Dear People,
I
have been assigned to the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church for the month of
June of this year. In preparing for a
sermon for Sunday, June 7, 2015, I found some very interesting material on the
state of the Christian Church in America today.
The Pew Research Center conducted this study which also included the
Orthodox Christian Churches in America.
I felt that this information should be shared with the faithful in the
Orthodox Church because of its critical nature.
In preparing this presentation for Holy Trinity, I also came upon some
very interesting statistics from a web site in Greece, Pentapostagma on Greek
demographics during the last seven years.
These statistics from Greece listed the births and deaths in Greece from
2008 through 2015. In reading these
statistics it suddenly dawned on me that Greece is literally committing
spiritual suicide. Not only is Greece in
the midst of a financial disaster that threatens its very existence, it is also
in the midst of committing spiritual suicide.
I say this because of an increasingly demographic implosion that is
taking place with more deaths than births.
Add to this the influx of illegal immigrants flooding into Greece from
Muslim countries and we have a dangerous demographic situation that has not
happened since Greece’s enslavement to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
We
must be as concerned about the future of Orthodox Christianity in America as
our ancestors were when they were enslaved by the Muslims for four hundred
years. The status quo cannot
continue. We must wake up and meet the
enemy head on before it is too late.
+Fr. Constantine (Charles) Simones,
Waterford, USA, June 16, 2015
THE
DECLINE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA
The prestigious Pew Research Center
conducted a study on the future of religion in America, including Orthodox
Christianity. The results of this study
are devastating for the Orthodox Church in America. They show a religion in the advance stages of
crisis that should concern all of us deeply, especially the leaders of the
Orthodox Churches in America. Among the
findings we read that the percentage of the Orthodox Christian population in
the country is in steep decline. In
fact, “Orthodox Christians have one of the lowest rates of retention across
Christian and non-Christian denominations.”
Only 53% of adults who were raised as Orthodox Christians still identity
themselves as Orthodox Christians. Compare
that to Hindus (80%), Jews (75%), Mormons (65%) and Roman Catholics (59%).
Essentially, Pew discovered that
nearly half of all Orthodox Christians leave the Church once they become
adults. Moreover, according to other
sources, the Greek Orthodox paid membership nationwide has fallen dramatically
in the past five years. Some say this
fall is as much as 38%. These findings
are in total contradiction with the rosy picture painted by the leadership of
our Church in this country. This
misleading picture of our Church leadership constitutes the worst possible
service to our faith and community, because valuable time is wasted in not taking
action to reverse the trend.
Yet this is exactly what is needed:
we must wake up and face reality. Church
officials must understand that there is a lack of strong leadership in our
Church life today. This lack of
leadership has been exacerbated by the scandals that have come to light over
the past twenty years which have a negative impact upon the youth of our
parishes. There is a lack of paying
attention to the basics of our faith, specifically our spirituality. There is
an imbalance of power between the clergy and the laity at the local level, at
the Diocesan and the Archdiocesan levels.
There is a lack of transparency in the life of the Church. All of these issues are eating at the heart
of our Church and community.
The highly disturbing findings act
as a wakeup call for Holy Orthodoxy in the Western world. Let there be a dialogue between our clergy
and the laity as to what is needed. Let
us go back to the basics of our faith.
The Church has everything that it needs to constantly generate new life
in the Church with every passing generation.
We should believe in the words of Jesus Christ when He stated “that the
gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.” Jesus is telling us in these words that the
Church will endure until the end of time. Jesus says this to us because He
promised to infuse Church life and its Sacraments with the power of the Holy
Spirit. The invigorating power of the
Holy Spirit is that source of heavenly Grace that was promised to us by Jesus
Christ when He established our Holy Church.
Yes, there are times when the faithful will fall away from the faith and
there will be times when the Church will be vibrantly alive. Knowing this
reality of the faith experience, we, the faithful, are called to be always
vigilant and struggle to keep our faith in an age of materialism, egotism and
immorality. The world must humbly repent for its sinfulness. It must repent for violating the Commandments
of God. There is no other way out of the
mess the world is in. Living the life of
the Church and spirituality is not a game but a constant struggle to overcome
the demons that all human beings have within themselves. I do not know about you but my life without
Jesus Christ would have been impossible.
