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<blockquote data-quote="Sol Invictus" data-source="post: 1497514" data-attributes="member: 4708"><p>I&#039;m probably not the best to answer this, but I&#039;ll put in my 2 cents anyway. I&#039;m joining ROCOR, and although I don&#039;t have a whole lot of choice due to where I live, it&#039;s my first pick anyway for a number of reasons. Having said that, there doesn&#039;t seem to be that much of an &quot;ethnic club&quot; in my parish, as it is rather small and is close to 50% converts. I think the &quot;ethnic club&quot; aspect gets overplayed a bit in Orthodox (and other) circles anyway. If someone is really wanting to pursue the truth, they&#039;re not going to let something such as this get in the way. I think even a cold reception to someone showing up for their first service will turn much warmer once the person becomes a regular fixture in the church and takes the time to get to know some of the parishoners. I can definitely tell you that someone who comes to my parish who isn&#039;t Russian and doesn&#039;t speak the language isn&#039;t going to get stared down or shunned, and will probably fit right in as long as they&#039;re respectful of the culture. Honestly, just showing an interest in the culture will go a long, long way towards being fully accepted by everyone else, especially in a Russian parish. I imagine it wouldn&#039;t be much different in others.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Sol Invictus, post: 1497514, member: 4708"] I'm probably not the best to answer this, but I'll put in my 2 cents anyway. I'm joining ROCOR, and although I don't have a whole lot of choice due to where I live, it's my first pick anyway for a number of reasons. Having said that, there doesn't seem to be that much of an "ethnic club" in my parish, as it is rather small and is close to 50% converts. I think the "ethnic club" aspect gets overplayed a bit in Orthodox (and other) circles anyway. If someone is really wanting to pursue the truth, they're not going to let something such as this get in the way. I think even a cold reception to someone showing up for their first service will turn much warmer once the person becomes a regular fixture in the church and takes the time to get to know some of the parishoners. I can definitely tell you that someone who comes to my parish who isn't Russian and doesn't speak the language isn't going to get stared down or shunned, and will probably fit right in as long as they're respectful of the culture. Honestly, just showing an interest in the culture will go a long, long way towards being fully accepted by everyone else, especially in a Russian parish. I imagine it wouldn't be much different in others. [/QUOTE]

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