Orthodox Reflections

It’s the holidays again. Time for family, friends, parties, eating too much, presents, decorations, sappy TV specials, and much, much more! But most of all, it is time for many Orthodox Christians in America to indulge in one of our favorite past times – complaining about “American” culture. Or, to be honest, the lack thereof.

Here are just a few of the favorite complaints, though this list is by no means exhaustive:

• Thanksgiving is not a real holiday.
• Thanksgiving interrupts the Nativity Fast.
• Americans are too materialistic and don’t focus on the true meaning of Christmas.
• Americans are post-Christian!
• Most Americans don’t even attend Church on Christmas!
• Christmas has been hijacked by commercialism.
• Many important days such as the Feast of St. Nicholas and the Feast of St. Basil are totally forgotten.

All of these things are true, more or less, about the US overall. No argument there. But as Orthodox Christians, what do we plan to do about any of it? Besides complaining, that is?

The Church is a hospital for sick souls. We all agree on that. Can you imagine a hospital that only diagnoses diseases, but never prescribes any treatments?

That is not okay. Neither is endlessly criticizing our fellow Americans without ever trying to help them.

Let’s start with Thanksgiving. This is an American national feast day. Granted, this specific feast has heterodox Christian roots rather than Orthodox. However, the objective of the holiday, giving thanks to God, is certainly very Orthodox. Orthodox Christians should be giving thanks to God constantly. Our central act of worship is the Eucharist – a word whose etymological root means thanksgiving or gratitude. This American feast day may have been proclaimed by a secular authority, but the intent of the day is easy enough to enculture within Orthodoxy.

But what about Thanksgiving falling during the Nativity Fast? Four points on that:

• On the old calendar, the Nativity Fast typically begins after Thanksgiving. American Orthodox Christians on the traditional calendar eat their turkey with a totally clear conscience.
• For Western Rite Orthodox Christians, the Nativity Fast starts the Monday following Thanksgiving. That means for Orthodox using the traditional calendar and WR Orthodox, Thanksgiving is just a regular, non-fasting Thursday in November. The “problem” of the Nativity Fast is largely confined (most years anyway in terms of calendar) to American Orthodox in the Eastern Rite using the new calendar.
• The Antiochian WR (maybe others as well) considers Thanksgiving to be an official Feast Day on the Church’s calendar.
• There does not appear to be any Orthodox jurisdiction in the US (whose Nativity Fast conflicts with Thanksgiving) that does not issue a special Oikonomia allowing Orthodox Christians to join family and friends in celebrating the feast. Let me make this abundantly clear. I have personally celebrated Thanksgiving multiple times at the homes of Orthodox priests in the Greek Archdiocese and the OCA. The dishes served were typical American holiday fare – including large helpings of ham and turkey. Yes, I am aware that the official calendar for both jurisdictions lists Thanksgiving Day as a fasting day. That is not followed in practice. Which, of course, raises the question – if you celebrate Thanksgiving every year instead of keeping the Nativity Fast, why is a “special” dispensation necessary?

Image from a Facebook post by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese

Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou explained how and why this accommodation of American culture came about (officially) in the Greek Archdiocese concerning Thanksgiving:

As Orthodox Christians, who value the unity and strength of the family, we are inclined to adopt this feast as our own, especially at a time when the institution of the family is under attack from all directions. Considering the traditional Thanksgiving meal, however, which involves turkey, ham and dairy products, Orthodox Christians trying to hold the fast of Christmas are faced with the dilemma: Should I hold the fast and go contrary to the established social and cultural norms associated with Thanksgiving Day or should I break the fast in order to facilitate the need of blending in and not making others uncomfortable with my presence?

 

Several years ago, responding to the request of the faithful under its jurisdiction in America, the Patriarchate of Constantinople applying “economia” discreetly granted its blessing for those who live in America to break the fast on Thanksgiving Day while focusing on the unity of the family and the “eucharistic” aspects of this feast, but quickly return to the observance of the fast immediately afterwards. The non-Orthodox cultural norm is thus transformed through our theology and this pastoral approach to a positive element for the strengthening of family bonds, while keeping with the necessity of our spiritual ascesis of fasting.

Please, enough with using the Nativity Fast as an objection to making Thanksgiving as Orthodox as possible. There is no reason to object to a national day of giving thanks to God, even if most Americans do a horrible job at celebrating it. They often don’t pray on Thanksgiving, or do so only perfunctorily. Many go through their entire feast without mentioning God at all. They seem to be more interested in the food, the parades and the football games than anything else. In truth, Orthodox Christians are often just as indifferent to God on this special day as the non-Orthodox.

What are we, as Orthodox Christians, doing to set a positive example and teach other Americans how to properly celebrate a feast of giving thanks to almighty God?  Particularly when we can’t decide whether to even celebrate this feast or not? The answer is – not nearly enough.

As a member of an Antiochian Western Rite parish, allow me to briefly relate how we celebrated Thanksgiving in 2023 and in previous years. For our parish, Thanksgiving is considered an Orthodox Feast Day. We had a Divine Liturgy on Wednesday night. It was very well attended, given the size of the parish. We took our children. There were special prayers in the mass for thanking God in honor of the occasion.

The next day, Thanksgiving, we censed the whole house after the food was ready, but before it was served. Then we read the Thanksgiving prayers from the liturgy celebrated the night before. After the prayers, we feasted. When the last piece of pie had been served, we said a prayer thanking God for the meal. We had both Orthodox and heterodox guests present. The non-Orthodox got exposure to how Orthodox Christians pray. The Orthodox were blessed to give God thanks in an Orthodox fashion.

