An Increasing Number of People in the U.S. are Converting
to Orthodoxy
Dimitra DeFotis, Tribune Staff Writer / Chicago Tribune
The former Rev. Ross Aden will celebrate
Easter this Sunday--as observed on the Orthodox Christian calendar--as
Rev. Basil Aden, lifting a candle in St. Joseph Orthodox Church
in Wheaton to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and a spiritual
rebirth of his own.
After 25 years with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the former Wisconsin pastor chose to relinquish his name, his Latin cross and his Western traditions for Orthodox Christianity, an ancient faith that is attracting new members.
The Orthodox Christian Church, with some 250 million members worldwide, considers itself the original Christian church. With a focus on the Trinity, the intervention of the Virgin Mary and a liturgy rooted in centuries-old tradition, it has long been a home for Eastern European and Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States.
But within the last decade, Orthodox churches in America have begun to welcome tens of thousands of converts, especially dissatisfied Protestant Christians.
A former vice president of the board of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Aden sought renewal in Orthodoxy's mysticism and its historically-rooted regimen of religious practice.
The DeKalb resident still wanted regular services and sacraments, but he also wanted strict personal rules for keeping his faith--such as fasting, prayer and confession during Lent --which have fallen from prominence in most Western traditions.
Aden, 51, found what he wanted in the Orthodox Church of America, a predominantly English-language jurisdiction once tied to the Russian Orthodox Church. Both are among the numerous jurisdictions that make up Orthodox Christianity, which split with the Western church in the year 1054 in a dispute over the authority of the pope.
Aden's wife, Sandra, crossed the bridge too. But his two grown sons remain Lutheran. Lutheran clergy he knows were respectful, but not supportive, he said.
"I found in Orthodoxy the depth of the faith, the rootedness and continuity of the apostolic faith in a way that completely grabbed me, overcame me and compelled me to participate in it rather than just study it," said Aden. "The continuity is there in the Lutheran Church, but I wasn't finding forms of spirituality that helped me grow."
In recent years, converts have become enamored with the historical relevance of Orthodoxy, which has kept its traditions alive for 2,000 years. The Orthodox still use their own calendar to calculate the date of Easter. That is why they will celebrate their version this Sunday, rather than observing it last Sunday as most other religions did.
That is fine with Aden, who now answers to the more obscure name of Basil, a 4th Century saint who formalized the written liturgy and set up hospitals in what is now Turkey.
After a decade of studying Carl Jung's psychology, Native American spirituality and Christian mysticism, Aden said he could only cave in to what he called an intuitive and "irresistible call."
Aden is following in the footsteps of thousands of Christians, especially clergy, who in the past 10 years have converted to the traditional and morally conservative faith.
Participating in Aden's recent Orthodox ordination service were four of those converts--three of his former Lutheran colleagues and Rev. Peter Gillquist, who guided several Protestant congregations with a total of 2,000 members into the Orthodox Church in 1987.
The celebration took place in Wheaton, a bastion of conservative Evangelical Protestantism, at St. Joseph, a parish first formed in Naperville in 1989.
Even at Evangelical Wheaton College, students are learning about the Orthodox Church.
Most Protestant students have no idea the Orthodox Church exists because "the Orthodox don't do a good job on evangelism," said Robert Webber, a Wheaton College professor who considered Orthodoxy before becoming Anglican.
"Intellectual people rebel against society and a Christianity that reflects society, and they find (depth) in the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church," Webber added.
For example, Yale University church historian Jaroslav Pelikan, renowned for his series of books documenting Christianity, became Orthodox in March.
But the Orthodox church's downfall for many potential converts is its ethnic and moral exclusivity, Webber said.
Some Orthodox churches are cultural enclaves where the immigrant diaspora celebrates a national heritage and a spiritual life. The Greek, Serbian and other jurisdictions in Chicago all have separate dioceses.
Seeking a faith sans culture, Americanized converts moved to more open, generic churches such as the OCA or the Antiochian Orthodox Church to which Gillquist belongs.
But conversions are becoming an issue even in ethnic churches as children of immigrants marry non-Orthodox spouses.
The conversion to Orthodoxy, especially among clergy, is fueled in part by debate in mainline Protestant churches over abortion, same-sex marriages and the ordination of homosexuals. Conservative Protestants see Orthodoxy as the last holdout of traditional Christian morality.
Conversions gained attention in 1987 when Gillquist-led Protestants from churches in several states sought acceptance in the Greek Orthodox and Antiochian Orthodox jurisdictions. The 300,000-member Antiochian church, once dominated by Arab immigrants, accepted the group, and now Protestant converts account for about 75 percent of the approximately 400 U.S. Antiochian clergy, Gillquist said.
Ironically, the autocracy that kept Orthodoxy intact for 2,000 years and attracted Protestants is the same autocracy that has generated controversy among other Orthodox.
In Ben Lomond, Calif., a community south of San Jose, one of the Antiochian convert parishes created in 1987 recently clashed with church leaders. Parishioners decried the bishop's authority to set policy in the transfer of priests, singing styles and liturgical matters, Gillquist said.
In the first major rebellion since the mass-conversion, the group tangled in a legal battle with its local diocese over the sale of its church property and has since petitioned to become part of another Orthodox jurisdiction, he said.
In Chicago, a 10-year-old Greek Orthodox reform movement seeks greater democracy in its national church politics. A similar Boston-based group recently called for the resignation of Archbishop Spyridon, U.S. head of the Greek Orthodox Church, if he not does give laymen greater input.
Gillquist said most converts are still in a romance with their new faith, however. They are less interested in solving internal administrative problems than in evangelism, he said.
"We are not here because it is a perfect church, but because it is a true church," Gillquist said. "Converts tend to be enthusiastic, and lifelong Orthodox thank us. And we say thank you for building the church. We're good for each other."
"Finding Faith in Orthodoxy" was written by Dimitra
DeFotis, Tribune Staff Writer.
Originally published in the Chicago Tribune on April 19, 1998.
Reprinted here under fair-usage rules.
Copyright © Chicago Tribune, 1998.
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