Open house invites African Americans to learn about the Eastern church
August 11, 2007
Later this month, a handful of Orthodox Christians will make a fresh attempt at changing the sad truth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s description of 11 a.m. Sunday as "the most segregated hour in this nation."
They're organizing a first-of-its-kind Orthodox open house for local African Americans who are curious enough to spend a day learning about the domed, icon-decorated Eastern churches sprinkled across southeast Michigan.
"A lot of people would never expect to find African Americans in these churches," said Subdeacon Robert Aaron Mitchell of Detroit, an organizer of the Aug. 25 program. "But we have always been here. Orthodoxy has a huge history and saints of the church in Ethiopia, Egypt and other areas of Africa."
Orthodoxy is the term for the branches of Christianity across Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, most of which have been separated from the Rome-based Catholic Church for about a thousand years.
I personally love these kinds of stories of people coming to know the Ancient Faith as a discovery. I personally am fascinated especially by African Americans coming into the Church. Just a real soft spot in my heart .
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