Where Does Orthodoxy Live?

Where Does Orthodoxy Live? By Amy Stephan (May ’02)

For the past three months, I have been living in London. I am in a study-abroad program with my college, the Fashion Institute of Technology. Originally, I intended to tell you about the culture shock you may experience when living in another society. I thought it might be interesting to give you the “scoop” on different countries and share with you how people live there. Each culture has a different way of looking at life. Some find work as the focus of their day; they measure their success by how much work is completed. Others focus their life on God and the church. These major differences and little things, like charging for ketchup in McDonalds, is what culture shock is all about. This is what makes living in a different country special. But I decided not to write about that.

I thought then that you might like to know where you can find Orthodox churches in other countries. When I arrived in London, it was very easy for me to find an Antiochian Orthodox church. That’s because there are ten in Britain. I was also surprised to see Orthodox churches in Australia, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Africa, Germany, and New Zealand. I found churches in all of these by simply using Google’s search engine! My only job now is to find one that does the service in English! I do admit though, that hearing ‘O Pure Virgin’ in Arabic for the first time in a new country was very heartwarming. But I thought that would bore you.

Finally, I decided to write about Orthodoxy, and where it lives inside of you. Studying abroad has been the biggest challenge to my faith. I never realized what a privilege it was to hop into my parents’ car and be driven to church. Attending church, when I was back at home, was much easier to do — not only for the convenience of the ride, but because there was no outside pressure.

Just as people of other cultures live their lives in different ways, my flat-mates do the same thing! There are five people who live in my house back at home, and it is a unanimous decision to go to church every Sunday. However, living on your own is much different. There is no one to push the issue when you don’t feel like going. I can honestly say that if I was not brought up to attend church every Sunday, and if I did not come to love it so much, I would avoid going while I was away from home.

It is important to decide where you stand. Situations like this will be much easier if you are prepared. Everyone should know and do what is important to them. If you allow Orthodoxy to live inside of you, then there is no way you can be led down the wrong path. If you just read through all of the other articles in this publication, you’ll find that truth lives here because Orthodoxy does.

Well, I guess I ended up writing about all three!