Renewal in the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Lebanon

Abstract

The young man finished giving his testimony and after a quarter of an hour of song and prayer, the public prayer meeting of the People of God community was ended. The Bishop left the meeting happy with the spiritual atmosphere, but in referring to the testimony, he told me in Arabic Hatha la youjad minhu indana, which means ‘such a practice (testimony) is not part of our Orthodox heritage. We are founded more in reticence. We (the Orthodox) do not speak openly of our relationship with God.’ I looked chidingly at him but inquisitively, and I said, ‘If I show you evidence of that from our heritage, would you be ready to change the ideas you have?’ He said ‘Yes’. The next week the Bishop was flooded with references from the Orthodox saints like St. Symeon the New Theologian, from St. Paul the Apostle and from Jesus himself. They all gave a testimony at one time or another. A few weeks later, as the Bishop was giving a talk in our parish, he said ‘ . . . and I would give, if I may say, a testimony . . . ’ and he shared something from his own religious spiritual experience with the others. Renewal had taken place. Or maybe it was on the way. Testimony as such was characteristic of renewal movements like the Charismatic or the Focolare in the Catholic Church. A staunch Orthodox is supposed to oppose that for the sake of affirming his or her Orthodoxy over against what he or she thinks Orthodoxy is not. Well, that was true until Bishop George Khodr changed his mind: a man who has been a pioneer in renewal.