I am deeply struggling with an ongoing issue I have had for several years. The Orthodox parishes in my area tend to be very beautiful in their services and the like; as Orthodox Christians we know this is pinnacle of beauty and what is so wondrous about our Church. Our Faith is rich, no doubt. What I have found, to be very vulnerable with you all, particularly our priests, is there is little to no real substance in community life. Quite frankly, I find that no one really cares about the young single folks (the extreme few that attend) who love coming to Church very frequently, love chanting, love helping out or just being there. We are told to pray, to fast, to read Scripture daily, to live a holy life but without any real guidance on this issue. The priests I have known, some of which I have been very close to, always just shrugged their shoulders when it came to questions like, how does a single Christian struggle with being single, staying away from temptations, find a good spouse to help bring each other closer to Christ, find other Christians who they can be close to in the Church besides the yia-yias and usual older married people. We are to somehow live a life as a Christian on our own, trying to find the answers in elders or spiritual books; since we dont want to be lonely and by ourselves, we become despondent and want to also live a normal life, so we go out in the world looking looking for answers. We have hopes that someday the right person will appear in the parish or maybe convert someone we meet elsewhere. My dearest friend is a minister in a Protestant church and he has been more of a spiritual father to me then any priest I ever met and talked at length abut issues that most Orthodox priests (forgive me, fathers) wont go near. Ive been betrayed by many people in the parishw world here, unfortunately. I no longer have a spiritual father. We both agreed that I need to find a parish or some way to be in a community that really reaches out and helps people like me to come closer to salvation. Perhaps its reflective of the fast New York life. But I cannot do this any longer. If it continues, eventually I will end up becoming angry with God and may even find it difficult to keep pushing the plow on my own coming to Church wondering why I feel like Im back in the cold with no warm jacket draped over me. I ask you, please help. Please dear priests, realize that Im not the only one who feels this way. Im hoping to engage in a real talk about this issue. My sincerest apologies if I have written too much. Love, Julian Kollias
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 02:34:10 +0000
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