Post-Christian Era? The decline of Christianity in America.

Post-Christian Era?

The decline of Christianity in America

Some thirty-two years ago our monastic brotherhood arrived on Vashon Island, establishing ourselves in a rental house near the Village of Dockton. This little village had two churches, built by the original founders of the community. Dockton, in the 1880's, had the largest dry dock north of San Francisco, and was the site for the construction of tall ships. The ship builders were immigrant Croatians and Norwegians, working the docks, and raising their families in a village that could only be reached by boat.

The Norwegians built a Lutheran church, and the Croatians constructed a Catholic parish. The first location for our monastery was, in fact, an old farm house built at the turn of the century by a Norwegian ship builder. Nice place to live for a Scottish-Norwegian-American like myself! Little did we monks know at the time, but God had planned for our monastery to be permanently located on the hill overlooking the old farm house, Saint Patrick's Catholic church, and the old Lutheran church.

The Lutheran church was eventually to be converted into a house, and Saint Patrick's church was torn down, having been closed for about fifteen years. While driving by the pile of rubble, Frank, a Roman Catholic villager, came up to my car window and said, "You are all that's left, Father". Driving away I felt sad, for truly our monastery is now the only remaining religious institution on Maury Island (the smaller island connected to Vashon Island).

Where Have all the Churches Gone?

Driving around Seattle neighborhoods, one is struck by the number of former churches that are now used for purposes other than the worship of God. A few have become mental health clinics, or antique shops, while others are coffee houses, or private homes. Many have simply been torn down, replaced by apartment houses, or retail stores.

Zoning laws make it difficult to build new churches, and it is rare to find a church in a newly constructed suburban neighborhood. Mega-churches abound, drawing thousands of people from their neighborhoods, and into buildings that often look more like movie theaters, or entertainment centers. The impact this new trend has on neighborhoods is severe, for families are now forced to live in neighborhoods that are secular, devoid as they are of religious influence.

Mega-churches, because of the high costs required to maintain their "plants", teach a dumbed down form of Christianity, so the people, unchallenged by sermons on repentance and sin, keep coming back, filling the coffers, and paying the huge salaries of clergy who have sold out, and betrayed the Gospel of Christ.

America is in need of Orthodox Christianity more than ever, and we Orthodox Christians must find better ways to share our faith with fellow Americans. It is not enough to continue serving ethnic communities, without also reaching out with the Ancient Faith of our Fathers, and building a missionary zeal for America. The life of this country depends on it. Just as the Moscow Patriarchate has established missions to reconvert the Russian people back to Orthodoxy, so, too, must we American Orthodox reach out in missionary witness to our peoples.

The influence of Christianity is waning in this country. We are now living in a post-christian nation where Christian morality and virtue have given way to secularism and various forms of paganism. We Christians must see this pandemic as a catalyst for us to recommit our whole being, as never before, to Christ. We must give witness to the importance of living a life centered in the life of the Church. Our fellow citizens must see in us a people filled with hope and love. They must see in us a faith that transcends fear and despair, grounded, as Orthodox Christians, in a faith that has survived two thousand years of persecutions, wars, pandemics, and poverty, to always rise like a phoenix from whatever the world has seen to heap upon us.

With love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon