From Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength
Why does Christian fellowship rarely reach across the U.S. political divides?
Anyone more interested in non-U.S. politics might try,
Why are Christians in different nations so distrustful of each other?
My answer is below the fold. On the second part, while I’m in the US, the parish I’ve recently joined is a little unusual. It is an OCA Orthodox parish founded somewhat recently. Many of the parish have immigrated recently enough that their nationalistic feelings are not yet gone and about a third of the parish are of slavic descent, a third Greek, and the other third some American protestants and others Coptic (Egyptian). Between those of Russian national origins and those of slavic non-Russian origins are not happy about their recent history (Russia obviously as part of the Soviet Marxist regime did not treat well with those of the states it subsumed, e.g., the Ukraine and Poland).
However, I think the opposite of how I read the question is at work here. That is, church, fellowship, liturgy, and communion work to reverse and heal the distrust and memories of evils done.
As for Christian fellowship and the denominational divisions, one of the major divsions in the political divide is effected by differences in their stance on abortion and Roe v Wade. Some denominations in the US are unequivical concerning their stance on abortion. Others denonimations make a softer stand. This effects migration of those pro-life conservatives to the denominations which make a strong pro-life stance. And the contrary happens to those with the other stance. However, I think the same effect as noted above holds in those liberals and conservatives within a single church. Fellowship, communion, and litugry heal their differences.
For ecumenism that communion and fellowship has to be extended beyond the individual single parish boundaries.
I’ve visited the nearest Eastern Orthodox church to me a good number of times. It seemed very idyllic, the Greeks and the Arabs and the Romanians and the Russians all getting along, various parts in the liturgy being done in various languages to make sure everyone felt welcome.
Then a couple of years ago they had a staff change, suddenly had a different priest. The Greeks said it was because of an investigation into wrongdoing by the priest. The Arabs said the investigation had concluded many, many years previous and that it was really because the fellow was Syrian and the Greek majority wanted a Greek in charge.
I was not in a position to know who was factually correct, but I know that either way you slice it, even within one communion and one fellowship and one parish, it was a struggle to put Christ first and to truly see brothers in other nations. We’re all sinners.
Btw kind of weird to hear about the Copts worshiping with the Orthodox where you are. Around here the Copts have their own churches.
Take care & God bless
WF
Anne,
Oh, I’m not saying it’s always without difficulty. We’re new the the parish, but Father said that the diversity poses unique challenges.
There is a Coptic church nearby, and I think many shift back and forth between them. One of our Deacon’s is Coptic and splits time between our parish and the Coptic church. We were chatting in coffee hour after church a week or so ago, and he showed us some neo-coptic iconography. It was very good work.