Welcome to St. Vladimir’s! You don’t look like me – can you be an Orthodox Christian?

One of our parishioners recently shared with me some concerns about the way we welcome those who do not “look like us” at St. Vladimir’s. This is not the first time this concern has been shared with me. Others have mentioned this to me too in the last few months. But this time sort of got me to the saturation point, where I felt like we needed to reflect on this a bit as a parish.

My gut reaction to this concern was to protest vigorously. I suppressed that reflex with some effort and God’s Grace. I learned some time ago that I don’t always know everything that is happening in the parish. We have lots of people and there are lots of moving parts. For instance, I didn’t know that the nursery had essentially become useless for our young mothers for various reasons. But this issue was brought to my attention and we are putting things in place to fix that problem. So it is likely that my gut reaction here is wrong. Maybe we do need to work on this issue. Fr. Gregory Thought ≠ Reality (in all (maybe most?) cases). My powers of clairvoyance are proven to be poor. So PLEASE tell me if you feel something isn’t quite right – I will take your concerns seriously and we will try to fix it if at all possible. You can provide feedback here – anonymously or with your name attached.

This is not meant to be a puff piece to make some people with some political inclinations feel good. So please don’t take it as such. This is meant to be a call to action and a challenge in fulfilling our Christian duties. This note is about theology – not politics. It is different than Racism in the Church & Care for the Garden, published in July which dealt with the issue of racism in the Church more generally – this is more focused on specific actions we can take to welcome everyone to St. Vladimir’s and our theological obligation to do so.

Orthodox Christianity is as diverse as the people of the world. The Orthodox Church is maximally missionary in the way it sees itself, that is, to fulfill the Great Commission the Lord give to His disciples we do not distinguish race or ethnicity on any level:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

There is no “maybe” there. Or “some nations that look like you”. Or teach “some things.” This is not an optional statement, and that is how the Orthodox Church has always seen the Great Commission: as something akin to a military order. Something that we are morally bound to strive to fulfill to the greatest extent that we can. The Russian Church has taken this very, very seriously as a rule over its 1000+ year history, and that continues until this day.

And I cannot believe there is even one of our parishioners who would deny that black folks, or Asian folks, or ANY folks are excluded from the Great Commission or excluded from the Church that our Lord founded for the salvation of all mankind. If asked I am certain that our parishioners, to a person, could and would explicate the theological truth that the Lord founded the Church for all humans without exception. Perhaps some would even be able to say something along the lines of “racism is condemned by the Church.” We include here the citation in this regard, so that everyone can become familiar with it if they are not already:

“We censure, condemn, and declare contrary to the teachings of the Gospel and the sacred canons of the holy Fathers the doctrine of phyletism, or the difference of races and national diversity in the bosom of the Church of Christ.” – Article I of the Decree of the 1872 Council of Constantinople.

The context of the 1872 council is complex, and that context has very real contemporary implications for the ongoing conversation within the Orthodox Church regarding the place of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but that is not the topic here so we are going to leave that for another day. The takeaway for us is this: the Church has spoken on racism and it is condemned. This is a review – we have covered this in previous blog posts.

Our Orthodox worldview urges us to racial tolerance, and that makes sense not just because of a canon of the Church, but all the more so since our Lord modeled that for us in His ministry. On several occasions He reached out beyond the Hebrew nation (in John chapter 4 to the Samaritan woman, in Luke chapter 17 healing the Samaritan leper, in Mark chapter 7 the healing of the Syrophenician woman’s daughter, in Matthew chapter 8 the healing of the Centurion’s servant, etc.), providing us an example of how to execute His words found in the Great Commission. That is, to really take “all nations” as a serious reality – not just fluffy nice empty words. We tend to project our society’s widespread use of fluffy nice empty words on the Gospel. We have to struggle against that. Every word our Lord said has spiritual significance for those that were with Him then, and for all who hear His words until His coming again. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of that theological reality in light of our society’s fluffy nice emptiness.

We see that we are called to be maximally inclusive by our Lord’s words and by His actions as He ministers to those outside the Hebrew nation. As Orthodox Christians we strive to emulate Christ to the greatest extent that we can, and that is true in this regard as well. This type of inclusivity is an important part of our Orthodox way of life, way of thought, and way of worship. We see all humans as having a soul equally dear to God and equally worthy of salvation. Our Lord gave us the example to follow and gave us His word in this regard in the Gospel. This word and example should be enough for any of us to strive to emulate Him in this way.

