The media lately seems to be full of stories about conversions to the Orthodox Church. On 4 January 2025, the U.K. Telegraph published a story called, Young, single men are leaving traditional churches. They found a more ‘masculine’ alternative. This piece echoes ones published in late 2024 about the attractiveness of Orthodoxy for young men who are sick of modern worship comprised of a rock concert followed by a TED Talk. Overall, the piece is extremely shallow, but there were three pieces of information that are worth noting.
First, most new converts got their first exposure to Orthodoxy online. Second, conversions to Orthodoxy really are accelerating. As noted in the article, “A 2023 survey by the Orthodox Studies Institute of Orthodox clergy in 20 parishes across 15 states found there had been a 80 per cent increase in the number of converts to the Orthodox church in 2022, compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019.” While too many Orthodox parishes closed completely or modified essential practices for our liking at Orthodox Reflections, it is clear that overall our Church significantly outperformed everyone else in terms of fidelity to the Christian Faith. Clearly, people have noticed. Third, also from the article, “Priests are now planning to open new parishes to accommodate the ‘tsunami’ of young men who have converted since the pandemic.”
Its the last point we, as Orthodox Christians, need to focus on most. You can learn about the Orthodox Catholic Faith online. However, Orthodoxy is not an academic subject one studies. Orthodoxy is a complete rule of faith that must be lived within a parish under the guidance of a priest. Therein lies our major problem. A massive number of potential Orthodox Christians in the U.S. simply do not have access to a local canonical Orthodox parish.
To meet the “tsunami” of potential converts (people seeking an authentic relationship with the Triune God only found in the Church founded by Christ), we need more missions. To have more missions, we need priests to serve them. Orthodox priests usually have families who require food and housing. New missions usually can’t provide much financial support, so many mission priests must have some other way to pay the bills. That frequently requires having a secular job, living off the wife’s earnings, or both. While Orthodox services can be held practically anywhere, a mission parish also needs some costly liturgical resources just to get started.
What all that equals is money. To grow the number of missions in the U.S., Orthodox Christians have to figure out how to fund them. To our knowledge, the only organization really working to solve that issue on a pan-Orthodox basis is Share the Faith – Orthodox Christian Mission to America. Share the Faith does two really important things. First, STF funds mission priests in the U.S. to help them open, keep open, and grow Orthodox missions. It is the only organization providing that kind of assistance in the United States. Second, STF sponsors webinars and other opportunities for Orthodox Christians to learn about, discuss, and critique Orthodox missionary efforts in America.
The next learning / discussion opportunity offered by STF is a Webinar coming up on 1/25. See details below. More information and a link to registration can be found here.
America is huge and incredibly diverse. The Pacific Northwest is different than the Midwest which is different than the Deep South which is also different from the Northeast. The major regional areas are further broken up by Urban versus Rural, by dominant ethnicity, by dominant religious background, by economic outlook (Rust Belt versus Sun Belt, for example), and by sex. After all, attracting young men is great, but to build Orthodox families we need women also.
The webinar, featuring live audience Q & A, will focus on how to launch and maintain successful Orthodox missions in diverse environments. The priests on the discussion panel are drawn from three different jurisdictions in different areas of the country and have very different personal / professional backgrounds. Their discussion will provide valuable insights for any Orthodox Christian seeking to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After all, as we see in the New Testament, and even more so in the Church Fathers that came later, effective Evangelism often requires approaching different groups of people differently. Preaching to the Hebrews was different from preaching to the Greeks or to the Romans. The Faith is the same, but the ears hearing about it are often not.
The Orthodox Reflections team highly recommends participating in this live event. Registration is limited. 2025 can be the year Orthodoxy truly begins transforming America in earnest, but only if everyday Orthodox Christians love their neighbors enough to effectively share the Christian Faith with them.
—-OR Staff
Note: Replay of the webinar will be available. This article will be updated with the replay link when available.
Is there a cost for the webinar?
Totally free.