Mission, evangelism and proselytism
One of the most important questions that Orthodox mission faces at the end of the 20th century is that of evangelism and proselytism and the difference between them. Some have said that there is no difference between them. If people talk about the need for evangelism, they meet with the response, "The Orthodox Church does not proselytise", as if evangelism and proselytism were the same thing..
Others are more concerned about proselytism from outside Orthodoxy - from the Western Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries who since the end of communism have been rushing in to convert Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and other traditionally Orthodox lands to their way of thinking.
Western Christians have tended to think of Orthodox Christians as somehow "non-missionary". The 20th century, after the First World War, has been the period of "ecumenical" contact between Christians of different traditions. But the mid-20th century, from 1920-1970, was the time when Orthodox mission was at its lowest ebb. After the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, Russia was virtually the only centre of Orthodox mission, and the Bolshevik revolution put an end to that.
The revival of Orthodox mission in our time is largely a result of seeds planted by people like Archbishop Yannoulatos of Albania, whose publication Porefthendes appealed for a renewed missionary vision in the 1950s and 1960s. In Africa, many people were clamouring to join the Orthodox Church in the 1930s, and brought a new mission vision to Orthodoxy in East Africa after the Second World War.
More recently people in other places have been drawn to Orthodoxy, not by Orthodox missionaries going out and proselytising, but because they believed that God was calling them to become Orthodox Christians. There was a group of "Evangelical Orthodox " in America, and groups in places like Portugal and Indonesia and the Philippines.
This process of people coming to Orthodoxy has led some to say that Orthodox mission is not "centrifugal", but "centripetal". Instead of missionaries going out, the Church waits for people to come in. But even this is not strictly true. If we look at Orthodox mission history, there are many instances in which missionaries have gone out to people of different cultures, or who live in different parts of the world. SS Cyril and Methodius, St Stephen of Perm, St Innocent of Alaska and St Nicholas of Japan are just a few examples of such missionaries.
The difference between evangelism and proselytism is not the same as the difference between centripetal and centrifugal mission, though it can perhaps give a clue to it.
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