The Saint Euphrosynos Cafe

Actually, Greeks and Russian Orthodox are very surprised when an inquirer comes into their church literally off the streets.

However, the True Orthodox, in my opinion, seem to be a little more kind and understanding. Well, that has been my experience as my husband and I look very Greek, so we have been accepted in no matter what church we have visited.

My Greek-in-laws have the impression that the Greek Orthodox Church is only intended for Greeks. They have apparently forgotten the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, the Hebrews, etc. Yes, Saint Paul did a tremendous outreach to the Greeks as shown in his Epistles to the Corinthians, etc.

Many Russian Orthodox will encourage visitors to attend other churches, thinking that the Russian Orthodox Church is only intended for those who speak Russian, but do they forget that the Slavic language alphabet was given to them by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who were Greek Orthodox? Church Slavonic is not fully understood by those who speak the modern dialect of Russian, as the Soviets disapproved of Church Slavonic and forced Russian on all Slavic countries that they had conquered.

Several priests have told me that those in True Orthodox Parishes where there are a lot of converts tend to shower more love on inquirers. Those parishes that have been insulated from outsiders generally do not have any outreach to the non-Orthodox except for the relatively few outsiders who have fallen in love, and then have converted to Orthodoxy in order to marry one of their parishioners, Then they become part of the family and are no longer outsiders. However, if the priest is a convert, then he may try by his sermons to help the parish overcome any lack of a missionary zeal. He may even try an outreach, but without the support of the parish council, any outreach is likely to fail as it takes financial support from parishioners,, especially the parish council.

Anyway, the best True Orthodox parishes are those with lots of converts because there you will find families who are more accepting of those who are seeking to convert from Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. In those parishes, you most likely will find inter-racial families: Hispanics, Lebanese, Japanese, Chinese, Blacks, Filipinos, Native Americans, etc.

Another update: I expanded my search and have emailed 47 churches by now, these 4 of which are True Orthodox:

http://www.rocor-trenton.com/index_EN.htm
http://holyskete.com/en/
http://orthodoxmetropolia.org/
http://www.roacusa.org/

Of these 47, I got one good response from orthodoxmetropolia.org, specifically:

http://abbeyoftheholyname.org/

I will visit on July 30.

fschmidt wrote:

Another update: I expanded my search and have emailed 47 churches by now, these 4 of which are True Orthodox:

http://www.rocor-trenton.com/index_EN.htm
http://holyskete.com/en/
http://orthodoxmetropolia.org/
http://www.roacusa.org/

Of these 47, I got one good response from orthodoxmetropolia.org, specifically:

http://abbeyoftheholyname.org/

I will visit on July 30.

The monastery at holyskete.com is under Met. Hilarion of the ROCOR-MP.

Maria wrote:

The monastery at holyskete.com is under Met. Hilarion of the ROCOR-MP.

http://holyskete.com/en/directions/
http://www.roca-sobor.org/eng/dioceses

Search for "333 Weymouth Road" in both. These are the same, right? The second link is from:

http://www.euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=10260

So is this True Orthodox?

fschmidt wrote:

Maria wrote:

The monastery at holyskete.com is under Met. Hilarion of the ROCOR-MP.

http://holyskete.com/en/directions/
http://www.roca-sobor.org/eng/dioceses

Search for "333 Weymouth Road" in both. These are the same, right? The second link is from:

http://www.euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=10260

So is this True Orthodox?

Unfortunately, this little church and monastery is no longer under Vladimir but has changed over to the ROCOR-MP of which Metropolitan Hilarion is the first hierarch.

Thus, with the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, in 2015 the parish of the Protection of the Mother of God was transformed into the Hermitage of the Protection of the Mother of God with the establishment there of a monastic brotherhood dedicated to St. Varlaam, Abbot of Hutin, the Wonderworker of Novgorod. Hieromonk Tikhon (Gayfudinov) was appointed superior of the newly-established hermitage.

reference: http://holyskete.com/en/

Here is a picture of Met. Hilarion serving at this monastery, which is a very valuable piece of real estate.

Yes, I was meaning to write but got delayed -- that this is to me sinisterly now taken over by Rocor MP.

I recalled this place immediately from the WSJ article from around the time of the RocorMP union with the MP. I could not find the original WSJ article but only a copy on the Portal-Credo site. I remember even reading the dateline : Buena, NJ :

The story focuses on a reposed Russian emigre Priest's Matushka and her daughter's efforts to VALIANTLY defend this property from the onslaught of then-Bishop of Manhattan Gabriel who was about to grab it for Rocor-MP due to the powerlessness of the small group of parishioners.
This latter group lacked the leadership of a Priest and some parishioners drifted away, as they were not motivated enough to fight.

The case did go to court and it seems to me that the property was awarded to the Priest's matushka and that contingent. At some point, the parish must have chosen to go under Archbishop Vladimir of ROCiE.

Then silence for nearly 10 years until I noticed a mention of this property once or twice very recently. I raised a sharp eyebrow reading the location as Buena NJ.

Sure enough, there is a new name for the place, as if it had arisen out of nowhere.

I didn't much care for the photos I saw of the current clergyman and gatherings. Something feels wrong in those pictures. In the one above, Met Hilarion looks smug - even devilish.
Surely, something underhanded was done to usurp this place.
I didn't realize the real estate was so valuable. That explains it. I wonder what underhanded methods were employed, what intimidation, etc. to take it over ?

I will post the article in the next day or two so all can understand the pathos of that situation.

The other Church which replied to fschmidt, the Joy of All Who Sorrow Church in Philadelphia, harbors an even grimmer story about the union. I will relate that shortly. Of course, there is so much that outsiders don't know which transpired behind the scenes in these fierce disputes - pitched battles, even - for control of parish property.