Converts discover Eastern Orthodoxy online. The Church wants to help them communicate face to face

LOS ANGELES– Often, when a potential convert walks through the doors of his church, one of the first things the Very Reverend Andreas Blom encourages him to do is to let go of what got him there.

“You discovered Orthodoxy online. You learned about it online. Now you’re here, the Internet is over,” he told investigators at Holy Theophany Orthodox Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “Now you have a priest. Now you have people. Now you have to wean yourself off all that and come into this true community of faith.”

Blom is not a Luddite advising worshipers to go off-grid, but rather he is responding to the explosion of Eastern Orthodox content online that is, at least in part, driving a wave of converts across the United States. Christian orthodoxy is an embodied tradition that requires in-person participation, but the Internet has given its message a reach not seen in centuries.

Sometimes called America’s “best kept secret,” Orthodoxy is embraced by about 1 percent of American adults, according to the Pew Research Center. But increased visibility online has led to two waves of converts since the pandemic, said Matthew Namee, executive director of the Institute for Orthodox Studies.

Young single men are often cited as the driving force behind this trend. But Namee said preliminary data suggests the most recent influx of converts is more diverse, with many Blacks and Hispanics, women and young families. Clergy report people from a multitude of religious backgrounds, from Islam to witchcraft to different Christian traditions.

Blom’s Holy Theophany opened a second church this year because its 250-seat building was constantly overflowing, with dozens of people standing outside each week.

“It’s already almost full,” he said of the new location. “And back at our church, again, we have a bunch of people out every Sunday. We just can’t keep up.”

They are already in talks to start a third church.

While some Orthodox content creators are priests, others have no formal ties to the Church. They span ideological and political affiliations, with some being far-right and others being conventional religious conservatives on issues like marriage and abortion.

“By and large, Orthodox Christians are not far-right. They are a minority group within a minority religious tradition,” said Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, who studies religion and politics at Northeastern University.

Jonathan Pageau, a Canadian icon sculptor who teaches online symbolism classes, is among the most popular content creators with around 275,000 YouTube subscribers.

“We have to see this as a kind of irony and a paradox. In a way, you could say we’re using tools that aren’t quite appropriate,” he said of the contrast between the Internet and Orthodoxy’s emphasis on in-person liturgy. “At the same time, one of the things that the Internet offers is reach. And one of the things that Orthodoxy hasn’t had forever is reach.”

Pageau, who converted in 2003, says he and other influencers emphasize the importance of in-person community to their followers.

“We tell them to go to church,” he said. “You can’t experience that in your mind online because it creates a distortion. When you go to church, you meet all kinds of people, people who are on all sides of the political aisle.”

Abia Ailleen researched Orthodoxy online for six months before entering the St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles. This 28-year-old Latina, who was chrismated – or received into the faith – in April 2024, also sees a gap between orthodoxy online and in the flesh.

“People who come to Hagia Sophia are very rigid, who want to be perfect and holy based on what they learned on the Internet, most of the time Hagia Sophia is not a place they want to stay,” she said. “We really cultivated a structure of humility, of making mistakes and of vulnerability.”

Certainly, devout Orthodox follow a robust program of prayer, fasting, and other disciplines. Justin Braxton, a firefighter who converted a year and a half ago, compares some of the “strenuous” demands of Orthodoxy to exercise.

“I was dreading leg day, but I would feel great afterward. I feel like it’s the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is when you’re basically satisfying your carnal needs,” he said. “Joy is that feeling after that tough workout and saying, ‘Yeah, I did it.'”

At the same time, priests often attempt to temper some converts’ aspirations for rules and structure.

“They come to Orthodoxy and find that yes, we have rules and structure. But within those rules and that structure, there is a lot of fluidity,” said the Very Rev. Thomas Zain, dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn, New York, and vicar general of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

His church has seen an exponential increase in attendance, which began about two years ago. “I get about 50 people to a Bible study or adult education class, where I used to have three, four or five,” he said.

Zain, a descendant of Syrian immigrants born into the faith, navigates the ideological diversity that people join. “It has breathed new life into the Church, but it’s also a challenge because you’re trying to turn them into one community with the old and the new,” he said.

Part of what fuels the perception that only men convert is that many influencers straddle what’s called the manosphere — online content that caters to men struggling with their understanding of masculinity. Orthodoxy is often presented as an alternative or complement to self-help advice aimed at young men.

“As a theologian, the idea that masculinity – this particular way of thinking about masculinity – is inherent in Orthodox theology and teaching is, in my opinion, completely false,” said Aristotle Papanikolaou, co-founder and director of the Center for Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University. “There is actually no logic to the idea that I must be masculine in this particular way in order to unite with God.”

While this pleases some, others believe these influencers are distorting their idea of ​​Christianity. “It’s just not my cup of tea,” said Aaron Velasco, a 26-year-old filmmaker baptized last year.

And while Velasco has taken an interest in some content creators and appreciates Pageau’s behavior and perspective, he believes many of them are preaching an incendiary version of the faith that doesn’t align with his current understanding of it.

Many followers say the broader Church is more ideologically diverse than the rigid conservatism often found online.

“Look at the institutional church. There’s this huge hierarchy where women aren’t present. It’s hard to say it’s not a masculine image,” said Dina Zingaro, who studies Orthodoxy at Harvard Divinity School and was raised in the faith. “At the same time, there are so many counter-narratives in Orthodoxy that uproot this idea. »

Church leaders have made few public responses, but some clergy are beginning to speak out more about the scale of this influx and the challenges that accompany it.

“There are cases of extremism and fundamentalism,” Metropolitan Saba, head of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, said during a speech last month in Denver. “Many who come to church today are psychologically, emotionally or socially wounded, which requires experienced and mature spiritual fathers and mothers. »

Zingaro, who regularly preaches and teaches preaching classes to Orthodox women, hopes Church leaders will become more vocal.

“In my mind, our response was not strong enough,” Zingaro said. “There’s something we’re doing that makes people believe it’s OK to make these claims about Orthodoxy. We need to elevate the true spirit and core of Orthodoxy, which is really the opposite of this rules-based version of male domination.”

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