need to do is to question very hard the so called "60 Mile Rule" that no new Orthodox Parish can be planted closer than 60 miles to an existing parish. In my opinion, that rule is the most ridiculous idea ever conceived.
We must obey God rather then men, and that goes for the "60 Mile Rule." If a given parish is so incompetent that it fears potential "competition" from a new parish, then that parish DESERVES to "go out of business."
The "60 Mile Rule" needs to be modified to a "Five Mile Rule."
Blessings in the Holy Trinity, One God
Columba Simon
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