Catholicity and “House Blend”

By Al Fragola

I read Father Jon Braun’s article “House Blend” with great interest. Fr Jon has made a most valuable point, but it is nothing new to Orthodox Christianity. Indeed, Orthodox Christians have professed a belief in what he wrote for nearly 1700 years – every time we say “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Our Church is catholic, and has been since the time of the apostles.

Catholicity, as applied to the church, means the quality of being universal, complete, and all-embracing. In Matt 28:19, Christ told the disciples to “teach all nations”, not just specific ones. In Col 3:11, Paul writes, “Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.” Catholicity breaks down the barriers between worldly divisions without extinguishing human differences. In the writings of the Church Fathers, we can find them contrasting the whole church, as catholic, with the local or particular churches, which participate in the catholicity of the whole. In other words, the Church is universal (non-ethnic), while selected peoples may be ethnic. There is no conflict here unless we choose to create one.

Due to my military career, I have had the opportunity to live in many places, and thereby have been in a variety of parishes. Most of these parishes sprung from ethnic roots, but not all. My wife and I have also spent a considerable amount of time in “Orthodox” Europe, and studied at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge. It was our experiences in Europe and the Middle East that led us to fully understand the catholicity of the Orthodox Church as it applies to “ethnicity”.

Throughout the Orthodox Churches, our faith is one, we are all exhorted to lead a Christian life and our worship is basically the same. The ethnic customs of the people, however, vary from country to country. Orthodox Christianity transforms and embraces ethnic cultures, but it does not impose a monolithic ethnicity. Thus, in Greece, the Greeks do what is natural for them – that is, they eat, dress and behave as Greeks. Similarly, the Russians, Lebanese, Bulgarians, Syrians, Romanians and others do what is natural for their cultures. When Russia was converted to Orthodox Christianity in 989, they were not expected to become ethnic Greeks, but Orthodox Christian Russians. And that is what they became. In the words of the old Dinah Shore song, they were “Doin’ what comes naturally”.

At Cambridge, we had students and lecturers from a great variety of countries. We compared the various customs involved in Church life in our home lands and marveled and celebrated the wealth of differences. We all came to see that Orthodox Christian customs are a magnificent rainbow of different practices, based on the natural expression of our various ethnic backgrounds. Yet, we all shared the same faith, believed the same Christian truths and strove to lead Christian lives. What a perfect example of the catholicity of our Church! There was no one “correct meal” to serve at Pascha, but a wonderful variety of practices. No “right” or “wrong”, but a vast assortment of “customary”. Yet, my wife and I really had few American customs to describe to our classmates. Sadly, too many parishes in the U.S. discourage departures from the customs brought over from the “traditional” ethnic Orthodox lands, even though they may have nothing to do with our faith, life and worship. Thus, an American Orthodox expression has been slow to emerge. Perhaps this is due to America’s culture being so heterogeneous, the result of the merging and blending of so many immigrant cultures. Yet, there are many foods, celebrations and cultural expressions that are uniquely American, and even more “foreign” expressions that have been wholeheartedly adopted as part of American life. From a culinary standpoint, barbecued ribs are an example of the former, and pizza of the latter. There is great enthusiasm in “ethnic” parishes to celebrate the Independence Day of ancestral countries, yet reluctance, at best, to celebrate July 4th in the same manner. Most of these American cultural expressions are not in contradiction to Orthodox Christianity, yet many think it inappropriate to observe them within the framework of Church life.

