A View from the Pew: Lay Orthodox Christian Perspectives on American Religious Diversity*

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-219
Author(s):  
Amy A. Slagle

This study offers an analysis of how Orthodox Christians in America today grapple on a daily basis with the pluralism of the American religious landscape. Based on interviews conducted with converts and “cradle Orthodox” in the Greek, Ukrainian, Carpatho-Russian, and American (Orthodox Church in America) Churches, Slagle constructs an image of the imagined and actual worldviews of Orthodox practitioners in Southwest Pennsylvania and Northern Ohio—a region of the US with dense and well-establish Orthodox communities. Slagle finds a range of exclusivist and inclusivist attitudes among the Orthodox she interviewed—some practitioners seeing in Orthodoxy the lone true faith, while others situating the church in a larger, pluralistic environment. This study offers a close-up view of how Orthodox Americans view themselves and their larger religious contexts, and how the Church’s teachings, culture, liturgical life, and history inform and shape these widely varying views.

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-235
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Mironko

The Orthodox Church, although less known in the western Christian traditions, is a part of the changing world. The Church's liturgical tradition, however, remains largely unchanged. This article provides a detailed look at the Orthodox liturgical tradition practiced today in the Orthodox Church that may be unknown to Western Christians. The rite of the Holy Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ has central importance and place in the life of the Church. According to St. John of Kronstadt, “the Divine Liturgy is true heaven on earth.” This is why the celebrant preparing to serve the Liturgy is required to exercise particular care and strict adherence to tradition. Yet, even the most careful preparation and observance does not guarantee the prevention of unforeseen circumstances and omissions. This work presents some norms, solutions, and rules which guide the actions that follow such cases. Note that the material presented here reflects the Orthodox Slavic, and in some cases Byzantine, tradition, and will help non-Orthodox Christians deepen their familiarity and appreciation of the Orthodox liturgical theoglogy and praxis.


1988 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-376
Author(s):  
Michael P. Stathopoulos

As our subject is the secularization of Greek Family Law, we may presume that this part of our legal system is not as yet secular or at least not exclusively so. Indeed, the strong influence of religious conceptions, particularly those of the Greek Orthodox Christian Church is an historical feature of Greek Family Law. This tradition is explained by the close relations in general between Church and State in Greece, relations which are rooted in the Byzantine era. The determinant importance of the Church in Greek society reached its peak during the period of the Ottoman occupation (1453-1821), when there was no Greek State and the Orthodox Church was its substitute. I think that we may find a parallel here between the Greek people and their religion and the Jewish people and their religion. After the national revolution of 1821, and with the regaining of their independence, the Greek people were organized in a secular state, retaining, however, important features of a religious character, in accordance with the nation's historical tradition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Nigusie Wolde Michae Kassaye ◽  
Yu. N. Buzykina

The aim of the study is to consider the role and place of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church in preserving the ancient traditions and culture of the peoples of Ethiopia. The history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is closely related to that of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church, but for a significant part of its history it fought for autocephaly, which was achieved only under Emperor Haile Selassie I. The most important function of the Church in Ethiopia was education and spread of literacy, the preservation and transfer of knowledge in the field of religion and public administration. The objective of the study is to analyze how this function was implemented during the first half of the XX century. The research is based on the documents of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and of the Ethiopian Microfilm Laboratory EMML.


1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Robins

In 1822, from his Conway home in the shadow of New Hampshire's White Mountains, one Dr. Porter surveyed the nation's religious landscape and prophesied, “in half a century there will be no Pagans, Jews, Mohammedans, Unitarians or Methodists.” The prophecy proved false on all counts, but it was most glaringly false in the case of the Methodists. In less than a decade, Porter's home state became the eighth to elect a Methodist governor. Should Porter have fled south into Massachusetts to escape the rising Methodist tide, he would only have been buying time. True, the citizens of Provincetown, Massachusetts, had, in 1795, razed a Methodist meetinghouse and tarred and feathered a Methodist in effigy. By 1851, however, the Methodists boasted a swelling Cape Cod membership, a majority of the church members on Martha's Vineyard, and a governor in the Massachusetts statehouse.


Author(s):  
Михаил Андреевич Вишняк

Вниманию русскоязычного читателя предлагается первая часть перевода с новогреческого на русский язык книги Ὁ Θεολογικός Διάλογος Ὀρθοδόξων καί Ἀντιχαλκηδονίων (παρελθόν - παρόν - μέλλον): Μία ἁγιορειτική συμβολή. Ἅγιον Ὄρος: Ἱερά Μονή Ὁσίου Γρηγορίου, 2018 (841 σ.). Это издание посвящено богословскому диалогу между Православной Церковью и антихалкидонитами и включает в себя все тексты соответствующей тематики, составленные на Святой Горе Афон в период 1991-2015 гг. Настоящая публикация включает перевод предисловия архим. Христофора, игумена монастыря Григориат, и части введения (гл. 1, пп. 1-3). Перевод снабжён также предисловием переводчика, в котором кратко изложена история богословского диалога, цель издания и его перевода на русский язык, которая заключается в содействии плодотворному и согласному со Священным Преданием воссоединению антихалкидонитов с Церковью. The Russian-speaking reader is presented with the first part of the translation into Russian from the modern Greek of the book Ὁ Θεολογικός Διάλογος Ὀρθοδόξων καί Ἀντιχαλκηδονίων (παρελθόν - παρόν - μέλλον): Μία ἁγιορειτική συμβολή. Ἅγιον Ὄρος: Ἱερά Μονή Ὁσίου Γρηγορίου, 2018 (841 p.). This edition is devoted to the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the non-Chalcedonians and includes all texts of the relevant topics, published on the Holy Mount Athos in the period 1991-2015. This publication includes a translation of the Prologue of archim. Christophoros, the abbot of the monastery of St. Gregory, and of a part of the Introduction (Chapter 1, paragraphs 1-3). The translation is also provided with a preface of the translator, which summarizes the history of the Theological Dialogue, the purpose of the publication and its translation into Russian, which is to contribute to the fruitful and consistent with the Holy Tradition reunification of the non-Chalcedonians with the Church.


