I do think this Orthodoxy and ethnicity thing is overblown. Whilst still Catholic, there were definitely Irish, Italian, Afro-Caribbean and Polish majority parishes that I knew of, which if you weren't of those communities, you didn't go to. I think it is better to see Church as family. You can have some family members you feel closer to than others, but they are still family. I attend the Romanian Orthodox church. Whilst I will never be ethnically Romanian, they are my brothers and sisters. I visit Serbia a lot and when I am there if anything I feel closer to them and their way of doing liturgy and their whole way of living the faith. You can be closer to one sibling than another in a family, that is OK. I have attended Russian churches too and feel less at home there (reminds me a lot of the TLM), she feels like a stuffy and slightly scary aunt, but I still love her. I should feel most at home in the Antiochian parish near my home town in the UK, but I don't. There is an eclectic mix of old world Orthodox and local multi-ethnic converts. What I do notice about Orthodox parishes in non-Orthodox countries is that it is the background of the priest which determines so much about the culture of the parish. If your priest is imported from the Old World, if your priest is a former Lutheran or Anglican, if your priest is ex-Catholic, this affects the style of the liturgy, the style of the homily and the extent to which the parish integrates with one another. And none of these things actually matter, because everything we experience (whether we like it or not) has the ability to turn us into saints!
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I do think this Orthodoxy and ethnicity thing is overblown. Whilst still Catholic, there were definitely Irish, Italian, Afro-Caribbean and Polish majority parishes that I knew of, which if you weren't of those communities, you didn't go to. I think it is better to see Church as family. You can have some family members you feel closer to than others, but they are still family. I attend the Romanian Orthodox church. Whilst I will never be ethnically Romanian, they are my brothers and sisters. I visit Serbia a lot and when I am there if anything I feel closer to them and their way of doing liturgy and their whole way of living the faith. You can be closer to one sibling than another in a family, that is OK. I have attended Russian churches too and feel less at home there (reminds me a lot of the TLM), she feels like a stuffy and slightly scary aunt, but I still love her.
I should feel most at home in the Antiochian parish near my home town in the UK, but I don't. There is an eclectic mix of old world Orthodox and local multi-ethnic converts. What I do notice about Orthodox parishes in non-Orthodox countries is that it is the background of the priest which determines so much about the culture of the parish. If your priest is imported from the Old World, if your priest is a former Lutheran or Anglican, if your priest is ex-Catholic, this affects the style of the liturgy, the style of the homily and the extent to which the parish integrates with one another. And none of these things actually matter, because everything we experience (whether we like it or not) has the ability to turn us into saints!