Photoreport from Asia. Photojournalist Oleg Savinov
THE WHAT WHERE, WHEN, AND WHY OF ORTHODOX MISSIONS
photo copyright oleg savinov
photo copyright oleg savinov
Is missionary work an Orthodox practice? Should our Faith be earned to all peoples of the globe? Can all Orthodox Christians participate in mission work? The answer to each of these questions is a resounding, “Yes!” In this article we will explore the history, methods, and motivation behind Orthodox missions, arriving at the conclusion that not only can we participate in missionary work, but as children of God, the spreading of His love is a part of our very nature!
Is “Orthodox Missions” an Oxymoron?
photo copyright oleg savinov
Early on in my experience as a missionary to Albania, I had an encounter with a Protestant missionary which was soon to become commonplace. We had been having a pleasant conversation when the topic turned to our respective ministries. When I told him that I was an Orthodox missionary, his expression turned to one of utter astonishment. All he could manage to blurt out was, “I didn’t know the Orthodox Church did missionary work!”
Actually, I was not offended by his candor. I soon discovered that many missionaries assigned top Albania had little if any knowledge of Orthodoxy. A much more distressing reaction came from Orthodox Christians themselves.
I first encountered this reaction while a student at seminary in preparation for the priesthood. As a member of the campus missions committee, I often spoke about mission work. On more than one occasion in this capacity, I was confronted by a man or woman emphatically telling me that mission activity was unorthodox. “Foreign missions,” I was told, “is a Protestant concept!”
To be fair, it is easy to see where both these misconceptions originated. While Orthodoxy has made a powerful missionary effort through much of its history, it was as recently as 1962 that Orthodox scholar Nikita Struve observed pointedly: “Strictly speaking, the Orthodox Church has no longer any organized mission.”
A Temporary Period off Decline
Without question, the Orthodox Church has been active in missions from its very beginning-from the Apostolic and Early Church period, through the Byzantine and Russian eras, and now in the present day. Any reading of the history books will clearly substantiate the fact that each century has brought forth vibrant Orthodox mission activity.
Two factors, however, greatly thwarted the Church’s missionary efforts in recent centuries: (1) the Turkish occupation of the Balkans, lasting four centuries; and (2) the communist seizure of power in many other Orthodox countries. Between these two events, the ability of the Orthodox Church to do missionary work was repressed at a time when the churches of the West were free to expand. These events “forced the Orthodox to withdraw temporarily into themselves in order to preserve their faith and to form, to a certain extent, closed groups.”
Praise be to God, that period came to an end around the middle of the twentieth century. Following the 1958 Fourth General Assembly of Syndesmos in Thessaloniki,Greece, the newly arising Porefthentos movement brought forth an Orthodox revival in the area of external mission. If one sorts through the various documents written after that period, the growth of this revival becomes clear. The call to the Church to return to its task has appeared over and over again in conferences and articles during the last forty years.
In addition, the severe communist rule that repressed Orthodoxy in so many other countries of the world has now collapsed, and we can expect to see this same reawakening of missions in these countries as well.
photo copyright oleg savinov
photo copyright oleg savinov
Is missionary work an Orthodox practice? Should our Faith be earned to all peoples of the globe? Can all Orthodox Christians participate in mission work? The answer to each of these questions is a resounding, “Yes!” In this article we will explore the history, methods, and motivation behind Orthodox missions, arriving at the conclusion that not only can we participate in missionary work, but as children of God, the spreading of His love is a part of our very nature!
Is “Orthodox Missions” an Oxymoron?
photo copyright oleg savinov
Early on in my experience as a missionary to Albania, I had an encounter with a Protestant missionary which was soon to become commonplace. We had been having a pleasant conversation when the topic turned to our respective ministries. When I told him that I was an Orthodox missionary, his expression turned to one of utter astonishment. All he could manage to blurt out was, “I didn’t know the Orthodox Church did missionary work!”
Actually, I was not offended by his candor. I soon discovered that many missionaries assigned top Albania had little if any knowledge of Orthodoxy. A much more distressing reaction came from Orthodox Christians themselves.
I first encountered this reaction while a student at seminary in preparation for the priesthood. As a member of the campus missions committee, I often spoke about mission work. On more than one occasion in this capacity, I was confronted by a man or woman emphatically telling me that mission activity was unorthodox. “Foreign missions,” I was told, “is a Protestant concept!”
To be fair, it is easy to see where both these misconceptions originated. While Orthodoxy has made a powerful missionary effort through much of its history, it was as recently as 1962 that Orthodox scholar Nikita Struve observed pointedly: “Strictly speaking, the Orthodox Church has no longer any organized mission.”
A Temporary Period off Decline
Without question, the Orthodox Church has been active in missions from its very beginning-from the Apostolic and Early Church period, through the Byzantine and Russian eras, and now in the present day. Any reading of the history books will clearly substantiate the fact that each century has brought forth vibrant Orthodox mission activity.
Two factors, however, greatly thwarted the Church’s missionary efforts in recent centuries: (1) the Turkish occupation of the Balkans, lasting four centuries; and (2) the communist seizure of power in many other Orthodox countries. Between these two events, the ability of the Orthodox Church to do missionary work was repressed at a time when the churches of the West were free to expand. These events “forced the Orthodox to withdraw temporarily into themselves in order to preserve their faith and to form, to a certain extent, closed groups.”
Praise be to God, that period came to an end around the middle of the twentieth century. Following the 1958 Fourth General Assembly of Syndesmos in Thessaloniki,Greece, the newly arising Porefthentos movement brought forth an Orthodox revival in the area of external mission. If one sorts through the various documents written after that period, the growth of this revival becomes clear. The call to the Church to return to its task has appeared over and over again in conferences and articles during the last forty years.
In addition, the severe communist rule that repressed Orthodoxy in so many other countries of the world has now collapsed, and we can expect to see this same reawakening of missions in these countries as well.