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Question 109

Answer to Question 109

I don’t think it’s selling their faith. They are simply lost and need help to find their way back to the fold.  The main reason must fall with the Church especially with the Orthodox Church in England, because they have never catered for the needs of the youth. People need spiritually in their lives and when the Church doesn’t provide this then people will look elsewhere to find it. 

One main problem is the language. We are now in a fourth generation of Cypriots in England who do not understand Greek. Their parents can hardly speak Greek and in many cases their grandparents know very little Greek. But even if they do know Greek it doesn’t mean that they will be able to follow and understand the Ancient Greek used by the Church. We have Cypriots in Cyprus who have been taught Ancient Greek in schools, but also complain to us that they cannot understand the Liturgy so how would we expect Cypriots born in England to understand anything of what is being said in Church. 

The Church should have realized this problem many years ago but because the churches were full every week with the older generations and the collection trays were being filled, they didn’t see it as a problem.  Many years ago I asked one of the bishops in England what would happen when all the older generation died, who would fill the churches? His answer was more old people. Thus for him people would begin going to church as they approach the end of their lives out of fear of what awaits them in the afterlife.  I never went to church until I was 26 and none of my generation ever went to church. That I discovered the church was a miracle for my generation and I was one in a thousand. If my generation never attended church how do we expect our children to attend church? They won’t, but because they need God in their lives they will search for him in other places where they can understand what is going on.

Let us not forget that most people do not understand theology, they do not know the differences between the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, Anglican, Evangelical, Pentecostal and others, they simply see that they are all Christian and so choose to join a church that they find entertaining or that they can take part in and feel as they belong to that community.  Instead of just performing the service every Sunday the Church needs to wake up and become missionary. She needs to have Churches that offer services in English on Sundays and not just the occasional English service on a Saturday. She needs to offer Bible classes in English and give regular talks in English that will help people understand what the Orthodox church teaches. They can get with the times and form a facebook group for people to ask questions like what I am doing right now. They can do many things if they put their mind to it, but as long as the money keeps coming in then for many bishops and priests there is no problem.