Pentecostals: On the Cusp of Orthodoxy

There is a Gaelic proverb that goes like this:

Cuimhnich air na daoine o'n d'thainig thu.
(Remember the people from whom you have come.)

The people from whom I come are the Pentecostals, and I think about them a lot. I thank God for them, for without them I wouldnot know God. I thank God for them because they formed my mother and father, who raised me. Now i am thinking about them and their relation to Holy Orthodoxy.

I think that Pentecostals, more so than other Protestants are likely to become Orthodox. Why? Well, even though Orthodoxy has sometimes been refered to as Christianity for graduate students (not because you have to be hyper-educated to to be Orthodox, but because there is so much of Orthodoxy that one can devote a lifetime to studying one little area of the Orthodox life, such as the Christological controversies of the 4th & 5th centures, or the development of Church singing in Russia.) and Pentecostalism is often accused of anti-intellectualism (Unfairly, I think.) they are both most immediately experienced supernaturally.

The Pentecostal and the Orthodox both "Expect a Miracle" and neither is surprised when miracles happen. When my Dad's hearing was restored when he was prayed for by an itenerant pentecostal evangelist holding a tent meeting in Commerce Oklahoma, that was the expected outcome from praying to the God who does wonders. When the face of St. Seraphim of Sarov began to glow, no one is surprised because that is the expected outcome of being near the God who does wonders. When I as a foolish child (age 6 or 7) prayed for snow where it does not snow (Silicon Valley) and God made it snow, I wasn't surprised because I knew God was the God who does wonders. When Fr. Juvenaly came back to life and continued preaching to the Eskimos who had just killed him the Orthodox are not surprised. (but the Eskimos sure were!) Such is to be expected from the God of Wonders. But some Pentecostals seem to be aligning themselves with the Orthodox in other ways, besides.

Now look at these two videos. The first contains a simple eucharistic prayer (fast forward to 4:10). It is so simple it could have been taken from the Bible or the Didache. He asks for forgiveness of sins. He gives thanks. He states that the congregants are bout to eat the Body and Blood of Jesus. But the words are coming from the lips of a Pentecostal. And near the end of this video Bishop Patterson (some Pentecostal denominations style some of their ministers bishops) says "There's a craving for the glory" and keep in mind when you hear him that one of the possible translations of "Orthodox" is "right glory". Do we Orthodox posess the glory these Pentecostals are seeking?



The second video is of a guy I have never heard of. He is, apparantly, a Pentecostal preacher who got interested in Orthodoxy and has been "ordained" by a Syro-Indian Episkopoi Vagantes. Nevertheless, he seems to be, as I say, on the Cusp of Orthodoxy. And look at the people to whom he is preaching. They are eating it up. And look at them standing! This is the Orthodox posture for going to church. These peoplewill have no problem standing through a Vigil.



Now here is a question, does anyone in the Orthodox Church (I mean the hierarchs) have the Pentecostals on their radar? Are we doing anything to help these people find us? It seems to me that God is doing something with them, are we going to be ready to accept them? Will be able to accomodate their exuberence and zeal? I think we can.