Christian Identity and the Praxis of Mission in Eastern Europe
The first wave of evangelism and Christian witness in Eastern Europe arrived through the first of Jesus’ apostles. Some claim St. Andrew was the first to come to these lands, while the New Testament relates that the apostle Paul made several trips into the area on his missionary journeys.
Indigeneity, National Identity and Orthodoxy
Today, the Orthodox Church represents most of the Christian world in this region and teaches that the roots of Orthodoxy were laid by the apostles themselves, meaning that the only legitimate Christian faith is Orthodoxy. This constitutes an historical argument which, when coupled with a profound overlap between faith and national identity, creates the premises of a National Church. This imposes a territorial approach to faith, leaving no room for the presence of other Christian denominations. A minister of the Church of England, while working in Romania, came to the realisation that the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church insisted that “the legislation should describe it [the Orthodox Church] as the national church because it considers all Romanians to be Orthodox by virtue of their ethnicity, not through choice as exercised in a pluralist society”[i].
The same pattern can be found across Central and Eastern Europe, where nationality dictates religious affiliation to Orthodoxy. For example, to be Bulgarian means to be Orthodox. If someone was born into an Orthodox family, that person is regarded as Orthodox and any change from the inherited Christian tradition to another Christian denomination such as Brethren or Baptist, is seen as betrayal of their ancestors’ Church. Therefore, there is a strong overlap between national citizenship and the Christian identity.
One positive aspect of such an approach is that in most circumstances today, the Orthodox Church uses the local language and contextualises methods to relate to people in each nation. Similar to the Pentecost event in the book of Acts, using the local language can speak directly to people’s hearts. Moreover, the Christian Orthodox Church in most countries desires to be autonomous, indigenous, and not perceived as a multinational establishment with major foreign influences. Therefore, missiological speaking, the biblical value of incarnation gives a great advantage to the Orthodox Church, something the Evangelical Churches yearn for as they minister in these countries.
Indigeneity and Mission
While the Orthodox Church positions itself as a National Church, it defines mission as being “identified with the tradition”[ii]. Thus, continuing the church tradition means to accomplish God’s mission for that nation. On a deeper level, Orthodoxy believes that there are two components for a holistic mission: “martyria and diakonia”[iii], which means to witness and to serve. This led to an important new perspective in Orthodox missiology: “liturgy after the Liturgy”[iv]. This is how Ion Bria, a renowned Romanian Orthodox author, explains this concept: “The basic structure of the liturgy is based on two movements: first the people gather for worship, to hear the word of God and eat the bread of life; then, at the end of liturgy, they are sent out. Here the worshiping community becomes an evangelising community. Receiving the eucharistic “bread for pilgrims”, food for missionaries, the faithful become actors of mission.”[v] Another Orthodox author from Asia, viewed evangelism as “the sharing of a joy freely given to us by Christ”.[vi]
Looking at this very short presentation of mission and evangelism carried out by the Orthodox Church, it becomes clear that there is an assumption that by simply being a citizen of a nation you are part of the national church and are involved in witnessing and sharing in Christ’s joy. However, the message and power of the proclaimed Gospel of God needs to impact and transform the bearer of the witness of Christ’s love and salvation to be an actor of mission.
Perhaps, this is why Evangelical Churches[vii] look at the indigenous Orthodox believers as being unchristian and in need of hearing the good news of the gospel. The Evangelicals describe the Orthodox definition of evangelism as merely “fulfilling God’s purpose in creation (…) and not the justification of the sinner”.[viii] This leads the Evangelical Church to a rhetoric of Christianising everyone who calls themselves Orthodox.
Obviously, this creates tension between the Christian denominations, since the Orthodox Church considers any form of evangelism used by any of the Evangelical Churches as being proselytising and consequently a foreign entity coming from the Western world, which in many aspects is viewed as being intrinsically morally corrupted.
As a result of such tension, the members of the Evangelical Church are labelled as “foreign sects”[ix], and in some countries receive mocking nicknames to distinguish them from the loyal national members of society who are implicit members of the National Church. For instance, in Romania they are called ‘the repenters’, since the evangelicals’ message was for everyone to repent of their sins to become Christian. However, in many instances, the same ridiculers acknowledged the help and support they are able to obtain from the very people they mock. So, in difficult times, evangelical believers are a source of love and care for people around them. This demonstration of compassion is only one part of the mission mandate for the Evangelicals, where the proclamation of the gospel message completes the task.
Migration and Mission in Eastern Europe
Given the demographic changes happening in Central and Eastern Europe with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Far East (from countries like Nepal, Laos, Sri Lanka, etc) the opportunity for Christian witness is immense. All Eastern European Christians have many opportunities to share the good news of the gospel and show love and care to both locals and the new arrivals. If the Christian Church (Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical) understands how to welcome the stranger and contextualise the message to the newcomer, it will bear the message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ. This could mean that the Church welcomes the immigrants into the local congregation and allows them to experience the love of Christ and the power of the living God.
Nevertheless, there are a few immediate key questions: Can the churches recognise the current opportunity at hand? Are the churches ready to invite in those who are different? Are the local churches ready to include the immigrants and use languages and customs that could be strange to an Eastern European believer? Would churches go beyond charity (if there is any such work offered by their congregation to the immigrants) and give witness to the work of the cross of Jesus Christ that changes the lives of people?
There is no love without sacrifice and there is no life without the testimony of the living God. Therefore, let us all lean in towards those who need the gospel and join in the love of our Father towards one another.
Alexandru Vlasin is a mentor and trainer with Barnabas International and is lecturer in the Faculty of Baptist Theology, Bucharest University
Endnotes
[i]Kimber, Gillian. "Orthodox-Baptist Relations in Romania," East-West Church and Ministry Report 21 (Winter 2013):1-3. (https://www.eastwestreport.org/?view=article&id=525)
[ii] Bria Ion (ed.). „Introduction” to Martyria / Mission: The Witness of the Orthodox Churches
Today, Geneva, World Council of Churches 1980, p. 4.
[iii] Papathanasiou, Athanasios N. “Tradition as Impulse for Renewal and Witness: Introducing Orthodox Missiology in the IRM”, in International Review of Mission, nov 2011, ppg: 203-215.
[iv] Papathanasiou, Athanasios N. “Tradition as Impulse for Renewal and Witness: Introducing Orthodox Missiology in the IRM”, in International Review of Mission, nov 2011, ppg: 203-215.
[v] Bria, Ion, Liturgy After the Liturgy: Mission and Witness from an Orthodox Perspective, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1996, p.24
[vi] Geevarghese Mar Ostathios, “Worship, Mission, Unity – These Three. Response to Bishop Mortimer Arias,” IRM 65 (1976), p. 42.
[vii] In Central and Eastern Europe, the Evangelical denominations are usually part of the Evangelical Alliance and usually they represent the Pentecostal Church, Baptist Church, Brethren Church and other similar denominations.
[viii] See the “Orthodox Theology of Mission” in James Stamoolis, Evangelical dictionary of world missions, ed.: Moreau, A. Scott; Netland, Harold A.; Engen, Charles Edward van. Burnett, David; 2000, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, p 714-15.
[ix] Wanner, Catherine. “Missionaries of Faith and Culture: Evangelical Encounters in Ukraine.” Slavic Review 63, no. 4 (2004): 732–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/1520418.