Can there be a joint Melkite-Orthodox parish?

[joasia]

Orthodox6,

It is good to hear positive experiences with the Greeks. Mine have all been very negative and I stay away from any Greek man who attempts to approach me. I fear the family I would get involved with. I will not take the chance. I have been burnt once and will never get that close again.

I have seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and I laughed so hard that I thought I ruptured my stomach. Exactly the type of Greeks I came in contact with. And the funniest thing is that my parents wanted to go see the movie. Imagine...me becoming Orthodox years back, through my Greek boyfriend, that they hated and they wanted to see this movie with me. It's the only time that they have seen the inside of an Orthodox church. I cringed at the baptism of the boyfriend. I hope they didn't think that it was done that way in every church, but we never talked about it.

I prefer the Russians because they are closer to my slavic upbringing. Everybody has their place of comfort.

Anyways, I'm rambling on. Just wanted to give my two cents. Although, in Canadian currency, it's probably just half a cent. hehe

[Maria]

Maria,

What did you mean by the term "inter-racial"? Marriages between African-Americans and caucasians? or, between Greeks and non-Greeks (whether of striped, green, or whatever hue)? (I ask because I have heard of that latter absurd meaning.)

At any rate, I am an English/French woman married to a first-generation Greek man. Never encountered the slightest whiff of animosity from anyone, even with twenty-one years of marriage now under our belts. My husband's relatives are as dear to me as are my own.

Frankly, the stupidest (yes, I use the word deliberately) discrimination I have heard of was told me by our eldest child's godfather, who is second-generation Greek, and fully bi-lingual. When he attended the GOA seminary, the Greek students enrolled from Greece, cold-shouldered him, insisting that he was not Greek!

Orthodox6

I guess I used it both ways. There is a Greek lady who married an African-American gentleman. They both are Orthodox (he was recently chrismated), but the Greeks were in an uproar over the wedding, so the couple now attends the OCA. There is also a Chinese lady with a Russian husband in that same OCA parish. And then a Filipino-Caucasian couple, and others too numerous to mention. Would you believe that the other priests refer these couples to that OCA parish?

So this OCA parish is very diversified while the other parishes are more ethnically "pure", except for the convert-Antiochian parishes (part of Father Peter Gilquist's EO group).

Sad, but true :ohvey:

[joasia]

It is truely sad to see such cultural prejudice. I am one of two converts in my church. The other is a lovely Italian woman. Our backgrounds are different but our beliefs are the same, and that is a unification beyond all boundaries. My god-daughter is Swedish. But, I feel like we are all of the same mind and the cultural differences just enhances my knowledge of different cuisine.