StanWildman
Orthodox Inquirer
Looking for an Orthodox church to visit, and this is my first stab at checking out a physical church.
Here is the dilemma, tl/dr: I feel like ROCOR is a good fit for me and I've got a ROCOR church pretty far away that seems to not be overly enthused about having new people "visit" a liturgy, but which seems ideologically to have a wonderful orientation. I also have a GOC church very close by which seems very friendly and easy to visit, but kind of tepid in orientation.
Explanation:
My preference is strongly for a ROCOR church as that is where I see myself ending up, God willing. The closest one is a little over an hour away, depending on traffic here amid this busy mid-Atlantic US suburban sprawl. They are in an office building, having been in existence less than a decade. According to their Web site, it seems without question a based church. Recommended resources include Orthodox Ethos and Father Spyridon, for example.
Unfortunately, they don't seem overly keen on getting people to drop by or attend a liturgy. No times are listed. They don't invite you to stop by. No map to the location, just an address of the office park. The proffered opportunity is to contact them and schedule an appointment to talk to someone. Under the description of "membership" it indicates, basically, participate in the mysteries and open your checkbook.
On the other hand, ten minutes from my house is a GOC church, also in an office space, a little bit older of a congregation. The Web site immediately invites you to attend liturgy, they even have a photo of the sanctuary. Times of liturgical events are listed, there is a map, nothing mentions money. Frankly it seems like visiting this church would be the easiest thing in the world and one could do it casually which is definitely my preferred way of doing this.
The downside here is, in terms of the ideological angle which I realize is a terrible point of view that I cannot seem to get over, there is nothing remotely based about this church - at least from the Web presentation. The only resources are some podcasts on Ancient Faith and these are by people I have never heard of (Thomas Hopko, Stephen Damick, Stephen de Young); no mention of any of the various Internet Orthodox that I know.
Is GOC that much different from ROCOR? Does anyone have an opinion on future prospects of the GOC going full globohomo? I would like to finally have a physical touchpoint at a church, even if I may not be becoming Orthodox for some time. Any ideas or opinions will be greatly appreciated
Here is the dilemma, tl/dr: I feel like ROCOR is a good fit for me and I've got a ROCOR church pretty far away that seems to not be overly enthused about having new people "visit" a liturgy, but which seems ideologically to have a wonderful orientation. I also have a GOC church very close by which seems very friendly and easy to visit, but kind of tepid in orientation.
Explanation:
My preference is strongly for a ROCOR church as that is where I see myself ending up, God willing. The closest one is a little over an hour away, depending on traffic here amid this busy mid-Atlantic US suburban sprawl. They are in an office building, having been in existence less than a decade. According to their Web site, it seems without question a based church. Recommended resources include Orthodox Ethos and Father Spyridon, for example.
Unfortunately, they don't seem overly keen on getting people to drop by or attend a liturgy. No times are listed. They don't invite you to stop by. No map to the location, just an address of the office park. The proffered opportunity is to contact them and schedule an appointment to talk to someone. Under the description of "membership" it indicates, basically, participate in the mysteries and open your checkbook.
On the other hand, ten minutes from my house is a GOC church, also in an office space, a little bit older of a congregation. The Web site immediately invites you to attend liturgy, they even have a photo of the sanctuary. Times of liturgical events are listed, there is a map, nothing mentions money. Frankly it seems like visiting this church would be the easiest thing in the world and one could do it casually which is definitely my preferred way of doing this.
The downside here is, in terms of the ideological angle which I realize is a terrible point of view that I cannot seem to get over, there is nothing remotely based about this church - at least from the Web presentation. The only resources are some podcasts on Ancient Faith and these are by people I have never heard of (Thomas Hopko, Stephen Damick, Stephen de Young); no mention of any of the various Internet Orthodox that I know.
Is GOC that much different from ROCOR? Does anyone have an opinion on future prospects of the GOC going full globohomo? I would like to finally have a physical touchpoint at a church, even if I may not be becoming Orthodox for some time. Any ideas or opinions will be greatly appreciated