This site, Orthodox Network, is an Eastern Orthodox Christian social networking site.
For those who knew OrthodoXCircle, it was a lovely little gem, and one that has been rather painfully missed. It provided a nice online community for Orthodox Christians. And since it's been gone, I don't think I'm the only one who has wanted to set things up, at least until OrthodoXCircle returns.
You can Sign up and Log in to join.
Orthodox Network is intended for Orthodox Christians who believe the Seven Ecumenical Councils even if they can't name one of them, and perhaps it would be helpful to say what it is not. Orthodox Network is a Christian forum and is not intended for Catholics and Protestants, particularly not those who find it obvious that we agree on everything essential. Less obviously, this is not intended for non-Ephesians and non-Chalcedonians. Some think Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox are saying the same thing in different words, but the anathemas have not been lifted and can't be lifted, short of an Ecumenical Council. Moving right along, it's fine if you wince at one or two of the things the Ecumenical Patriarch does (I do), but if you are too Orthodox to be in communion with him, you wouldn't enjoy the company here. (We're all liberal ecumenists.) But if you have strong ecumenical leanings or frequently appeal to "Blessed Seraphim Rose", you might be allowed in, but we're at least talking a shade of grey. And so it goes.
To ironically quote a Roman Catholic after saying that, I would recall G.K. Chesterton:
"The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom. But in the modern philosophy the case is opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within."
The point of making such a pointed fence is to allow free play inside. It is meant as a place for Orthodox to find a garden. "A garden locked, a fountain sealed" (Sg 4.12) is for much more in life than just marriage. Aspects of it work out in one's interior life, in friendship, in culture, and reaches its supreme example in the Orthodox Church whose closed communion is the outer shell that has divine life inside.