He is constantly at my side through all the trials and tribulations of
life. My fifty-five plus years in the
Orthodox priesthood has revealed to me that Jesus Christ is the answer to
life’s problems.
We read in Philippians 5:14: “Awake
you who sleep the sleep of sin. Rise up
from the deadness of sin and Christ will enlighten you.” We Orthodox Christians live this message in
the heavens by the lit candles that we hold in our hands the night we celebrate
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. These candles are like white lilies that
burst forth from the cold hearts of human beings that live apart from Jesus
Christ. This reality of our Christian
faith wakes us up, it promises us, and it reassures us and gives us hope for
eternal life. The light of the candles
of our faith show forth through the darkness of night opening up a road to us
that is made possible by our faith in Jesus Christ. There is no darkness in this universe that
does not tremble before the power, the majesty and the Light of the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are
no barriers that exist between people that cannot be torn down by the
earth-shattering events of the Resurrection.
There are no graves for those who follow Jesus Christ that are not
opened when the earth is spit asunder by the new life offered by Jesus. My dear brothers and sisters in the living
Christ, there is no reason why Christianity should be falling by the wayside in
America and the Western world when Jesus Himself came into our midst and
offered us eternal life.
At this point, I also shared with
the faithful of Holy Trinity in Norwich, CT statistics that come directly from
Greece showing us the number of births and deaths during the last eight
years. When I read these statistics I
was astounded to realize that Greece is committing spiritual suicide. In addition to the financial crisis that is
threatening to destroy this ancient land of our forefathers, Greece is in the
throes of committing spiritual suicide by not having enough children to replace
those who pass on to eternal life. The
reasons for this are many: wholesale abortion, financial difficulties, same-sex
marriage, homosexuality and a desire not to be burdened by the chore of having
children. Greece today has the highest
percentage of abortions in Europe, 500,000 (It could be higher today). Young couples of our society would prefer to
party and have fun during their spare time than have children. The burden of
children would put a big drag on this desire.
We have lost the Christian understanding of sacramental marriage. We are failing to be obedient to the commandment
of God to “multiply and subdue the earth.”
Read the following statistics that come from Greece and you will be astounded
at the demographic tragedy that is unfolding there.
2008
Births: 118,302 Deaths:
107,979
2009 Births: 117,933 Deaths:
108,316
2010 Births: 114,766 Deaths: 109,084
2011 Births: 106,777 Deaths:
110,729
2012 Births: 100,371 Deaths:
116,670
2013 Births: 94,134 Deaths:
111,794
2014
Births:
93,280 Deaths: 114,086
2015 Births:
93,919 Deaths: 3651 thru 4/6/15
Those Orthodox Christians amongst us
who suffer deeply for the salvation of the whole world, monastic’s and fervent
Orthodox Christians, through prayer and spiritual struggle (ascesis) humbly
entrust themselves to the love of God.
Their lives are a constant doxology, for they inwardly rejoice like
angels glorifying God day and night.
Those, however, who neglect the salvation of their souls and try to find
joy and rest in this vain life are continually tortured and are entangled in
the endless machinations of the world and live hell while in this life.
And finally I would bring your
attention to the Elder Ephraim, the Athonite monk who was directed by the Holy
Spirit to come to America over twenty five years ago and establish monastic
communities. He has established over
twenty Monasteries in the USA and Canada.
He knew that the Orthodox Church would be falling away from its spiritual
roots and abandon the traditional Orthodox Christian way of life. He was told to come to America and build φρούρια πίστεως
(bastions of spiritual life). His efforts have flourished across this great
country because he been obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. May we all remain faithful to our Orthodox
Christian value system as we work out our salvation in Jesus Christ. Amen.
ΔΟΞΑ ΤΩ ΘΕΩ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ
GLORY
TO GOD IN HIS HOLY SAINTS
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