Am I Greek?

I was born into the Protestant Episcopal Church. I was an acolyte and was naive to the history of the Christian Church. Then in the 1970's when I was a teenager, the church I knew changed drastically. The leadership decided to change the Book of Common Prayer, they changed in a way that even made me uncomfortable. So my parents began an Anglican parish with other families. Then only after a short time again the leaders within that small group were changing aspects of how we worshiped and did things. I was dismayed and confused with these changes and being more knowledgeable and aware of "my religion" did not like what was suppose to be the "word" of God, the "Truth" being manipulated and tweaked in the year of 1979 or 1980. I determined that the church should be like a rock (where have you heard this?). It does not change, the doctrine does not change. God does not change His message. He is as the Bible and Tradition says he is and maybe "man" changes, but the house of God, the way of God, does not. I wanted a Rock. I wanted the same "Truth" that the early Apostles spoke of. Not some flavor of the month or fad or trend or prevalent idea of some "Johnny come lately" religious speaker. I wanted the "Word" of God that was the closest to Christ teachings when he was on earth with us. Well, the Greek Orthodox Church in Montgomery, AL, had allowed, in the first year or so, our small Anglican church to worship in their Community Center and then in a small building owned by the AHEPA organization. I got to know some members of the Greek community and was impressed with their faith and learned the history of our Christian religion. I grew to admire them.

My parents were at wits end. They were greatly bothered and distressed about the little church that they had helped form, for the people were changing this and that. I had long began to become unhappy with what was going on. So when I was asked what I thought, I suggested we join the Greek Orthodox Church. Father James Cleondis, guided us and taught us. I went to Sunday school class, which was something that I was not too happy about as it meant getting up early one of the few days I thought I should sleep late. I was rebelling against discipline as much as possible. I am sure my being half asleep and stupidly frowning did not help me make too many friends, but my classmates were really great and wonderful people and my Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Germanos, is one of the most wonderful women I know. I learned a lot in those formative years, but not as much as I have learned in the years since.

Well, since I have attended services at many Greek Orthodox Churches around the country, I am invariability asked the question and 99% of the time by an older lady, if I am Greek. I found that if I answered truthfully, that I was not Greek (thinking they meant either me or my family was from Greece) they were at least confused or disappointed at what I was doing in their church and usually it resulted in an attitude that I was an outsider or not Orthodox but rather a visitor or worse an imposter. It is a question that I found disturbing as I had embraced the Orthodox Christian faith and wanted to learn more about it and celebrate my worship of God with it's guidance. It's not been easy being an "Anglo" or a "nongreek" Orthodox Christian and some in my family have mentioned I would be more likely to find my soulmate (increase my chances of finding a wife) with another Christian church (Baptist, Methodist or even Catholic) and that may be true. But it's hard for me to deny or turn away from that which I have been drawn to. I understand the foundations of the other Christian faiths and they are all splitoffs from the original Orthodox Church. Most are splits due to their own conforming and manipulation of the Christian faith for their own reasons. I fear that most of these people will when Islam begins to really push itself into the West, convert to it as if it's just another religion that's just another interpretation of the "word" of God. I have learned and gained an immense appreciation of the struggle of the Greeks and other Orthodox churches when living under the rule of either the Muslim Ottoman Turks or Communists. I pray we all can have the strength that they had when surviving under those oppressive rulers. Am I an ethnic Greek? No, but I am an Orthodox Christian and pray that my faith and strength will be strong like the Greeks and Eastern Orthodox ancestors that have kept the church alive in spite of the horrors and tragedies that they lived through.