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I think what holds back Orthodoxy spreading in the West is the ethnic churches. You have the church for the Greeks, the church for the Bulgarians, the church for the Russians, and so on. It's bound up with particular cultures as much as faith and that makes it harder for a Western guy to walk in and understand what's going on.
Catholicism, while it does devolve into "all the Irish live in this parish and this is their church, that parish over there is the Italians, and the black Catholics are way over there doing their own thing" is much more universal. The Mass is the Mass is the Mass, while it might now be in the vernacular there's nothing stopping you from going to a Spanish parish if that's your first experience and seeing that what goes on is the same as the Vietnamese church is the same as the Irish or the Germans or the Italians.
I do get a kick out of the Diocese of Orange, which bought the former Crystal Cathedral, being majority Vietnamese now because that's the natural progression of the changes in immigrants coming along; it's still the Universal Church even if it shifts from white Europeans to Hispanic to East Asian. I don't think a comparable Orthodox diocese could transition like that.
There is the Orthodox Church of America, which is becoming more and more prominent and is specifically focused on erasing these boundaries.
That being said, I actually love the Greek. Not sure I would've converted without how beautiful the Greek language is, Greek culture, etc. While it can be offputting at first, eventually you come to realize that it's beautiful that this culture has actually survived the acid bath of American globohomo. Personally I think it's one of the big divisive issues I see though, and I hear about it a lot from other converts. Heck, I used to complain about this myself!
Well, the problem with that is that the Mass in Latin destroys all the local culture. Big issue with Catholicism from my perspective, especially if you look at the historic violence and awfulness that the Church perpetrated. The Orthodox aren't perfect of course, but wow the Catholic church has done some bad stuff.
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Is this based on your own experience? Because I received a warm and personal welcome in Orthodoxy, despite the presence of ethnic diasporas.
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