Re: conversion?

Whoaaa! Now hold on! No one is talking about changing the divine liturgy or changing the Orthodox traditions. The fact of the matter is: it IS an Orthodox tradition to have the divine liturgy in the language of the people. When Orthodoxy was brought to Slavic lands, it was Greeks who translated it from Greek INTO slavonic. In fact, they invented a Slavonic language for them. You'd be hard-pressed to find Greek churches in Moscow today. :-)

This is America and the liturgy is better served in the language of the people... and that happens to be English for the most part. When Greeks, Lebanese, Serbians and Russians go to work on Monday... when they head off to Safeway for groceries... and go to the movies to watch "The Passion of the Christ", they are generally speaking and understanding English. There is absolutely no good reason to have the Divine Liturgy in any language but English in America. We certainly don't mind Arabic, Greek, Serbian, Russian (or whatever) responses from time to time during the Liturgy. But by and large, this ethnic ghettoism has got to stop. Even Metropolitan Philip called it a scandal.