The secular world, it seems, has discovered Orthodox Christianity, the Church that predates Rome with ancient roots in Jerusalem and Antioch. Prominent among the “discoverers” are young men. Young men that Abbot Seraphim of Holy Cross Monastery in West Virginia says “are broken” and “searching for spirituality.”
Abbot Seraphim describes this brokenness as the result of absentee or abusive fathers — mothers too — and the fact that many of these young men come from non-believing homes. In many cases they were raised nominally Protestant, meaning church on Christmas, weddings and funerals but nothing in-between, something that amounts to a superficial faith minus backbone and substance. Many of these young men have seen their Protestant denominations dissipate into woke reflections of the secular culture.
That reflection includes Black Lives Matter banners strung from the steeples of Protestant churches; rainbow flags used as altar cloths; sermons that concentrate on feminism, reproductive rights or the “rights” of illegal aliens.
Even Scripture has been bastardized with pronoun changes along with the forced alteration of explicit but unpopular Biblical condemnations to make them blend with societal changes.
The New York Post’s feature on the phenomenon of young men entering Orthodox Christianity got a lot of attention. The article revealed why men find Orthodoxy attractive: In a world of flux and changing fashion, the new converts desire something ancient, substantive and unchanging. The superficiality of what many have experienced in Protestant churches might be said to include abbreviated entertainment-style worship services and sermons that mimic TED Talks.
Orthodoxy, as has been said, is not for sissies. Unlike their Catholic brethren, the Orthodox Church never diluted fasting to a simple one hour before receiving the Eucharist. Orthodox Christians fast most of the year, and the fasts are strenuous. Long worship services contribute to a complicated life of prescribed prayers and frequent confession.
The article refers to Orthodoxy as “muscular Christianity,” as opposed to the softer almost feminized world of Protestantism where the Jesus worshiped is often the Jesus of equity, inclusion and diversity, or the woke Jesus as invented by the Left.
In Orthodoxy there are regular processions, a heavy use of incense and the kissing of icons.
There is also an act of submission known as prostrations — or kneeling with one’s face on the floor — a worship practice adopted from Eastern Christianity by Islam. Multiple prostrations in Orthodoxy involve gymnastic stand up/lie down maneuvers that often exhaust the most athletically inclined.
Psychologist and author Jordan Peterson compares the Orthodox liturgy to a dance.
Tradition, he told the Post, makes Orthodoxy unquestionable.
“Unlike a Protestant service, which is much more dependent on the preacher, you can’t criticize an Orthodox service…. It’s ritualized. It’s a dance. And it’s not the words only. It’s the words in the architecture, in the images, in the history. And you’re participating in it.”
The number of Orthodox converts nationwide has increased by 80 percent since 2019, tripling the size of many established congregations. New Orthodox churches are being built to accommodate this rapid growth.
While young men are discovering Orthodoxy, what about young women? Why isn’t there a mass exodus of young women into the Orthodox Church? The question deserves some attention. Part of the reason has to do with the damage feminism has done to women in the culture.
“The feminist movement,” as Carrie Gress writes in her book, ‘The End of Woman, How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us, “has eviscerated our homes, our children, our lives as wives, our fertility, and now finally our bodies, leaving us in a strange no-man’s-land-or rather a no-woman’s-land-where we are simply a generic ‘human being,’ a traumatizing blank slate imposed over natural realities.”
Recently I had a conversation with Mother Christophora, the abbess of the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, founded by the exiled Princess Ileana (Mother Alexandra) of Romania in 1965 after her tonsure as a nun. During our talk, Mother Christophora pointed out the crisis in vocations to the monastic life among young women, but not with young men.
“Orthodox male monasteries are flourishing with young men, but the opposite is true with women,” she said. “And yet when you consider what the culture has done to young women, you begin to understand this discrepancy.”
The ravages of feminism are certainly behind the changes we see in many Protestant denominations.
One by one, old guard Protestant churches that once resisted radical liberalization are falling into line. One Anglo-Catholic parish in Philadelphia, Saint Clement-for years noted for its beautiful Christmas 3-hour High Solemn Mass-finally succumbed to the woke virus that has transformed nearly Episcopal church in the nation. The parish now has liberal priests who preach woke Democrat Party-inspired sermons.
The parish also employs women deacons and priests who dress for Mass in rich fiddle- back vestments. This visual incongruity-safeguarding the superficialities of tradition while accessing all the latest woke talking points-is a queer phenomenon, something that young men searching for authentic Christianity no doubt see as false.
It should be noted that the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia has been used in past years as a sort of entry into society, what used to be called the Social Register class. Membership is mostly about making connections with the right people-lawyers, physicians, or old families with Mayflower roots-even though the “right people” category in Philadelphia is nearly depleted due to changing demographics.
I was reminded of this at Christmastime when a post on Facebook included a photo of a man standing outside an Episcopal church. The caption read: “The Episcopal Church is the gentleman’s way to Heaven.” (But first you have to stomach left wing rants by the female priest or bishop as well as a short talk on Gaza and Black Lives Matter.)
Many Orthodox male converts say they first investigated Orthodoxy during the pandemic lockdown when their Protestant churches were closed or having virtual-only services. According to a study published by the National Catholic Reporter, of all the Christian denominations, many Orthodox churches remained open during the pandemic.
“From 2020 through 2023, the study found 44% of Orthodox churches remained open during the pandemic, compared to just 12% of all U.S. congregations. Only 31% of Orthodox priests publicly encouraged parishioners to get vaccinated compared to 62% of all clergy.”
This is the fearlessness of true belief and ancient wisdom. If you turn away from receiving the Eucharist because you’re afraid of germs and catching COVID, you really have little to no belief in the power inherent in receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.
The young men who have gone over to Orthodoxy talk about the feminization of non-Orthodox forms of Christianity. As one Orthodox priest, Father Josiah Trenham of Riverside, California told the Post:
“The vast majority of attendees at most Christian churches are female, and many services are accordingly dominated by emotional songs, swaying, uplifted hands, and eyes closed in ecstasy.
“Men are much less comfortable [in those settings], and they have voted with their feet. Our worship forms are very traditional and very masculine.”
Of course, all is not perfect in Orthodoxy. There are snake-in-the-grass liberalizing groups and trends, like a group called Public Orthodoxy at Fordham University, a Jesuit-run school, that wants to see the Church embrace same sex marriage the way the Catholic bishops are doing in Germany-in direct disobedience to the pope by the way- an act that only 20 years ago under Pope Benedict XVI would have resulted in some form of censure or excommunication. I suspect Pope Francis secretly agrees with the German bishops and his only real worry is that the Germans are moving too fast while he prefers a slow, incremental reformation. (Recall the apologue of the frog being slowly boiled alive.)
I suspect the young men coming into Orthodoxy see through this charade as well.
It appears that Orthodoxy — for the most part — remains one of the sole true survivors of ancient Christianity, a shining city on a hill.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/orthodox-christianity-and-the-good-migrants/