Then we watched football. We are Americans, after all.

Could this be done better? No doubt, but we need hierarchical guidance for things to get better. Wouldn’t it be great if all Orthodox parishes had a service in honor of Thanksgiving? Wouldn’t it also be great if a hierarch or priest would publish a short service for the American Feast of Thanksgiving to be used by laity at home on Thanksgiving Day? It wouldn’t have to be elaborate, just a nice little prayer service, specifically for our national holiday, that we could recite before eating the turkey. My guess is that a good one would become “traditional” within American Orthodoxy quite quickly.

Seems like a much better plan than just complaining.

What about Christmas? There are many Americans who are unhappy with the crass commercialism and sappy sentimentality of the Christmas season. They already long for a deeper experience of the Incarnation of God. These Americans simply don’t know that this is available to them in any Orthodox parish. Which is our fault, not theirs.

We need to be much better at publicizing and explaining the Nativity Fast. (No, this doesn’t contradict the points about Thanksgiving. We can come together as American Orthodox concerning one day out of 40 for the jurisdictions who start fasting earlier.) As Orthodox Christians, we are fasting, often adding extra prayers, going to confession, and giving alms because we are anticipating an awe-inspiring, mystical event – God Himself is coming in the flesh to dwell among us!

Orthodox spirituality is the cure for the degradation of Christmas. How many Americans, outside of the Orthodox Church, know that? Not nearly enough. Why is that?

Again, that is our fault. We don’t ask our employers and social groups to plan events after Christmas, when we are feasting instead of fasting. They may not listen, but at least we can let them know that we are in a time of spiritual preparation. This is not pride, by the way. It is education. If you put a fast day on a calendar, then post it online, it is hardly a secret. Telling non-Orthodox Americans about it might give them some food for thought.

We should take every opportunity available to teach others how the Orthodox prepare for and celebrate the Nativity, as well as the true meaning of the Incarnation. Local priests can do podcasts, social media posts, and even local interviews to spread the word. While others are partying and shopping, Orthodox Christians are fasting and praying. That kind of counter-cultural activity is interesting for non-Orthodox Americans. We also need to let people know about our Nativity Divine Liturgies, and that they are welcome to come celebrate the Incarnate Christ with us. Most people don’t go where they don’t feel invited.

As for the other Feast Days around this time of year? I was familiar with St. Nicholas from having lived in a Roman Catholic country. However, I really knew nothing useful about him or his feast until I became an Orthodox catechumen. Same with St. Basil / Circumcision of Christ on January 1st. I was equally clueless about Epiphany prior to entering the Orthodox Church. These are important feast days that we are not doing nearly enough to share with our neighbors. We can and must do better.

Final Thoughts on Orthodox Evangelism

The Orthodox parish model in much of the US is unsustainable. It goes something like this. Most places in America have, at best, only a small number of Orthodox parishes. Often, at least a few of them primarily (sometimes exclusively) appeal to a specific ethnic identity (Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, etc.) Ethnic parishes, in many areas, serve a geographically disbursed membership. They often depend on their members driving long distances to attend liturgies. Because these parishes are frequently perceived as not welcoming “regular” Americans, many non-ethnic Orthodox drive right past them to attend liturgy in English at parishes further from their homes.

This arrangement depends on Americans being rich enough to afford owning, maintaining, and fueling reliable cars. We need to be honest with ourselves. We can’t rely on that anymore. Credit card debt is exploding. Not because Americans are profligate spenders (though some are), but in many cases because skyrocketing inflation is forcing Americans to buy necessities on credit to survive. More and more can’t afford to buy food, heat their homes, and fill their gas tanks. They can’t afford to pay for the added maintenance caused by driving “unnecessary” miles. They can’t afford to replace their existing transportation when it wears out.

In other words, the world is no longer shrinking. Distance is again becoming a real factor in American life, even for the middle class. Being local matters again.

Driving an hour or more each way to Divine Liturgy is not going to happen. Which is why we need to stop forcing people to travel to the parish, and instead bring the Orthodox parish to them. Part of this can be done by de-emphasizing the “ethnic” nature of our existing parishes. That will encourage Orthodox Christians, catechumens, and inquirers to simply show up wherever is closest and be welcomed with open arms.

The truth is, however, that even filling all of our existing parishes to capacity is still not enough. We need many more mission parishes if we hope to reach even a good portion of the local communities in the US. More missions require more mission priests. Which, in turn, requires money to fund those missions.

“Indifference for Missions equates to a denial of Orthodoxy”                                                         
– Archbishop Anastasios (Yannoulatos) of Albania

Fortunately, there is a way we can all support missions in the US.

Please visit Share the Faith’s Website and prayerfully consider donating to spread the Kingdom of Christ. You can also click the banner below to protect your family from harmful Internet content. The basic service is free, but there are upgraded services which may be of interest to you. The owner is an Orthodox Christian who donates a portion of any proceeds to support Orthodox missions.

Without local priests, there are no local parishes. Without local parishes, there is no evangelism. Given our economic decline, even Faithful Orthodox Christians may end up at home on Sunday mornings for lack of a local Orthodox parish.

As Orthodox Christians, we are being forced to choose one of two paths. The correct path is to prayerfully, faithfully, and dutifully share the Orthodox Faith with our nation and, thereby, transform American culture. The wrong path is to continue complaining about our fellow Americans, even as we selfishly keep the Light of Christ hidden from them. The fields are ripe. The laborers are being called to the harvest.

Will you come?

—Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America