We often forget in the West that Christianity is much greater and transformative than the Western ethos we have come to inherit and embrace. With the rise of the modern Traditionalists you would think that Western culture is (and always has been) the sole proprietor and arbiter of Christianity and the Great Commission. Certainly it can be said that through crusade, inquisition, colonialism, missionary efforts, and ultimately force, that Western Christianity has prevailed throughout the ages. However I contend that, historically speaking, it is both foolish and myopic to discount the contributions of the Christian East. With that said I must preface and state that I am not only a protestant but also a westerner who has inherited everything I know, from said aforementioned ethos and culture. It seems to me to be an inescapable reality. Even if I wanted to I couldn't shake off the indoctrination nor lenses from which I view the world around me. However I do believe it wise to try, that is, to try and see the world through a lens that is not my own. As I said Christianity is greater than the West.
The Church will prevail, by the grace of God, to outlive civilization, culture, and construct because She is greater, supracultural, transcendent, vaster, bigger, and eternal. A living stone, a precious temple, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But even now, in using the term ‘transcendent’, I betray myself, and cling to ideas that are neither ancient nor everlasting, but products of Enlightenment thinking and rationale. Much of what we describe today as “traditionalist” Christianity is in fact the nominalistic, humanistic, spiritualistic, remains of the Enlightenment. To help shake us from this stupor I want to encourage us to look to our Christian brothers and sisters in the East. And I would like to highlight a few church bodies that have done precisely that.
The Ukranian Lutheran Church, originally named the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, finds its origin in 17th century Lutheran orthodoxy. (The modern state of Ukraine being a successor of the former medieval Kingdom of Ruthenia, and as land disputes go, the later Ruthenian Voivodeship, which fell under the Kingdom of Poland until the February Revolution in 1917 resulting in a short lived state, then Soviet control. ) Needless to say Ukraine has suffered an awful lot of historic upheaval. However Ukraine, alongside Poland, Slovakia, and Romania, remain the homelands of Ruthenian Christianity. As a result of the age of Lutheran orthodoxy, what you had was the influx of Lutheranism into a nation state with an Eastern Orthodox majority, which is still true to this day. The result being Byzantine (Ruthenian) Lutheranism. Now this is not an instance of syncretism, rather the retaining or conserving of Eastern culture within a Western theological tradition. Blessed Teodor Yarchuk was a Ukrainian Lutheran priest in the 19th century, and despite the brutal atheistic Soviet suppression of Christianity, he is the leading figure that helped preserve the Ukranian Byzantine Lutheran tradition. Despite being the key catalyst Yarchuk was eventually captured, tortured, and martyred. However the foundation he laid was never absolutely stomped out, and despite the forced diaspora, after the fall of the U.S.S.R, by 1994, the Ukranian Lutheran Church was reestablished. When we think of Lutheranism or the Protestant Reformation we seldom think of Byzantine ecclesiastics. Especially considering the Reformation was a strictly Western reform movement. However it must also be stated that the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovenia has also embraced and retained her Byzantine heritage and legacy.
The Ukranian Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovenia are just a few brief examples of the triumph of Eastern Christianity within typically Western Christian traditions. There are more, and not just Lutheran, such as the Evangelical Baptist Union of Georgia, the Evangelical Church of Romania, the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India, and the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, not to mention the numerous sui iuris Eastern Catholic bodies. We can also see the impact of Eastern Christianity, especially the Greek Fathers, upon the Anglican priest John Wesley. There are also church bodies like Old Catholic Church that tend to embrace the faith of the once undivided Church. On the other hand, Eastern Orthodoxy has made great inroads into the West with Western Rite vicariates and in church bodies such as the Orthodox Church of the Gauls, the British Orthodox Church, and the Celtic Orthodox Church. Thus, and as I hopefully alluded to earlier, we would do well to shake off our inherited cultural lenses and traditions, not for the sake of deconstruction or disdain, but in order to get a clearer picture of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, that all Christians throughout all ages and all places are living members of. We could truly learn from each other, I believe. And I think that starts with looking East to see how the Holy Spirit has been at work in the lives of our sisters and brothers who don't quite fit our Western Christian ideals.