Orthodox Reflections

The [Orthodox] Wittenberg Door

A Sign of the Times?

Occasionally, an event in life startles you out of your routine to such a degree, you think it must have some significance beyond its coincidental intrusion into your consciousness. This is the story of one such episode.  In hindsight, perhaps it speaks to our current situation; more importantly, the direction things are going for our beloved Church. The manner that it caught me off guard, and triggered so many connections in my thinking, leads me to believe it depicts something way beyond my own local parish. Was this event a sign of the times? Does it signal things to come? You be the judge; time will tell for sure.

Early on in the pandemic our beloved local parish went into total lockdown. Not since the Bolshevik Revolution, had Orthodox leadership so caved to the whims of government. As the local manifestation of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church—as the Creed says—, our beloved parish had—for all practical and canonical definitions—ceased to exist; a church that does not meet in person is not a Church in the way St Ignatius and St John Chrysostom had conceived it to be. Although, I had gotten the blanket email saying the church would be closed for a couple weeks, it—for whatever reason—did not sink in, until…

An Orthodox Reformation??

With no church activities going on, that did not stop the grass from growing in the church yard—the grass did not get the memo that all activities were to cease and desist.  It went about its business as if nothing had happened. My dutiful labor of love was to keep the lawns cut, as well as tend the many trees I had planted on the temple campus. I went over expecting the peace and solitude with which I was so familiar when working around the holy place inhabited by our beloved saints.

After parking my pickup, I headed up the walkway in the direction of the temple entrance.

And there it was! Right there on the temple door, someone had posted a sign! My first emotion was one of hilarious sarcasm—(me sarcastic?), “What’s up with this? Are we having an Orthodox Reformation?” I laughingly thought that, almost out loud as if it were a joke. It was one of those things appearing so out of place; it struck me as indeed comical.

Approaching the sign, it read “Due to COVID…blah, blah, blah, the church is closed until further notice”, and some more blah-blahs. I don’t really recall the exact verbiage so much as the sheer spectacle of something—anything—affixed to an Orthodox temple door. That was amusing.

At first, I was not thinking of it seriously, but, the gravitas of the spectacle began to sink in. For the first time in its history, our temple worship was closed due to government fiat channeled by our bishop. As a church in the canonical sense, we had ceased to exist because the Church was always defined as meeting in person in the sanctified, designated space for that purpose. How could this be?

In the manner in which, it happened, I began asking myself if this was indeed a portend of things to come.

“What if…could this happen in Orthodoxy?” I mused… Most students of Western history know about the “Wittenberg Door.” For the uninformed, Martin Luther’s posting of his renowned 95 Theses, on this otherwise obscure Roman Catholic Church door in Wittenberg Germany, was to the Protestant Reformation what, “The Shot Heard Around the World” was to the American Revolution. In other words: Luther’s posting lit the fuse that blew the Roman Catholic world in half, accompanied by the shedding of blood that still happens in our modern world.

Contemplating what I saw, I could not avoid making a connection hinting that change was afoot among the Orthodox.

During medieval western Europe, the local church was the center of the community. Anything nailed to the church door received almost universal viewing within a week or two. At times, in some places, the church door served as a sort of public bulletin board. If you went to church, you knew what was going on in the community. If any urgent messages required publication, that was a good place to post them. Of course, any and all grievances with the Roman Church showed up there also—Luther was not the first—, and all notices were ignored until…

As some have spun the story, Luther’s 95 Theses was originally posted in Latin—the language of the educated—of which most laity were ignorant. With a pastoral heart and not wanting to upset the peace of parish life, he was only trying to get the attention of the hierarchy. Although they were intoxicated by power, they were also well versed in Latin. By posting in Latin, he could shield the laity from the fight he was picking with the hierarchy…or so he thought…

Ordinarily, complainers like Luther, could have been deemed a heretic, tried, tortured, imprisoned or just burned at the stake; that’s how they treated dissenters in the West. But with Luther, that would become a problem. Why?

Those clever Germans translated the 95 Theses into the common language, published them far and wide, and Luther’s followers went scorched earth on the Roman Church.  Instigating a schism was not originally Luther’s intention. However, the powder keg that blew had been stoked for generations  with the continual dripping of ecclesiastical malfeasance insulting the intelligence of the laity, taking advantage of their love for God—and fear of hell—and bilking them of their  hard earned cash. For many western Christians, the Roman Church had become a nasty necessity of life like the monarchy, paying taxes, and the eventuality of death. Everyone knew it was corrupt. But what could be done? It was not like they could just go down the street to another brand of Christianity as we have it now. If they wanted to serve God, it was the only church available to them. For generations, many held their noses and went to church.

This stockpile of energy only needed one little, single, itty-bitty trigger to release generations of distrust, disgust, and collective angst creating a bloodbath, property destruction, and the uprooting everything as they knew it.

Of course, the question is: are we there yet? Has enough grief been inflicted to produce change? How long will the laity put up with such mess before they call for new Orthodox jurisdictions with honorable bishops? Prediction: if there is to be change—a restoration of Orthodoxy—it will NOT come from the clergy; it will have to come from the laity. Whose Church is it anyway?

Because the sight of a sign on the door had such meaning in other Christian circles, I could not help asking myself—asking God—, with all that is going on, what really is in store for the Orthodox? Will we reform? Will we reset jurisdictions? Will the landscape of Orthodoxy in America—or the world—come back to its former ways of conducting the business of preserving the faithful, preaching the Gospel, and bringing forth the fruit of repentance? Will the Church be the voice of God in the world, or the voice of government to the laity?

Nearly a year and a half later, not only do I think reformation possible, but necessary.

John Lee – an Orthodox Christian, jurisdiction withheld by request

OR Staff Editorial Note: There are plenty of canonical hierarchs who have objected to closing churches, changing Orthodox practices, etc. We have covered Metropolitan Neophytos and the situation in two different articles here and here. His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrosios (of Greece) just published a scathing rebuke of the Church for surrendering our Orthodox practices in the face of government tyranny. Here is an excerpt:

As God’s people, fully aware of our sinfulness and shortcomings but with faith in the Holy Triune God and in His mercy, we are determined to place ourselves at the brake of the vehicle that defiles homeland and Church.

 

We bear the burden and responsibility, which came out from the Canons of the Ecumenical Councils, from the words and exhortations of the Holy Fathers of our Church, and from the struggles and the sacrifice of ethno-martyrs and holy martyrs.

 

The Church is not an autonomous organization. She has no opinion or position of her own.

 

Her ministers (deacons, presbyters, bishops, patriarchs, synods) are not authorized to say and do whatever they feel is appropriate, according to their personal opinion.

 

How much more under the urging and pressure of political authorities.

 

The Church did not build her faith. It is not her creation. She received it and serves it.

So please no comments that this contributor or anyone associated with Orthodox Reflections is advocating for breaking away from the Orthodox Church or overthrowing bishops, etc. As we noted in many of the personal stories in this post, there is an ongoing migration of faithful Orthodox Christians from canonical jurisdictions that are seen as “less faithful” to those seen as “more faithful.” This trend is likely to continue, accelerate, and possibly become organized. A new jurisdiction or two could happen. We just don’t know. But we do know that at the heart of any Orthodox .

As a sign of this migration, please see this Orthodox Church census from which the below graphic is selected. (This is not an endorsement of one jurisdiction over another, just reporting the facts as we see them.)