Let us "reveal the secret"

The title of this posting may have caught your attention and generated your interest. Good! Let me explain.

Today I had a conversation with several homeschooling parents who are involved with the Cub Scout pack that Aidan has just become a part of (By the way, I was a Cub Scout as a kid and it is a wonderful thing for young boys to be involved in). During the course of our conversation, one Mom asked me what I did for a living. Once I told her that I was a pastor, she asked me at what church. When I said that we were Eastern Orthodox (sometimes this produces a puzzled response) she immediately knew about the Church because friends of hers were also Orthodox. She and another Mom were very positive about it and very interested in knowing more about Orthodoxy. That is not the purpose of this, though it is very encouraging to share with others about the Faith and the Church. A third Mom had never heard of the Orthodox Church and so I went through the usual litany of trying to describe to her what Orthodoxy is (Have you ever heard of the Greek or Russian Orthodox Church? etc...) She was still puzzled. Though she was positive in her reaction, it saddened me that for many American Christians (particularly of the Evangelical Protestant tradition as these ladies were) they have no idea about the Orthodox Church, and some, as in this case, have never heard of it.

What does this say about our witness on this continent? I don't think it says a whole lot, but reveals how 'hidden' we still are in this society. It used to be said that "Orthodoxy is the best kept secret in America". I haven't heard anybody say this lately, thank God, as I think more and more of us Orthodox Christians don't want that to be the case anymore. Let us all, on the other hand, 'reveal the secret' as God gives us opportunity to do so. The Orthodox Church must takes its rightful place among the other Christian traditions of this land so that it too may have a voice witnessing to the "Faith once delivered to the saints" that our country so badly needs to hear, and be transformed by. May we all continue to pray for the Church's emergence from obscurity in this great land of ours by doing our small part in witnessing to our ancient Faith and educating our fellow Americans about Orthodoxy's presence in this country.

To God be the glory,
Fr Stephen