BOB ABERNETHY: As we mentioned earlier, a growing number of Americans are turning or returning to orthodox faiths for spiritual fulfillment. Our Cover Story this week looks at the attraction of Eastern Orthodoxy. Eastern Orthodox Christianity seems strange to Americans accustomed to simpler worship. But in recent years, thousands of Americans have become Orthodox converts.Unidentified Man #1: He is baptized in the name of the Father.
ABERNETHY: In Baltimore, Maryland, this former Methodist Church is now The Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church. All but a handful of its 100 members are converts.FREDERICA MATTHEWES-GREEN (Convert): I certainly did feel at first that Orthodoxy was too hard. It was too weird, too foreign, too old, too difficult, too challenging.
ABERNETHY: Frederica Matthewes-Green converted to Orthodoxy with her husband, a former Episcopal priest, now a priest here, Father Gregory. Frederica has written a popular book, FACING EAST, about their experience.
Mrs. MATTHEWES-GREEN: I remember saying, you know, there he was thinking glorious thoughts about truth; there I was thinking about my feet, and how much they hurt because we were standing up all the time.ABERNETHY: Orthodoxy is strenuous. Worshippers stand in church for up to three hours, except when they prostrate themselves. Orthodox try to pray as much as possible, and they observe partial or major fasts 40 percent of the year.
Father GREGORY MATTHEWES-GREEN (Orthodox Priest): The aesthetic struggle means taking seriously the Christian life. For some of us, for the very first time, we play at church a lot. I think I did for years. Orthodoxy won't let you do that.ABERNETHY: Some Orthodoxes say their church's toughness is one of its assets. Frederica agrees that was an attraction for her husband.
ABERNETHY: Eastern Orthodoxy goes back to the first century to Jesus' disciples, when there was just one Christian church. In 1054, however, the Church split into Catholicism, based in Rome, and Eastern Orthodoxy, with headquarters in Constantinople, now Istanbul. Ever since, the Orthodox have claimed that theirs is the one true church with an unchanged theology.
ABERNETHY: The sacraments, the fasting, the icons, the close community. Orthodox say all parts of their religion exist to help them achieve union with God in this life. One famous Orthodox discipline is to try to say the Jesus prayer consciously and unconsciously all the time.
Father GREGORY: If a person wants to be Orthodox, perhaps he has to make some life career choices and make some changes, but the faith comes first. It is the means given to human beings to achieve union with God, and nothing short of that.
