Growing number of clergy choosing ordination as Orthodox priests
1/21/2007, 1:22 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Detroit is emerging as a national center for the rebirth
of Orthodox Christian churches, which have deep ethnic roots in Eastern
Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Social scholars say the churches are growing in the United States
through immigration and conversion. Next week, many of Detroit's
Orthodox leaders will host the first in a series of conferences planned
nationwide for non-Orthodox clergy who want to explore conversion.
The Rev. John Fenton is betting his life on the growing popularity of
Orthodox Christianity. He and his wife have packed up their six children
from the rectory of a Detroit church where he was a Lutheran pastor
until late October. They've moved into a small home in Allen Park,
leaving behind Fenton's clergy salary and, soon, his health insurance.
"My wife and I have spent a lot of time in prayer about this whole move,
and it is difficult, but we do believe that God is leading us," Fenton
told the Detroit Free Press.
On Feb. 10 and Feb. 11 in Troy Fenton plans to join a small number of
clergy nationwide choosing ordination as Orthodox priests. Fenton has
lined up 16 former Lutherans as charter members of a new Orthodox parish
he plans to open.
Why the fresh interest? Fenton said many Christians feel battered by
theological controversies in their own churches. In contrast, he said,
Orthodoxy represents an oasis of Christian tradition with its
centuries-old style of wor****p and timeless celebration of the
mysterious power of saints.
"So many people feel that the world is constantly changing all around
them, and they want to find something that's so deeply rooted that it
won't change on them," Fenton said. "I think that's the biggest thing
that Orthodoxy brings to the American table."
Since the mid-1990s, about 850,000 Americans have been drawn to more
than a dozen different divisions of Orthodoxy that have congregations in
the U.S.
___
Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com
|
