I recently commented on a thread for an Orthodox Homeschooling Group on Facebook. I had no idea, well I should have, but I did not intend to start what I call a "Facebook comment word fight". This is my long winded response as I did not want to incite more distress but leave a link for those that wanted to read more of a response.
To all, there was no ill will in posting through this comment thread from me. As all of us are Orthodox parents, and homeschooling our Orthodox children, I thought the most important part of what we teach our children IS what we teach them about the church and our precious unique faith. Our churches ARE different than other protestant church spaces but we have to teach our children why they are different. What is in our spaces that make them truly sacred spaces, a place where heaven and earth are joined together in worship with the icons and the saints they represent. I agree, we ARE called to take care of the least among us...but who is that? Are those just our elderly in the parish, our infirm in the parish, or could the “least” also include our sweet innocent children with an innocent and pure, yet delicate faith? And taking care, especially through the lens of the church, includes care of our bodies and our souls but perhaps most important, our souls, especially the souls of our children who God has entrusted to us.
Given the specific group this is, I did not post anything intending it to cause discord or distress. The reality is that many of our Orthodox churches are much changed and as a large group of Orthodox parents and educators/instructors who all love their children, this group allows for big conversations that can’t happen at the local level due to all the restrictions of this virus and our very own churches. The current state of our churches’ across the world, alters how and what we are able to teach our children about the faith and perhaps everything about the world around them that God created and the church He established.
As with many hard things on this earth, in this life, this is clearly hard to discuss and it’s easier to avoid it, but is that not what satan would want? Us all to be too afraid and “nice” to talk about this? And the price of our “kindness” to each other, in NOT talking about this, is that our children see a faith, for 39 weeks now and counting, that can be shaken by a virus that is less deadly than many other things in this world. If we buckle under this virus, how will our children not buckle under every other thing this world will throw at them? And if we don't teach our children how precious and life giving the church is, why would we ever expect them to turn to it in the future? If our God is a God that you can easily tempt to your own demise, why have faith in Him at all? When is it "okay" to have faith, "safe" to have faith, and when is it not? Every time we get in a car, board an airplane, eat a food that could become lodged in our windpipe, are we not "tempting" God to allow us to live through all of it? If we justify not going to church, or covering our children's faces with masks, or altering the way we commune, by one fear, why not other fears as well. Are we tempting God each time we drive to church that he will keep us from a car accident? Or are we living life, accepting God's will, entering into the life of the church, no matter what comes, knowing at any moment could be our last?
As a mom and hopefully a future grandmother and great grandmother, I feel very passionate about the state of our churches for our children and feel if we don’t take up this uncomfortable cross, address it and have these hard conversations at some point, in pursuit of a unified path forward, we will lose not only some of our children to other worldly faiths but possibly our grandchildren and great grandchildren as well. Our small innocent children ARE the Orthodox parents of the future. They will shape their children's faith the very same way we are shaping their own right now. What we do matters, very much, and at this time I simply believe we as parents are called to light the way for our children whose faith is a delicate and precious seed of faith for future generations. I don’t know how to fix this alone. I actually believe this can't be fixed by any one alone. We must fix this as a church, and as parents. I just know there is a problem, this has lasted much more than two weeks, and we are not unified in what we believe as parents, nor are our bishops, and I just want to stand before God saying that I did all I could as a parent to protect and preserve our Orthodox faith for our Orthodox children, even if that means fighting a good fight for things to be set right.
Let's start this conversation and do this hard work now.
May God give us all wisdom and courage and grace in our lives to do this, together.
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