| In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Charismatic Movement broke upon the Christian Churches like mighty waves successively crashing upon a sandy beach. And just like ocean waves breaking upon the sand, it made deep impressions and rearranged the spiritual landscape of the Churches. Many Church leaders, both clergy and laity alike, after varying periods of questioning, analysis and debate, accepted this movement as a gift of refreshing from the Holy Spirit. Still others set themselves against it, and put forth all their energies to combat it, seeing in it the seeds of deception and heresy.;The Charismatic Movement, and its claim that a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His charisms were taking place, affected millions of Roman Catholics and Protestants of all denominations around the world. At the same time, the Charismatic Movement's effect upon the Eastern Orthodox Churches was negligible, comparatively speaking. Instead of millions, only a few thousand people within the Orthodox Church embraced the Movement and its defining experience, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. While the wider Charismatic Renewal's influence is seen around the globe, its manifestation among Orthodox Christians has been felt almost exclusively in North America.;Thousands of dissertations, articles and monographs have been written about the Charismatic Renewal Movement from the perspectives of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Some have sought to analyze the Movement from a theological or historical perspective, others from a sociological and psychological viewpoint. Likewise many individuals have penned personal reflections and memoirs of their involvement in the Movement, most being written at the height of the Movement in the 1970s and 1980s. While the Charismatic Movement, in the opinion of certain religious "experts," is over, it has not totally disappeared; however, it has certainly abated, especially in North America, and in some cases morphed into a general emphasis upon spiritual renewal, shedding some of its emphasis upon "charismatic" spirituality.;No studies of the Charismatic Movement in the Orthodox Church have been undertaken. This is a glaring hole in the field of research of Church history in general and of the Charismatic Movement in particular. Why, when millions of Roman Catholics and mainline Protestant laypeople and leaders embraced the Charismatic Movement, did so few Orthodox Christians embrace the Movement, and the leadership of the Orthodox Church fail to fully engage the spiritual and theological questions raised by the Charismatic Renewal? Throughout the world, the bishops of various Roman Catholic national conferences as well as the leaders of regional Protestant bodies studied the theological claims of the Charismatic Movement - critiquing those elements that were problematic, embracing the positive aspects of the Movement and giving pastoral and theological guidance to their pastors and lay members on how to glean from its genuine spiritual fruits. In contrast, the international Orthodox Church ignored the Movement, giving but cursory and dismissive attention to this spiritual Renewal Movement.;In spite of the negative attitude of the leadership of the Orthodox Church in North America, Orthodox clergymen and laypeople did embrace the Charismatic Renewal. Orthodox priests in several different Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States and Canada provided leadership for the Movement among the Orthodox laity. Both lay and clergy members sought to defend the Charismatic Renewal by showing its compatibility with Orthodox theology and spirituality and attempted to convince the ecclesiastical authorities that the Movement actually enabled them to be better Orthodox Christians. However, in spite of these attempts, the Bishops of the Orthodox Church labeled the Movement as Protestant in origin, theology and spirituality and therefore incompatible with Orthodoxy. Nonetheless, in the 1970s and 1980s, a small number of Orthodox Christians in North America continued to affiliate themselves with the Charismatic Movement, giving rise to at least two Charismatic Orthodox periodicals and ministries, and gathering Orthodox clergy and laity to national and regional conferences.;In the 1980s, the leadership of the Orthodox Church, especially of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, sought to neutralize the voices calling for Charismatic Renewal within the ranks by ignoring, marginalizing and finally neutralizing those voices, while at the same time forming a Committee on Orthodox Spiritual Renewal and sponsoring several conferences on Spiritual Renewal that sought to bypass the "Charismatic" nature of the Renewal. By the 1990s, the leadership of the Orthodox Charismatic Movement had repudiated their involvement in the Movement, retired, died or ceased to actively participate in what could be characterized as Charismatic activities.;While the Charismatic Renewal in the Orthodox Church did not meet with the same welcome as it did in the Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant Churches, and has for all intents and purposes ceased to exist, those participants in the Renewal who later converted to the Orthodox Church, as well as Orthodox Charismatics, continue to serve Christ and the Church and be vehicles for spiritual renewal within Orthodoxy in North America. |
