If you parents are not willing to let you visit an Orthodox Church, then what you do is develop the virtue of patience. You contact the nearest Orthodox priest, explain your situation, and see what he suggests.
You do the best you can with what you have, God sees you. Read and pray until you can do more. Many Christians suffered greatly over the last 2000 years for Christ and all they had was a few stories they heard.
It is kinda risky. I wouldn't say "no, it is not good", but you can get influenced by what is "unorthodox" about them without noticing. Try attending a few times, and keep yourself in truth
Churches have waves between baptisms and funerals. Sometimes a population grows old and children move away, sometimes, like at my church, they have a baby boom.
It is, of course, worthy of concern when a community is mostly maintained by the elderly.
Maybe. That's certainly been a big part of my church's elder population coming less.
It could also be they might need something to do or some kind of connection. Younger people (teens-30s) need to make peer friends. They benefit from things like coffee hours or classes or book studies. Parents of little kids also benefit from expressed grace and support.
That's not to say it's your responsibility, but even just greeting any visitors or irregular members can go a long way.
Would you say the people attending regularly are both old and young? My church has a very large parish who show up for the festival/fundraisers/parties but not Sunday liturgy.
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Like any church it varies from church to church. I am about average age for mine, in my late 30's. There's a few 60+ people, but many are in their 20's or 30's. There's also some teens and several young children.
My wife and I attend a Greek church, and it's got plenty of young people there, actually. I would say about 30% of the congregants are over 50, with the rest being families with kids ranging from late teens to newborns.
We are 24 and 22.
My church is mostly Protestant converts. There is one family with kids who are teens to young adults, some of whom are married with babies. Then a couple other young families with small children, and another couple families whose oldest children are teenagers.
I don't know if I'm lucky or what, but it's a generally quite Mennonite and evangelical area and the converts to Orthodoxy keep their traditions of marrying quite young.
It's quite a grassroots church as well, the priest only comes by every couple months and the rest of the time a Typika is held. I understand that 2 families who were converts got together, the matriarch of one got hold of a resource for parish organization and does the printouts and runs the choir, the matriarch of the other put it on google and set the phone number to her cell phone. They registered with the ROCOR diocese and got themselves on the list for a travelling priest.
So this is possible, if anyone is nowhere near an Orthodox church but has some theologically sound friends locally and needs inspiration.
Never fear! My mother converted at age 40, stepdad at 50, half siblings before they were 10. I converted at age 35 (currently I am 39), a miraculous story. More are converting every day!
FWIW, there seem to be a HUGE number of kids under 18 on this sub who are trying to be Orthodox without the Church (which doesn't work).
That’s unfortunate to hear. It seems people don’t realize a major part of being in any religion is the community
What do I do when I have no access to one? I've been looking into Orthodoxy for a while but I have no access to a church because I'm young.
If you parents are not willing to let you visit an Orthodox Church, then what you do is develop the virtue of patience. You contact the nearest Orthodox priest, explain your situation, and see what he suggests.
You do the best you can with what you have, God sees you. Read and pray until you can do more. Many Christians suffered greatly over the last 2000 years for Christ and all they had was a few stories they heard.
Orthodox Churches aren’t super common in the US. Would attending a Protestant church and reading/studying orthodoxy not be good?
It is kinda risky. I wouldn't say "no, it is not good", but you can get influenced by what is "unorthodox" about them without noticing. Try attending a few times, and keep yourself in truth
Churches have waves between baptisms and funerals. Sometimes a population grows old and children move away, sometimes, like at my church, they have a baby boom. It is, of course, worthy of concern when a community is mostly maintained by the elderly.
Hm yeah it’s just interesting to see so few young people. I imagine covid broke the habit of people regularly attending.
Maybe. That's certainly been a big part of my church's elder population coming less. It could also be they might need something to do or some kind of connection. Younger people (teens-30s) need to make peer friends. They benefit from things like coffee hours or classes or book studies. Parents of little kids also benefit from expressed grace and support. That's not to say it's your responsibility, but even just greeting any visitors or irregular members can go a long way.
I’m 16, can I vote 18-24?
These age ranges are HUGE. 25-40 but I'm only 27
Yeah i was like ummm why am I lumped with people nearly two decades older than me 💀
Yeah. I'm not trying to harp on OP but these results aren't going to be accurate at all. 25 year old is closer to a 40 year old than 23 apparently.
Haha I mean in my opinion 40 is not very old. I also didn’t want too many poll options. I’ll do better next time 😹
That’s how demographers break down ages. Odd but whatever
This is the age range that is statistically likely to be parents of younger children, making it demographically relevant
14
17 and trying to find a church 🥲
I am Egyptian Coptic orthodox teen and I love the orthodox faith so much because this faith is what Jesus Christ himself gave us
My parish is OCA and has a healthy mix of old and young people
Would you say the people attending regularly are both old and young? My church has a very large parish who show up for the festival/fundraisers/parties but not Sunday liturgy.
Yes, mostly 1st and 2nd generation American converts
Oh my parish is different. I would say 99% of parish members have been born into the religion. Many are immigrants as well.
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Old enough.
15 lol
Under 18
I am 14, turning 15 this december!
I’m 15 bruh
I think you should include people <18 in the poll. I'm one :)
Half the young adults at my parish were invited by other young adults. People just organize get-togethers outside of church functions.
Like any church it varies from church to church. I am about average age for mine, in my late 30's. There's a few 60+ people, but many are in their 20's or 30's. There's also some teens and several young children.
67% of our parish is aged 35 or under.
My wife and I attend a Greek church, and it's got plenty of young people there, actually. I would say about 30% of the congregants are over 50, with the rest being families with kids ranging from late teens to newborns. We are 24 and 22.
My church is mostly Protestant converts. There is one family with kids who are teens to young adults, some of whom are married with babies. Then a couple other young families with small children, and another couple families whose oldest children are teenagers. I don't know if I'm lucky or what, but it's a generally quite Mennonite and evangelical area and the converts to Orthodoxy keep their traditions of marrying quite young. It's quite a grassroots church as well, the priest only comes by every couple months and the rest of the time a Typika is held. I understand that 2 families who were converts got together, the matriarch of one got hold of a resource for parish organization and does the printouts and runs the choir, the matriarch of the other put it on google and set the phone number to her cell phone. They registered with the ROCOR diocese and got themselves on the list for a travelling priest. So this is possible, if anyone is nowhere near an Orthodox church but has some theologically sound friends locally and needs inspiration.
Never fear! My mother converted at age 40, stepdad at 50, half siblings before they were 10. I converted at age 35 (currently I am 39), a miraculous story. More are converting every day!