In the aftermath of the papal visit to Greece, and by way of the controversy being generated by the upcoming visit to Ukraine, there has been a flurry of western journalistic activity in which the Orthodox Church figures prominently.  What a number of these articles show is a lack of real familiarity with Orthodox faith, history and tradition.  Why is Orthodoxy seemingly on the losing end of a Western public relations battle it did not want to enter in the first place?

The Orthodox Church has had bad press in the eyes of western journalists before.  This says more about the journalists than Orthodoxy, however.

The elaborate ritual of the Church must seem like outrageous anachronism to many in the West.  Orthodoxy's Icons and beautiful domed Cathedrals appear as irrelevant museums that have little to say about people's contemporary needs.  Even the Iconostasis has been termed as a "covering up" of the Liturgy, trying to "hide Jesus" in Holy Communion from the people.

Orthodox priests, especially in post-Soviet Russia, have sometimes been called "unlettered" clerics who do little or nothing to serve their flocks.

And then there is that strong Orthodox insistence that western missionaries let the Church and the people it has served for hundreds of years alone, even in the face of great persecution.

What is wrong with that relic of the past, the Orthodox Church, the West wants to know?

Western journalists should not, however, be the ones to cast aspersions in the religious field.

While some have defended the Pope and his visits, since when were they ever defenders of the Catholic Church?  When did they ever agree with the RC teaching on birth control, women priests etc.?  Those who today attack the Orthodox Church attacked the RC Church yesterday.  

The Western preoccupation with modernism and the "get with it" style may be fine for the New Age crowds currently buying up incense sticks, practicing Transcendental Meditation and reading horoscopes.

But the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches have little in the way of spiritual success to show for all their acceptance of western contemporary ideology.

They send missionaries to the East saying they have a responsibility to do "what the Orthodox Church will not" in terms of evangelizing the people, while their own numbers dwindle in developed nations and even in traditional Catholic countries like Brazil.

Is the Orthodox Church relevant specifically to the needs of "modern man?" 

Social scientific studies and thinkers have shown us how things like an experience of true community, mysticism and the role of ritual speak loudly to ears affected by current western values.

No matter how hard agnostic science tries, it just can't seem to get people away from spirituality, of all kinds.

People (of all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds) feel that something is missing in their lives.  They want mysticism and so go after it, everything from crystals to introspective music and Zen Buddhism.

Business executives today are more than likely to be the ones to don Tibetan robes and sit in meditative positions for hours on end at home or in temples.

People love reading about mystical and mysterious literature such as the Gospel of Thomas and related topics.  

Angelology, the study of Angels is very big throughout North America.  While belief in God may wane, belief in Angels is very firm!

The West is hungry for something ethereal.  It has suffered indigestion from the materialistic/scientific explanations of the universe that it has been fed for too long.  It wants to look beyond and within, and it is despairing of satisfying answers.

Ritual is something we do all the time, for example.  We have rituals before we go to bed, believe it or not.  If not, just write down a list of things you do before retiring.  Do another list the next night and then the next.  It is guaranteed that the lists will have repeated behaviours over time or, in another way, rituals!

Ritual is something that helps us celebrate the values we hold and the identity we possess to help us interpret who we are and why we are.

It is also something builds community - the community of the family, of our workplace, our neighbourhood etc.

Ritual is so integral to our lives that we would actually go insane if we did not have them.  And those who are termed "insane" also have their rituals.  It is just that their rituals are different from ours!

Shared spiritual meanings cannot be maintained when the experience of human community breaks down as occurs in the segmented West.

What does all this have to do with Orthodoxy?

Orthodoxy is relevant to the West precisely because it has all those elements that the West and its churches have lost.

The Orthodox Church is an intensely communal one, filled with brilliant rituals, colourful Icons, and meaningful actions that point to a Divine Reality Who is Beauty and Light and Life.

The Church is devoted to the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit which is essentially a social conception of the Divinity.  The Communion of Saints (and who doesn't notice the Saints in any Eastern Church?) is also a celebration of the link we have, in Christ, with those who are with Him now.

New Age folk want to become gods.  Orthodoxy's doctrine of deification addresses that very real human need as God intended.  Through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, we are transfigured, body, soul and spirit!

The mysticism of Orthodoxy is a profound one.  There is the depth of its daily Hours of Prayer, the illuminating experience of the Jesus Prayer, the devotions to Christ the Lover of Mankind, the Mother of God in Her miraculous Icons, the Angels and the Saints!

And the treasury of the Church is open to one and all, including the guidance of experienced spiritual gurus (though we call them "Fathers") who can help us along our journey with their insights and admonitions.

The Orthodox Church cradles us like the children in Christ we are and nourishes us with the Holy Mysteries throughout our lives, with sacramental blessings and anointings and with holy teaching.

There is not one aspect of the Orthodox Church that is not steeped in special, mystical meaning.

As for papal apologies to the East, that is most definitely a good start.

There was no Orthodox "Sack of Rome."  Orthodoxy did not betray the West as the West did Byzantium in the fifteenth century. 

Whatever Orthodoxy may be guilty of with respect to the West really pales by comparison.

But Orthodoxy will not give up the Tradition which it bears, handed down to it from the Apostles and Fathers of the Church.

And the West better hope and pray it doesn't, for its own sake and future!