[Konidurase]

The restrictive list of 'traditionalist' groups on the page with this map is most un-traditional according to an Orthodox understanding.

For example in this small city of Winnipeg in Canada we have a fair representation of almost all of the Orthodox jurisdictions in North America. All have the full Orthodox sacraments & all have pious people struggling to lead a genuine life in Christ which involves taking up their cross. Many also openly refer to the problems of the past and present and together try to struggle with these.

I find this word 'traditionalist' to be in fact most un-traditional as if by being apart from the Church one can be above the Church. Most audacious and very modernist indeed is this understanding of Orthodoxy. Our elders who struggled and suffered for the Faith would never have imagined abandoning the struggle within the Church for inventing new 'churches'.

There are many thousands of saints we could hold up as models for the correct Orthodox path of struggle in relation to the human sin & weakness around us- but who better than St Nikodemos of the Holy Mt who struggled his entire life as a confessor to restore and defend a traditional understanding of Church life. Amidst even persecution he did not recommend inventing a 'church of the pure' by one's own efforts.

If we are to faithfully follow the path Christ has charted for us then we must have firmly planted in heart & mind that sin is healed from within the Church- not by setting oneself apart from and above it.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[beriarele]

I would first like to thank Fr. Raphael for his warning. Perhaps this project is overly ambitious in it's goals; both spiritually and physically. The spiritual part I leave to Fr. Raphael. My comment is on the physical.

You have no churches from the following jurisdictions: Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Coptic, Syrian. Your list of Greek churches is VERY short to say the least. I live in Chicago, IL, USA and know of at least 10 Greek churches off the top of my head just for the city of Chicago!!!

If you need lists of churches for any of these jurisdictions, please feel free to contact me; I manage the the lists for Serbian churches in our archdioscese and can point you in the right direction for formal addresses and contacts at other jurisdictions.

S Bogom,
~Bogdan

[Michmant]

Dear all,

If one is curious to know more about why the map indicates those churches it does, and not those it does not, one might wish to read the 'About' statement at the Eusophrynos Cafe, where the map is hosted.

The about statement is found here.

INXC, Matthew

[HagsPusia]

Dear Father Raphael and all,
I am currently researching my paternal grandmothers' family in northern New Brunswick (Tracadie). I am told she said her rosary in French and was Catholic. The odd thing is that her mother's name was Appoline and her father's name may have been Telesphore. Among His family of 12 siblings there was one named Paschal, 2 Marie's, 2 Marquerite's, an Ambroise, and an Angele. Does anyone have any ideas of how I might find out if there were Greek immigrants to that area in the early to mid-1800's who intermarried with the French? I am an Orthodox convert of 2 years and my grandmother was the only family member who I ever saw with a cross. Her husband forbade her to speak French or go to the Catholic church when they married in New York and of course they have long since passed and I have no one to ask. Sorry, didn't mean to ramble! Do you have any ideas about how I can find out more about this?
Thanks for listening!
Sunny

[avdddcxnelkaxz]

Dear in Christ,

Today, on the Feast of the Entry of the Lord in to Jerusalem, we completed a project that maps all of the traditionalist Orthodox Churches in North and South America. Although the project hopes to cover the whole world, we wanted to take it live today so that it can help those living or travelling in the Americas of the Western hemisphere.

If you are interested in finding a church near you or near where you may be travelling soon you can find this interactive map and directory at http://EuphrosynosCafe.com/map/

This might be a better at least for USA. I don't know if it works for Canada.

[tyclislavaify]

This might be a better at least for USA. I don't know if it works for Canada.

Yes, I've rooted around on that site and it works for Canada - not perfectly, but it works.

Fr Raphael's words of wisdom should continue to go heeded by all. The phrase "Traditional Orthodox" is a sort of code word for the rather un-Orthodox idea of spiritual superiority due to adherence to a particular calendar, political idea, or some other sort of "Shibboleth". It's usually, the calendar (at least as of late - some times it's some sort of stance on ecumenism and in centuries past it has been the number of fingers one uses to make the sign of the cross). Those who use the term generally look down on other Orthodox, and in some cases don't consider them Orthodox, or even Christian. Some of the more isolated Russian Old Ritualists have similar views, as do some of the Exclusive Brethren in the Protestant millieu - just to put it in context.

I'm pretty sure Fr Seraphim Rose warned about the "super-Orthodox" and the "Orthodoxier-than-thou". Well, these are they.

Ultimately, as you can see, this isn't even a spiritual or theological issue, as this phenomenon manifests in many religions and denominations. It's often called Fundamentalism, in Protestant Christianity and Islam. Oddly enough, it's called Ultra-Orthodox in Judaism (although I've been led to believe that they don't like that terminology anymore - does anyone know what the preferred term is?). It's a sociological and psychological withdrawal from ideas that challenge the person's status quo, and tends to attract those who have trouble thinking abstractly or understanding a point of view other than their own.

Not always present, but often an indicator, is the inability to understand allegory. Basically, the type of people who perceive all fiction to be "a lie" because it's not true. Not all Fundamentalists think that, mind you, but almost everyone who has this inability is a Fundamentalist, of one sort or another.

This assessment is based on my own personal experience, and not on any statistical or psychological studies that one can pull out. But, of the books I've read on the phenomenon of Fundamentalism, the above seems to concur with the scholarly experts.