This August is personally significant; twenty years ago, my wife and I began an unlikely journey into something called Eastern Orthodoxy. This journey also began in an unlikely way - in the middle of a graduate religion course at the University of Kansas taught by a Protestant professor. As a 24-year old graduate student, I hadn’t heard about Orthodox Christianity a single time in my life. I had read Russian literature like Crime and Punishment and had no idea the characters were Orthodox; I imagined their faith to be something like the Protestantism I had experienced. For my wife and I, and like so many others, encountering the Orthodox faith was like Dorothy in the land of Oz suddenly seeing in color for the first time. It was a palpable, intense, life-changing experience that I’ll always cherish.
Today I have experienced life as a student, professor, leader, husband and father all through the lens of Orthodoxy. I’ve had the opportunity to partake in discussions about the Orthodox experience with hundreds of people across the world. A handful of themes emerge: Why is it so difficult to find out about Orthodoxy in the first place? How can inquirers tell if the resources they’ve come across are safe and accurate witnesses to the truth of the faith? Is there a way to bring the many good ministries, resources, opportunities and events together in a centralized way so that average parishioners and inquirers can quickly connect to the great Orthodox work being done across our nation?
Orthodoxy has traditionally been a faith where many of its tenets have been passed down from generation to generation. It is a beautiful thing to witness, as I have in places like Southeastern Europe and, most recently, during OYM’s retreat and board meeting in Alaska. However, modern America presents challenges to this model. My wife and I don’t have a single person in either of our extended families who is Orthodox. Even a cradle Orthodox believer can experience this isolation through moving away, being far from family, and living in a community that doesn’t have as strong of an Orthodox presence. More than ever, modern Orthodox Christians need strong relationships capable of sustaining a lifelong faith journey. But how do we get them? Many of us don’t know where to begin. We don’t have the family units in place to teach us how, from an Orthodox perspective, this is done. And sadly, many of us have also spent large chunks of our lives being taught to cultivate relationships based on a very different set of attributes - relationships that will erode at our faith journey.
We at OYM have committed to addressing the challenges of cultivating the kind of relationships our Church promotes in a world where very different kinds of relationships are the norm. One of the ways OYM can tackle this issue is simply by getting the word out! To this end, I am excited to announce OYM’s new monthly newsletter, launching August 22, 2024. This newsletter will be a powerful resource that shares the great work being undertaken by Orthodox faithful across the country. It will help spread the word of Orthodoxy through the many ways people are building transformative relationships through Christ that are then transforming themselves and the people they encounter in their communities. Finally, the newsletter will point toward Orthodox resources, opportunities, events, and communities that bear witness to this transformation through Christ. In short, this newsletter will celebrate Orthodoxy and its power to bring people to Christ.
I pray that you are able to receive inspiration from this monthly newsletter. Please, share with us any information you think may be helpful for others. We love to hear about the many things going on!
Through the prayers of His Most Holy Mother, may He continue to bless us all as we are called to love one another in His name.
Yours in Christ,
Dr. Christopher Krampe
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