“Maybe I’m skewed being Italian...to me it seems Greek Orthodox would be the natural choice.”
When Gilquist and the “Evangelical Orthodox” came knocking on the door of the GOA insisting on a mass welcome into the GOA while retaining their forms and orders (all of which they had made up so far as the GOA was concerned, they were shown the door. +Met. Philip accepted them with some conditions which pretty much resolved the problems the GOA had with them. It is fair to say that the mass conversion has been a mixed blessing. One good result, I suppose, is that most American inquirers walking into an Antiochian Church today in America, except perhaps for here in the NE, will find parishes which are predominantly convert. As such they might feel more comfortable initially, but Orthodoxy is not a way of life for spiritual sissies nor is it “comfortable”. It is definitely not something which will accommodate American sensibilities or sensitivities. If an inquirer stays around and becomes Orthodox, the ethnic part,ironically, becomes an added attraction, or so I am told.
“...do the Ethiopians etc. have any difficulty adapting to the Byzantine liturgy?”
Not that I have ever seen. Their Divine Liturgies, as you probably know, are chanted in classical Ge’ez, a beautiful liturgical language. The liturgies themselves are almost identical to our Divine Liturgies so there’s not much to get used to. The women always dress in beautiful white for the liturgy and they take their shoes off in the narthex before entering the nave. On big feasts, the men also dress in white with almost royal looking robes. There’s no question that what they wear is the best they own. They take their Faith very, very seriously and we Greeks know we are blessed to have them as examples to us.
Speaking personally as an enrolled Orthodox Catechumen in a convert Antiochian parish (to be Chrismated in December...Lord, have mercy), I can tell you from my own experience of the EOC folks...
Those that I know have left behind (boy was THAT an awful choice of words) and will repudiate the “Ortho-stant” of “ProtesDox” approach of those in the old inner circle of the EOC leadership.
Kolo is right, you can’t do it both ways. Personally, I wouldn’t want to - I couldn’t go back to Protestant worship now AT ALL.
I’ve been told an HILARIOUS story about Bp. BASIL, the Bishop of the Antiochian Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America...
Before the elevation the other Diocesan Bishops in the AOANA, there were only two Auxiliary Bishops... +Antoun and +Basil.
+Basil was celebrating Liturgy at a new convert parish in VIcksburg, MS. And there was a woman playing an organ during Communion. +Basil turned to his assistant, a Subdeacon whose name I shan’t give on this forum. The Bishop said, “Please go tell that woman to stop playing the organ.”
The Subdeacon (a former Marine) went up over to the organ and said, “His Grace said to stop playing that organ...RIGHT NOW.” She apparently couldn’t get her hands off the keys fast enough.
Quitely, but audibly, Bp. Basil said, “This is NOT a Baptist church.”
“If an inquirer stays around and becomes Orthodox, the ethnic part,ironically, becomes an added attraction, or so I am told.”
I am eating felafel for lunch as I type this. Not to mention the fact that, growing up, my parents were friends with a Lebanese family...and my mom still has their family recipe for kibbee.
I LOVE Mediterranean food...