[Stavka2]

Crock of shiete. First of all, just because there is a Patriarch over a specific church, that does not mean that there some racist nationalist creed. The Church is open to everyone and all ethnic groups are welcome in every church. As for structure, we have plenty...true, we don't have one single over riding, never wrong OVERLORD to dictate our lives for us, but hay, so we believe in a bit of democracy...what an evil thing.

[livius]

This is rather off-topic for this thread, so I won't go into it at great length, but anyone with a pair of eyes can see that nationalism has always been one of the great afflictions of the Orthodox Church, which for lack of an outside focus, often identifies all too closely with the country or ethnic group where it finds itself. This is one of the reasons, MarMema, that the OCA took the name Orthodox Church IN America rather than OF America.

Don't be so ready to take offense! I criticized the Catholic Church, too. We have to be willing to look at problems in our churches objectively, and the problem of fragmentation and excessive national identification is certainly an Orthodox problem.

[MarMema]

The Church is open to everyone and all ethnic groups are welcome in every church

My catechumen, whom I am sponsoring this Holy Saturday, is a Phillipino woman. Maria. She seems to feel comfortable converting in a church filled with Americans, Russians, Greeks, and Irish.
Pray for my catechumen!!