But here is the struggle: theory and practice are different. We can understand something in theory, but sometimes have trouble getting from theory to practice for various reasons. Maybe we don’t get to practice putting this theory into practice too much. Or maybe we bring with us to the Church old prejudices that we haven’t quite worked through yet. Or maybe we have our priorities a little out of whack and have to remind ourselves more often that God is first, others are second, and we are third. Or maybe we are hanging out (in person or on line) with some folks that are espousing non-Orthodox views regarding race and ethnicity. You can find plenty of people on-line who call themselves “Orthodox” but who espouse racists views in direct opposition to the Church’s teaching in this regard. There are many reasons why we might be able to speak or write eloquently about the Church’s absolute prohibition on racism, but then struggle to put the right actions into place when someone who doesn’t look like a typical white guy walks through the door of St. Vladimir’s. 

This is not a question of good or bad. Undoubtedly everyone wants to do good – otherwise why are we following Christ? Orthodox Christianity is not exactly the religion for those who wish to do evil. Except for those REALLY confused about the content of the Gospel. If we have some of those really confused folks among us let us thank God that He has sent them to us and strive to convert them by our example!

I think it is good for us to think along these lines: we do not have problems at St. Vladimir’s – just opportunities. And here we have been given an opportunity to emulate Christ in ministering to those outside our existing group. As with anything that we want to do better spiritually, whether that is sin less, serve others more, be in church more often, be at the bar less often, or whatever: we need to make our sincere effort and ask God to bless it. Then we try to learn from and repent of our mistakes, and repeat: make our sincere effort and ask God to bless it, taking into the account the mistakes we just made and prayerfully seeking to avoid those. Continue until your last breath. And that has to be our approach to those who do not look like we do. No matter what “we” look like. Because this is true whether we are talking about now, when our parish is relatively homogeneous - or later, when our parish and the other parishes in our state and nation are more and more diverse in their racial and ethnic membership. Because that will happen – that is the demographic reality of our nation. The question is: can we get it to happen faster? Because our “business” as a parish is the same “business” as the rest of the Orthodox Church. And that is the “business” of the Great Commission:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

That is, we want to bring more people to Christ. People of every race and ethnicity. Christianity has always been diverse – since the Apostles first went out to preach. And the Orthodox Church has done all it can to keep it that way. And we need to continue this effort as a parish family.

I have thought about how best to move us in this direction a good amount. It seems to me that a diverse photo gallery with pictures of those who are Orthodox Christians would be helpful, so I’ve created one here. Sometimes just seeing diverse folks who live the same lives as we do - as Orthodox Christians - helps us to normalize seeing them as Orthodox Christians, even if when we see them we see something very different than what we see in the mirror. If we don’t seek to normalize that, to create a place in our brain where we file pictures of “those who do not look like me but are Orthodox Christians”, then I think we will struggle with this both personally and as a parish family. But if we work on this a little bit now, following the instructions found here, then we won’t have to work on it at all the next time someone comes to St. Vladimir’s who “doesn’t look like me” - because we will have already internalized that reality. And then we will really, truly, sincerely, and without effort be able to welcome anyone of any race or ethnicity that walks through our doors. Because more folks are coming – and they will be more diverse. That is the demographic reality of America, and we need to prepare for that. 

We owe it to the Lord to fulfill the Great Commission to the best of our ability. I would submit that to do that we need to do a little of this homework now, so that we can put our theologically correct theory into practice with ease when the time comes. Let us invest now so that we, and those we welcome warmly into the Church, can reap the benefits later. Whether you feel like this applies to you or not (“I need to work on this” or “I’m good in this regard”) it is worth making the effort to be better (if you are “good” you can always be better) so that we can give the best answer to our Lord when He asks us about the Great Commission and how we strove to fulfill that, because I’m pretty sure that will be one of the questions we’ll need to answer when we meet Him. As your priest I will answer for your answer, so I’d really like you to give the best one you can! :) But not just because I don’t want to get in trouble at the last judgment – I think that is pretty much a foregone conclusion – but because we should all strive to do the right thing out of love for God rather than out of fear of punishment. And because I think we will all give a better answer if we work on this issue proactively than if we don’t.

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

P.S. My wife, wise as she is, noted after reading this that we should also be careful not to stare at people who DO look like us. :) Sometimes anyone who is new gets stared at. That is not terribly comfortable for someone who has gotten up the gumption to come to a new church where they might not know anyone at all. The Parish Council member on duty in the kiosk area will keep an eye on the visitors to make sure that they have all they need. Don’t be cold and refuse to look at someone. :) Or refuse to answer if someone asks you a question. But please don’t stare either. A smile to a visitor goes a very long way!