anglomedved

Yes, I can get exasperated at the management of our diocese, bitter at the way that some of my colleagues sacrificially work their butts off for very little – or no - money, while others come and go as they please or build up power positions, and Moscow does not seem to care a tinker’s cuss.

But something tells me that this may be symptomatic of something much deeper: of a fundamental incoherence in the position of the Orthodox Church outside its ‘home’ territories.

Remember the story of Macdonalds and the Idaho potatoes?

When Macdonalds first came to Europe, they imported their potatoes from the US. This proved a pretty expensive exercise, so they decided to grow them locally in Europe. The signed up a couple of Dutch farmers and sent over a ton of seed potatoes. The result was a disaster: the seed potatoes which produced lovely large potatoes in Idaho, produced miserable, gnarled stubs in Holland.

I am beginning to suspect that Orthodoxy, like the Idaho potato, does not travel well. I would describe it as a particular form of Christianity moulded to a particular cultural setting. When that cultural setting for which it was shaped is lost, it quickly goes to pieces and becomes an inferior and not very tasty product.

One solution is to try and maintain the cultural setting in the diaspora setting. This worked pretty well for a generation or so after the 1917 revolution in big cities like Paris. But then this émigré group was large, culturally and socially homogenous, entered the host society at a high social level, already speaking the local language, was already churched in Russia and expected to go back. The modern Russian diaspora came here largely unchurched, low down the social scale, and in most cases with no intention of returning home. Its “church-Russianness” is largely what it has picked up here from a very, very small number of people. But other than a common language (which many of the second generation already cannot read), there is precious little culture, nothing inherently valuable to pass on to the following generation.

For converts, other than those who have absorbed large doses of Russian – or Athonite – culture, the soil is equally very thin. Many converts have a curious cultural rootlessness about them. Yes, there was an attempt to revive a pre-1054 culture, most notably with the ‘Liturgy of the Gauls’ which appeared about 30 years ago, a reconstruction of a 10th century Western liturgy. And, yes, they make pilgrimages to the tombs of local 9th century saints. But the whole effort quickly lapses into silliness: you cannot construct a Christian culture out of a poorly documented era – and a pretty uncivilized one to boot – of a millennium ago. And the spirituality most of their icons put across is more post-modernist than medieval.

Basically, Orthodoxy as it is currently lived here in the Russian diaspora, without a viable cultural base is going nowhere. It is incoherent, logically flawed. Locked in on itself and largely unable to do the job of being Christ to the world which is what the church is for. Unless, IMHO, it links into the broader Christian culture of this part of the world. This it is scared to do – for fear of losing its identity.

And in such a dead-end situation everything eventually sours. Actually, I rather suspect the smartest heads in Moscow recognize this dead end situation. Which is why they are really quite happy to let things rot. And while of course they will not say so, they confirm it by their inaction.