Missions and difficult transitions

One of the most difficult transitions for a mission to a new area to make is the transition from being a church that looks like a transplant to being a church that culturally fits into the country into which it was planted. What do I mean? Well, you can see the struggle in Scripture and you can even see the struggle in Orthodox history. The issue has spilled reams of paper and gallons of ink, not only in missiological writings, but also in debates over every possible subject, from church “decoration,” to church music, to architecture, etc. There is no easy solution to the debate, but it is one that has to be argued anew every time that the Church crosses another frontier. Let me give you an easy example.

When I was a missionary, I had the opportunity to fly in a single-engine airplane to an indigenous community in a part of the Bolivian Amazon. They had been reached by a mission group and a good part of that tribe had become Christian. There was just one small detail that caused some debate. Like several of the Amazonian tribes, clothing was not an issue for them, mainly because they essentially wore g-strings. The missionaries decided not to try to clothe them. However, they admitted to me that this caused a certain problem in worship services since the idea of near-naked people in worship caused the missionaries some problems.

Lest you think that this is a problem only in missions to tribal groups, those of you who have traveled in parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East will know that American relaxed clothing can easily cause offense when someone enters a church there. Every year there is at least one story during travel season that mentions that some women trying to enter Saint Peter’s basilica have been “issued” a covering because their dress was not thought to be appropriate for a Roman Catholic cathedral. And, almost every Orthodox travel group to many of the majority-Orthodox countries has to remind American Orthodox women that neither is a head covering considered optional nor is leaving the shoulders bare if one is preparing to visit an Orthodox church there.

So, why do I bring this up? Because American Orthodoxy has been, and still is, in a process of transition from being transplanted ethnic churches to being an American Orthodox Church. The formation of an Episcopal Assembly is supposed to be the catalyst for a future in which there will be an American Orthodox Church rather than multiple jurisdictions. Whether it will be or not remains for future historians to decide.

But, the process of that transition will need to be one that is handled with humility, and much concern and love for each other. Actually, the transition really began decades ago in ways both formal and informal. The autonomy given to the OCA, and the “self-rule” given to the Antiochian jurisdiction are both formal examples of the transition. Yet, most people will not notice the informal transitions as strongly, and those are the ones that interest me as a former missiologist.

You see, the fact that American Orthodox women often need to be cautioned about dress when visiting an Orthodox country is already a sign that the dress code has changed somewhat to fit this country. There has already been some variation from the “home” country in how the Divine Liturgy is celebrated or in what clerical distinctives are worn. Things like Bible Bowls and summer camps sometimes owe as much to American Evangelicalism as they owe to Orthodoxy. Homiletical (preaching) styles also owe much to American rhetorical patterns. There are various other examples that I could give.

Needless to say, everytime there is change, there is some turmoil. You see, adaptation is not really a planned process on the informal side. It can only be a planned process on the formal side. A hierarch or a priest(s) can insist that a particular holy day is important, but if, for cultural reasons, the people do not consider it so, attendance will slowly drop. On the other side, a local secular holiday can be so important that it can force some adjustments even to the Church’s year. The most famous case is American Thanksgiving. The majority of hierarchs in America now give some economia to the Nativity Fast so that Orthodox believers may celebrate Thanksgiving. This type of adjustment has happened before in Church history. Can you see why these types of adjustment would cause turmoil?

As I commented earlier, there is NO easy answer to the process of adaptation to a culture. But, we do have some wonderful examples of successful adaptation in Orthodox history. Think of Saint Paul’s various letters to the Colossians, Galatians, Corinthians, etc. If you read them as missionary letters, which is what they were, you can see Saint Paul guiding the adaptation towards a successful end. Think of Saints Cyril and Methodius, as well as Saint Patrick of Ireland, Saint Columba, and the letter exchange between Saint Augustine of Canterbury and Saint Gregory the Dialoguist.

But, here is a thought experiment for you. Let’s assume that Orthodoxy were to be the first to reach one of the few remaining unreached people groups. And, let’s assume that it was a tribe like the one I visited. How would Orthodoxy adapt to such a nomadic lifestyle and the, uhm, “very different” clothing styles?

===MORE TO COME===