Yes. You’ll fit in just fine.
The Antiochian Orthodox Church in North America isn’t an ethnic club. It’s the Church. And the Church is for everyone who wants to follow Christ in the fullness of the apostolic faith, whether your last name is Smith or Saliba, whether your grandmother made biscuits or made kibbeh.
Here’s what actually happens in most Antiochian parishes across America. About a third of the people there are converts. Maybe more, depending on the parish. Some came from Baptist churches. Some from nowhere at all. The services are in English. The coffee hour might have baklava, but it’ll probably also have brownies and those little sandwiches from Kroger. Nobody’s checking your ancestry at the door.
St. Michael’s sits in Southeast Texas, not Beirut. The people who walk through those doors work at the refineries, teach at the schools, run businesses in Beaumont. Some have Lebanese or Syrian heritage. Many don’t. What brings everyone together isn’t DNA. It’s baptism.
The Antiochian Archdiocese has been clear about this for decades. Metropolitan Philip, who led the Archdiocese for years, pushed hard for Orthodox unity in America based on geography, not ethnicity. He knew what the canons teach: one place, one church, everyone welcome. St. Raphael of Brooklyn, the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in North America, served Syrian and Arab immigrants but didn’t limit his ministry to them. He understood that Orthodoxy isn’t tribal.
Can you find parishes where the ethnic heritage is strong? Sure. Especially in places with large immigrant populations. But even there, the heritage is cultural, not theological. The Church doesn’t belong to any ethnicity. It belongs to Christ. When someone makes you feel like you need a certain last name to be Orthodox, they’re wrong. That’s not the faith. That’s phyletism, and the Church condemned it as heresy back in 1872.
You might hear Arabic during some hymns at coffee hour. You might not know what to do with the stuffed grape leaves someone’s grandmother brought. That’s fine. You also might not know what to do the first time you venerate an icon or when to make the sign of the cross, and that’s fine too. Everyone was new once. The family whose roots go back to Damascus had to learn the same things you’re learning now.
What matters is this: Do you want to worship God in the ancient faith of the apostles? Do you want the Eucharist, the real Body and Blood of Christ? Do you want to be part of the Church that’s been here since Pentecost? Then you fit. Your background is whatever it is. Your future is Orthodox.
Some converts worry they’ll never really belong, that they’ll always be outsiders looking in. But talk to the converts who’ve been Orthodox for five or ten years. They don’t feel like outsiders. They feel like they came home. The Church has room for everyone because it’s not built on ethnicity or culture. It’s built on Christ, the cornerstone, and we’re all being built into that temple together.
If you visit St. Michael’s, you’ll find people who look like you and people who don’t. You’ll find different accents, different stories, different roads that led to the same destination. What you won’t find is a sign that says “Members Only” or “Heritage Required.” The doors are open. Come in and see.
