No. You don’t need to know a single word of Arabic to be Antiochian Orthodox.
Our services at St. Michael’s are in English. That’s not a compromise or a concession to American culture. It’s actually how Orthodox Christians have always done things. We pray in the language people speak.
When St. Cyril and St. Methodius brought Orthodoxy to the Slavs in the ninth century, they invented an alphabet so people could worship in their own tongue. When Russian missionaries reached Alaska, they translated the liturgy into Aleut and Tlingit. The Orthodox Church has never had a sacred liturgical language like Latin in the Catholic tradition. We’ve always believed that when you stand before God in prayer, you should understand what you’re saying.
The Antiochian Archdiocese in North America figured this out early. Metropolitan Antony Bashir pushed for English services back in the 1930s. He saw that the children of Arab immigrants were growing up American, and if the Church stayed exclusively Arabic, it would lose them. He was right. But he also saw something bigger, that Orthodoxy in America couldn’t remain an ethnic club if it was going to be the Church.
Here’s what happened. As the Archdiocese started using more English, something unexpected took place. Converts started showing up. Lots of them. People from Baptist and Methodist backgrounds here in Texas, former Catholics, seekers who’d never been to church. They encountered Orthodoxy and recognized it as the ancient faith of the Apostles. And they didn’t speak Arabic.
Today the Archdiocese is full of people named Smith and Johnson and Garcia. Our clergy include converts alongside men from Lebanese and Syrian families. Some parishes still use Arabic for parts of the service, especially if they have older members who grew up with it. Others use none at all. Both are fully Antiochian.
“Antiochian” doesn’t mean Arab. It means we’re part of the Church of Antioch, where believers were first called Christians. That Church has always included many peoples. In its history it’s used Syriac, Greek, Arabic, and other languages. The ancient Patriarchate of Antioch once stretched from the Mediterranean to Persia. It was never ethnically uniform.
What makes you Antiochian isn’t your last name or what language your grandmother spoke. It’s that you’re part of this particular expression of Orthodox Christianity, under this particular hierarchy, with its own history and character. We have certain customs, a certain approach to parish life, particular ways we’ve adapted Orthodox tradition to North American soil. That’s what being Antiochian means.
Some people worry about this. They think if we’re not preserving Arabic language and culture, we’re losing something essential. I understand that concern, especially for families whose faith and heritage are intertwined. But the faith isn’t the heritage. The faith transcends every culture even as it takes root in each one.
If you walk into an Antiochian parish in Southeast Texas and hear English, that’s not a watered-down version of the real thing. It’s Orthodoxy doing what it’s always done, speaking to people in words they understand, in a place they live, at a time in history when God has called them to be His people.
You’re welcome here whether your people came from Beirut or Beaumont. We’re not asking you to become Arab. We’re inviting you to become Orthodox.
