The surge of converts to Eastern Orthodoxy in the U.S. is meeting a decades-old shortage of Orthodox priests. Since the 1990s, there have been reports and planning commissions to address the Orthodox clergy shortage in most jurisdictions. But the rapid growth of converts since the early 2020s has made the priest shortage particularly acute, says Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese on his YouTube channel. “Priests feel overwhelmed” by the convert surge, he said. The situation makes the “structural problems of the priesthood so overwhelming that it drives away potential priests.” The priest shortage during this surge will mean that there will be a “rationing of pastoral care…New missions will be slower being started.” Damick says that he hopes that the priestly drought during this harvest of converts will “end clericalism,” where the priest takes on too many responsibilities in the parish. To deal with this problem, he calls for voluntary mentors who can guide new converts in the faith, as well as more deacons who may eventually become priests. Even though only a small percentage of religiously affiliated military service members identify as Orthodox, just as in civilian life, there has been a “recent uptick” in active-duty military, particularly young men, joining the Orthodox faith, reports Maggie Phillips in Arc magazine (February 17). Yet there are currently only six Greek Orthodox chaplains spread across the active-duty military, reflecting a wider priest shortage in Greek Orthodoxy in the U.S. [The article doesn’t mention other Orthodox jurisdictions.]
Phillips adds, “The disparity between an abundant harvest and too few laborers is especially apparent in American military life, a predominantly male environment that emphasizes rigorous discipline—the same thing many theorize is attracting young men to Orthodoxy.” Chris Moody, a U.S. Army chaplain and Greek Orthodox priest stationed in the U.S., sees inquirers coming from Protestant backgrounds who appreciate the “unified symbolic worldview” they find in the Orthodox liturgy. These chaplains are different from priests in that they serve as a kind of cross-cultural missionary operating between denominations and different cultures and ethnicities. Military chapels often service multiple denominations on a single Sunday, which means Greek Orthodox trappings must be put away after services. The lack of an ornate building and other ethnic trappings, leading to an essential and stripped-down Orthodoxy, may be appealing and less alien to newcomers, Phillips writes. While there is considerable pastoral latitude for chaplaincy in the military, it “isn’t attracting new priests to replace the retiring Greek Orthodox chaplains on active duty. There are also the strict physical standards, and there is also the stripping away of the grandeur of the Divine Liturgy, not to mention the diminished role of a priest, who must subordinate himself to the demands of a commander and the needs of Uncle Sam,” she concludes.
(Arc, https://arcmag.org/the-lords-pt/)
