AXIOS!
The Orthodox gave up on this bit of orthodoxy a long time ago:
http://www.orthodoxevangelical.com/2014/02/04/eastern-orthodoxy-and-contraception/
Who controls the fruit of the womb? Are there any other blessings to which we tell God thanks, but only this much? We would love for Him to pour out His blessings generously with wealth, health, success, etc. but not so much with children, that we desire to control.
Accepting birth control is a slippery slope in the hearts of men. If it is moral and right to decide to have children based on convenience to us using abortifacients such as the pill or an IUD, then it isn’t much of a leap of reasoning to abort a child which avoided destruction by the other methods at an inconvenient time.
Early in our marriage we held the contemporary view accepting birth control (though never used any abortifacients) and set a number we would like to have based on what was reasonable for our income level. All I can say is that God humbled us greatly and our hearts were changed in how we viewed His sovereignty over all areas of life. We often got teased as our family increased, though to me we have only a medium sized family. As my youngest is now three and I am in my forties my only disappointment is that God did not see fit to allow us more children on earth. I do, however have three who I will meet in heaven.
Reardon’s books are fantastic, in particular the one on the Psalms.
bkmk
Old order Mennonites and the Amish still reject it as well, as well as some independent type Christians. It really is amazing how fast the culture capitulated once the technology made it so easy. And of course the majority of Catholics in the west/1st world simply ignore their own rules on it.
How often do Orthodox couples seek and receive permission from their spiritual advisor to use it within marriage?
Freegards
I generally have great love and respect for the Antiochian Church, but in America it is infested with convert priests like this Reardon fellow who have, in my opinion, no more of an Orthodox phronema than my dog!
bump
According to the late Pro-Life champion Fr. Paul Marx, the first Christian church to allow even limited contraception use was the Episcopalians at their Lambeth Conference in 1930. Since then it has pretty much downhill all the way.