Thinking of converting but have some questions about local church.

[BrokenOldWheel563]

Hey everyone.

I've been looking into both Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity over the past year, I find I'm more "drawn" to Orthodoxy if that makes sense. I spoke to the local priest and asked a couple questions and all that, but the problem is that I live in an area with few Orthodox Christians.

The church only has Liturgy every second week due to the priest traveling to other towns on the other weekends. That itself isn't so much a problem for me but the main problem is that the church's Liturgy is mostly done in Ukrainian the priest said (with a little bit of English) and I can't speak any Ukrainian.

The reason for the language part is mostly because the majority of the parishioners are refugees from the current war in Ukraine. I have absolutely no problem with Ukrainians obviously but I'm from an Anglo-Celtic background with English being my mother tongue.

Long story short is I'm concerned about whether I should bother converting to Orthodoxy (I'm agnostic) at the moment or wait until I possibly move to an area with a more English friendly Orthodox church.
Because I don't feel I'd enjoy the Liturgies if I have no idea what's being said, not to mention I wouldn't even be able to speak fluently with the person beside me if I needed any help or just during any time to be honest. I think I'd feel lonely and maybe even a nuisance to them.

It might sound kind of "petty" (not sure if that's the right word) to hold off (possible) conversion over this language issue, but in my opinion it's a big deal if I can't fit in with the local community or understand the service.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your replies, thanks.

 

[BrokenOldWheel563]

I guess I probably could have worded my post a lot better.
I'm not saying that I'm definitely converting to Orthodoxy or any denomination of Christianity any time soon. It'll be a long journey and there's still lots of learning that I need to do and questions to ask myself.

Really my main question is if whether people here thought it would be worth it (possibly in the future, not any time soon, because I still have lots to learn) to join the Orthodox community if
I can't understand the majority of the services.

But now that I think about it, I think I probably shouldn't have created this thread. I sort of know that the answer is kind of obvious and that I think I might just stick to studying and learning about the faith at home and if I ever move to a more English speaking Orthodox area, then maybe I'll have it done officially.

I don't know, I'll try and speak to the priest again and get his opinion. Thanks for the replies though everyone.

 

[Kevin Armstrong]

I think I read one of your posts elsewhere saying that you were about to start an RCIA course? I was going to ask a few questions about that but decided not to. Now, having seen this, I see parallels with my situation.
I've posted about seeking a new direction in faith after over 50 years away and in summary, I was looking to RC. I was about to join an RCIA class but then hit problems with my marriage/divorce situation.
I've also been looking at Orthodox Churches but as with you, the language problem seems insurmountable.
If you get chance, I'd be interested to know what happens at your RCIA, in particular, the backgrounds of others in the group.