As we witness our faith to America, we must bear in mind that our Church is catholic. We must allow “customary” or “normal” American ethnic practices to be part of parish life. My friend, John Sweeney, is not Greek, Russian or Arab. He is an Anglo-Saxon American. He can easily become Orthodox in his faith, life and worship, but he can only fake being an ethnic Orthodox of the “traditional” type. If we expect John Sweeney to be a “faux” Russian, Greek or Arab, then we are promoting falsehood in the life of the Church. I have seen parishes in America that expect their members to eat, dress and live like 19th Century Eastern European peasants, because they think that such behavior makes them Orthodox. What is astonishing is that none of the members of these parishes are of Eastern European descent! They are simply mimicking what they have been taught to think is “correct” Orthodox behavior - behavior that has absolutely nothing to do with the Orthodox Christian faith, life and worship. When these parishes find that they do not attract or retain inquirers, they are surprised. They do not realize that people are willing to “convert” to Orthodox Christianity, but they are a bit befuddled that part of being an Orthodox Christian is playacting something that by ancestry one can never be. Surely, it must be confusing to be told that acting out a falsehood is part of being Christian!

It is imperative that we understand that the Church is not “ethnic”, only its people are. All of us receive the heritage of our ancestors, but when we speak in terms of our Church, Her “native land” is the Kingdom of Heaven, not some earthly geopolitical realm. It is in and through the catholicity of the Church that our earthly, ethnic customs are transformed and become part of the life of the people in a parish as they live their Christian lives “naturally”.

Catholicity means that we, as Orthodox Christians, must accept and encourage a variety of natural ethnic expressions with joy and love, to include American customs. There is a story about a parishioner of British ancestry who brought a baron of beef to the parish Paschal banquet. He was berated by several “cradle ethnic Orthodox” for bringing the “wrong food”! The parishioner said, “This is what I would serve to my honored guests at a wedding feast for my daughter, not kielbasa and beet salad! Does not the Paschal banquet also deserve what one would serve at a wedding banquet?” He was simply doing what came naturally to him. In contrast, at a parish composed almost exclusively of recent converts, I saw one young parishioner who had a sausage and pepperoni pizza in his Paschal basket. Everyone thought that it was a wonderful choice for him. Not only had he done without this, his favorite food, for many weeks, but, since it contained meat, cheese and olive oil, it was a perfect dish for ending the fast. What a truly natural expression.

How many times each year do we say the Nicene Creed? How frequently do we profess, “I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Our Church is one true Church. All Orthodox Christians are bound together in the true faith, regardless of location, language, jurisdiction or nationality. Our Church is holy. It is full of the grace of God, for Christ is in our midst. Our Church is apostolic. It is the Church founded by the Apostles, and is an uninterrupted continuation of that community of believers from apostolic times. And our Church is catholic. It is universal, complete, and all-embracing. While we regularly hear ourselves talk about the Church’s oneness, holiness and apostolic origins, how often do we really address the Church’s catholicity? Were we to truly fulfill our professed belief in this catholicity, Fr. Jon’s article and this one would never have needed to be written! After all, the Church Fathers expressed it so clearly in the fourth century.

It is imperative that all Orthodox Christians in this country put this stated belief of catholicity into practice and encourage a truly American Church to evolve - an American Church that embraces the variety of cultures on our soil, rather than approving only certain ones. Thanks to the leadership of Metropolitan Philip, our Archdiocese is blazing the way in this regard. Many of our parishes are, as the management gurus say, “on the cutting edge” of American Orthodoxy. A vibrant and truly American Church is coming into being where parishes naturally celebrate the real cultural feelings of the members of the community, be it Arabic, Greek, Slavic, “American” or combinations of these. There is no conflict here. In the catholicity of our Archdiocese, “right versus wrong” has been replaced by “customary”, and much that is now “customary” in many parishes springs from the customs of this continent. And at the same time, we are all united in the same faith, Christian ideals and basic Orthodox worship. Truly we are one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Thanks be to God!

Al Fragola is a member of St Andrew Antiochian Parish in Arlington, WA.  He was received into the Russian Orthodox Church at St Vladimir Seminary, NY, in 1968.  His military career moved him from place to place, and thus, he was fortunate to worship in a number of parishes of the OCA, Greek Archdiocese and Antiochian Archdiocese, from newly planted missions to urban cathedrals.  He and his wife were members of the first class of students at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, England, completing their studies for the Certificate in Higher Education in 2002.

Al and his wife now live in retirement on Whidbey Island, WA.