The Local Church in a Multicultural Society: An Orthodox Solution for an Unorthodox Dilemma

Abstract

The Orthodox Church in Canada finds itself in an ecclesiological dilemma on the eve of its second century of presence in this part of the world. For a variety of sociological and theological reasons, it has thus far been unable to coalesce into one visible institution, remaining instead segregated along ethnopolitical lines and showing few signs of escaping from its resultant selfimposed marginalization in Canadian society. The widely respected and well received theology of the local church as the preferred Orthodox insight into the nature and functioning of Christian community has thus far made little headway in extricating Orthodox Christianity in the Canadian context from its chaotic jurisdictional status. The reality of multiculturalism as a distinguishing characteristic of Canadian society further complicates the issue by offering a secularized model of the Pentecost event as a powerful extra-ecclesial argument for the retention of ethnically defined churches. For the outside admirer of Eastern Christianity, this ongoing failure of the Orthodox to address the problems confronting their church in a multicultural society runs the risk of eliminating by neglect an incarnation of the Christian experience of God of immense value for all Christian traditions. It is to commit on a theological level the same fundamental error which on a sociological level plagues the establishment of multiculturalism in Canada: to ignore the givens of a shared vision of human society and assert diversity for its own sake without concern for unity.