New York Times Op-Ed: Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts, by Ruth Graham:

Something is changing in an otherwise quiet corner of Christianity in the United States, one that prides itself on how little it has changed over time. Priests are swapping stories about record attendance numbers. Older members are adjusting — or not — to the influx of new attendees. Parishes are strategizing about how to accommodate more prospective converts than existing clergy can reasonably handle on their own.

Across the country, the ancient tradition of Orthodox Christianity is attracting energetic new adherents, especially among conservative young men. They are drawn to what they describe as a more demanding, even difficult, practice of Christianity. Echoing some of the rhetoric of the so-called manosphere, new waves of young converts say Orthodoxy offers them hard truths and affirms their masculinity.

“In the whole history of the Orthodox Church in America, this has never been seen,” the Very Rev. Andrew Damick, an Antiochian Orthodox priest and author in Eastern Pennsylvania, said of the large groups of young people showing up at many parishes. “This is new ground for everyone.”

In the United States, Orthodox Christianity is by far the smallest and least-known of the three major branches of Christianity, representing about 1 percent of the population, compared with about 40 percent who are Protestant and 20 percent who are Catholic. Orthodox pews here have historically been occupied by immigrants from Ukraine, Greece and other countries with large Orthodox populations. Their American-born children often drift to other churches.

But a homegrown Orthodox Christianity is strikingly emergent. Many of the young Americans new to the pews have been introduced to Orthodoxy by hard-edge influencers on YouTube and other social media platforms. Critics call the enthusiastic young converts “Orthobros.” …

One night this summer, the young adults of All Saints Orthodox Church in Raleigh, N.C., gathered at a bookshop and bar on the city’s north side. At the event’s peak, there were a mere handful of women present, and more than 40 men. The men noticed, and believed they knew why.

Orthodoxy “appeals to the masculine soul,” said Josh Elkins, a student at North Carolina State University who was chatting with other young men.

“The Orthodox Church is the only church that really coaches men hard, and says, ‘This is what you need to do,’” said Mr. Elkins, 20, who casually quoted a second-century martyr and rattled off terms like “monarchical episcopate” in conversation. He beamed as he talked about the weekly worship service known as the Divine Liturgy, an hourslong affair at which attendees typically stand the entire time, rather than sitting in the pews or kneeling.

The Divine Liturgy is just one aspect of Orthodox faith and practice that is unfamiliar to many Americans, including other Christians. Orthodox services include chanting, incense and genuflecting deeply before painted icons. Much of the liturgy takes place out of the sight of the congregation. The church also maintains a strict and complicated schedule of fasting. …

Generation Z is upending the expectations of many scholars and faith leaders, who watched the country steadily secularizing for decades, with each generation less religious than the last. Some recent surveys suggest that young adult men are defying that trend.

The Orthodox Church traces its ecclesiastical lineage to Jesus Christ and the early apostles. As Christianity expanded in its first millennium, a theological and political divide opened between the Eastern church and the Western, or Roman Catholic, church. A schism in the 11th century over issues including papal authority divided the two bodies definitively, with Eastern Orthodoxy flourishing in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia.

Orthodox Christians in the United States are younger and more male than many other Christian groups here. More than 60 percent of them are men, compared with 46 percent of evangelicals, according to the Pew Research Center. Orthodox Christians are also much younger, with 24 percent of adult adherents younger than 30, compared with 14 percent of evangelicals. The gaps are the same as those between Orthodox Christians and Catholics.

Some converts report approvingly that Orthodoxy has a more masculine feel than other traditions. Priests, who must be male and can marry, often have large beards and big families. Orthodoxy asks practitioners to make sacrifices like fasting, rather than offering them emotional contemporary music and therapeutic sermons, which critics describe as the typical evangelical megachurch experience. …

The new energy in many Orthodox parishes tracks with broader trends among young men embracing harder-edge and more intense versions of several Christian traditions. In the Catholic church, a significant minority of young people prefer the pre-Vatican II Traditional Latin Mass, and attend parishes where women wear veils to mass.

These remain relatively small religious subcultures, but they are part of a shift that enthusiastic observers are calling a revival. Pew Research found this year that after years of decline, the Christian population in the United States has been stable for several years, a change fueled in part by young adults.

Some argue that the common denominator in churches attracting young people is not their style of worship but their treatment of the supernatural. Father Damick, the priest in Pennsylvania, pointed out that charismatic Christianity, whose theology includes an openness to faith healing and “spiritual warfare,” has also resisted trends of religious decline.

“You’re much more likely to see growth in churches that are not just conservative morally, but that take the unseen world seriously,” said Father Damick, who is also chief content officer of Ancient Faith Ministries, a pan-Orthodox publisher and media group.

Many converts say they appreciate the notion that Orthodox theology and practices have remained the same since the birth of Christianity.

As a joke recounted fondly in Orthodox circles puts it: “How many Orthodox does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer: “Change? What’s that?”

“The Orthodox Church stands as the hope of those who wish to be normal, to be healthy, true and beautiful,” said the Rev. David Winn, the priest at All Saints. …

The online influencers that many young men credit with introducing them to Orthodoxy speak directly about politics and culture in a way that parish priests more often avoid. They tend to share an unbending social conservatism, with a particular interest in the “traditional family” and what they describe as the threats of feminism, homosexuality and transgender identities. They are also generally opposed to the state of Israel.

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