"In Christ, there is no Jew or Greek": Nationalism and Orthodox Christianity

Andrei Rublev - St. Paul.

In recent years, there has been a great deal of discussion about nationalism and Orthodox Christianity in America. If you look in the Yellow Pages or enter the word “Orthodox Church” and the name of your city, you will probably find a list of parishes. If you look closely enough, you will find that more than one of them will have some kind of ethnic group attached next to it (Russian, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian). This can be confusing to many Americans since the Greeks, the Russians, and the Bulgarians belong to the same Orthodox denomination, hold the same beliefs, and have a similar praxis of the Faith.

The main reason why countries of origin are thrown in next to the names of church has to do with church history in the United States. A little more than one hundred years ago, numerous immigrants were coming to this country from throughout Southeastern Europe and the Russian Empire. These groups of immigrants came together along national lines and built their parishes as a way to keep their communities together and preserve their ethnic identity. In the fictional city of Anytown that I like to use the Russians built St. George’s, the Serbs had St. Sava’s, and the Bulgarians built St. Cyril and Methodius.

For many reasons, the immigrant parish was an important place. It was where the children were taught about the faith, charitable committees were formed, languages schools were created, and so on. The parish almost exclusively served the local community in whatever ways it was needed. Very few people from outside ever joined and it was not until fairly recently that Americans have started converting to the Orthodox faith en masse.

Today, many of these parishes founded by immigrants still exist. As the parishioners have gotten older and depending on the jurisdiction, some of these parishes have become more Americanized. There might be English at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. The priest might not be Bulgarian or Russian, but an American convert. Perhaps, most of the congregation wouldn’t even speak the old language or very few would if there haven’t been any immigrants from the old country in recent years.

Of course, there are places where the immigrant mindset is still alive and well. A good friend of mine has written a screenplay where a new choir director is register in the parish. He looks down at the form and says to the parish priest, “Native village?” The priest waves him off.  While this exchange may sound like a joke, it most certainly isn’t. How many people do you know that have shown up for services and been asked by some well-meaning older woman whether they were Russian, Serbian, or Greek? After all, aren’t those the people that go to this parish?

Paperwork aside, there is a nationalism that can infect parish life. In some Russian parishes, they like to celebrate “Victory Day” (V-E Day to Americans) with songs, dances, and films that come from the Soviet Union. However, Americans don’t celebrate “Victory Day.” The day on which Americans commemorate their war dead is Memorial Day.

Of course, the Russians also bring out their monarchism into a democracy. Indeed, it would seem that becoming an Orthodox Christian necessitates having an icon of Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II in your icon corner, a Russian tricolor or Imperial flag on your wall, and a recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony playing on the iPod.

None of this, however, is what Orthodox Christianity is about. At its core, Orthodox Christianity is about our inward transformation into icons of Christ. It is a deeply relational faith and one that challenges us to struggle constantly against the old man in order to put on the new. This struggles has very little to do with Victory Day celebrations, monarchism, or having to learn a new language. Indeed, these things are outer trappings and white washing.

St. Paul writes that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, circumcised or uncircumcised.” The same applies to the Church. There is no Bulgarian, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, or Arab. We are all brothers and sisters to each other regardless of national origin and we are supposed to be transformed together. Putting our national differences at the forefront of our is not what it is about. Not at all.