2020 ◽  
pp. 160-198
Author(s):  
Макарий Веретенников

Статья посвящена содержанию, общим принципам построения и характерным особенностям календаря, или месяцеслова, Русской Православной Церкви. Автор использует методы анализа и синтеза. В итоге делаются нижеследующие обобщения. Месяцеслов был принесён на Русь из Византии в достаточно завершённом виде, однако в процессе исторического развития он дополнился особенными русскими праздниками. Календарь-месяцеслов - это грандиозный собор святых, подвизавшихся в разных местах на протяжении веков, единение Церкви Небесной и земной, история святости и история нашей Церкви. Месяцесловным памятям посвящены составленные гимнографами богослужебные тексты, которые поются и читаются в храмах. Традиционно почитается день кончины угодников Божиих, память открытия мощей святых, перенесения их святых мощей или же день канонизации угодников Божиих, реже - день их рождения. Фенологические наблюдения русского народа связаны с повседневной деятельностью и увязаны с месяцесловом, что свидетельствует о его проникновении в повседневную жизнь русского человека. The article is devoted to the content, General principles of construction and characteristic features of the calendar, or mesyatseslov, of the Russian Orthodox Church. The author uses methods of analysis and synthesis. As a result, the following generalizations are made. The mesyatseslov was brought to Russia from Byzantium in a fairly complete form, but in the course of historical development it was supplemented with special Russian holidays. The calendar-mesyatseslov is a grandiose council of saints who have labored in different places over the centuries, the unity of the Church of Heaven and earth, the history of holiness and the history of our Church. Liturgical texts composed by hymnographers, which are sung and read in churches, are dedicated to the mesyatseslovs memory. Traditionally, the day of the death of saints, the memory of the discovery of the relics of saints, the transfer of their Holy relics, or the day of the canonization of saints, less often - the day of their birth are honored. Russian people’s phenological observations are related to their daily activities and are linked to mesyatseslov, which indicates its penetration into the daily life of the Russian people.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 333
Author(s):  
Brittany Romanello

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), also called Mormonism, has experienced rapid changes in its US demographics due to an influx of Latinx membership. The most recent growth in the US church body has been within Spanish-speaking congregations, and many of these congregant members are first or 1.5-generation immigrant Latinas. Using ethnographic data from 27 interviews with immigrant members living in Utah, Nevada, and California, LDS Latinas reported that while US Anglo members did seem to appreciate certain aspects of their cultural customs or practices, they also reported frequently experiencing ethnic homogenization or racial tokenization within US Church spaces and with White family members. Our findings indicate that the contemporary LDS church, despite some progressive policy implementations within its doctrinal parameters, still struggles in its ever-globalizing state to prioritize exposing White US members to the cultural heterogeneity of non-White, global LDS identities and perspectives. Latina LDS experiences and their religious adjacency to Whiteness provide a useful lens by which researchers can better understand the ways in which ethnic identity, gender, legal status, and language create both opportunities and challenges for immigrant incorporation and inclusion within US religious spaces and add to the existing body of scholarship on migration and religion.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Pavlidou ◽  
N. Civici ◽  
E. Caushi ◽  
L. Anastasiou ◽  
T. Zorba ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this paper are presented the studies of the paint materials and the technique used in 18th century wall paintings, originated from the orthodox church of St Athanasius, in the city of Maschopolis, a flourishing economical and cultural center, in Albania. The church was painted in 1745 by Konstantinos and Athanasios Zografi, and during the last years, restoration activities are being performed at the church. Samples that included plasters and pigments of different colors were collected from important points of the wall paintings. Additionally, as some parts of the wall-paintings were over-painted, the analysis was extended to the compositional characterization of these areas. The identification of the used materials was done by using complementary analytical methods such as Optical Microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM-EDS) and X-ray fluorescence (TXRF).The presence of calcite in almost all the pigments is indicative for the use of the fresco technique at the studied areas, while the detection of gypsum and calcium oxalate, indicates an environmental degradation along with a biodegradation. Common pigments used in this area at 15-16th centuries, such as cinnabar, green earth, manganese oxide, carbon black and calcite were identified.


2020 ◽  
pp. 269-274
Author(s):  
Сергей Забелич

В статье рассказывается об истории создания Синодальной Богослужебной комиссии, основных направлениях ее деятельности, задачах. На заседаниях обсуждаются вопросы и принимаются предварительные решения по сложным календарным вопросам, а также введение новых текстов в богослужебную практику Русской Православной Церкви на основе церковного Устава (Типикона) и литургической традиции Русской Церкви. The article is devoted to the history of establishing the Synodal Liturgical Commission, the main fields of its work and the essential tasks. The Commission raises a number of important liturgical questions, takes preliminary decisions on the complicated calendar issues and introduces the new texts of divine services into the worship practice of the Russian Orthodox Church following the Church statutes (Typikon) and the liturgical tradition of the Russian Church.


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