When William Rosenblatt arrived at Furman University to study medicine, he knew he would be in for a healthy dose of Latin, the language of many medical terms still used today.
What he didn’t count on being exposed to was Greek.
So when he saw a flier on campus announcing a talk “Is It Greek To You?” sponsored by a campus Orthodox Church group, it piqued his curiosity.
“At the time, the only thing I knew about the Orthodox Church was that it was the state religion of Greece,” said Rosenblatt, who grew up in the Presbyterian Church. “I found out it was worldwide and the second largest Christian church in the world. The more I learned, the more it appealed to me.”
The Orthodox Church is often known as the Greek, Russian or Eastern Orthodox Church. In the United States, it’s called the Orthodox Church in America, and traces its American roots to 1865 when Eastern Orthodox Russia sold Alaska to the United States. Early on, the church grew through immigration from Eastern Europe and their descendants. More recently, its rolls are filled more and more by converts like Rosenblatt, especially in the South.
Rosenblatt admits his initial encounters with the Orthodox Church – whose roots, traditions, rituals and liturgy go back to the founding of the Christian faith (The Orthodox Church broke away from Catholicism in what is called “The Great Schism” in 1054) – were a bit perplexing.
“If you walk into an Orthodox Church without knowing much about it, it’s going to feel very odd, very different,” Rosenblatt said. “There were a lot of things I didn’t fully understand at first, but once I delved into the theology of what was going on and the historical roots, the depths of the beauty of the church began to grow. It was certainly a dramatic shift from the Protestant Christian church I had grown up in.”
When Rosenblatt, who converted to the Orthodox Church as a sophomore at Furman, began dating Myra, another medical student, he brought her along to interest meetings on campus. Myra grew up in the Southern Baptist church, but she soon began to be drawn to the Orthodox Church.
“We were from similar church backgrounds, so we processed what we were hearing in much the same way,” Rosenblatt said. “What appealed to me about the Orthodox Church appealed to her. It became another thing we shared as our relationship developed into our marriage.”
After finishing medical school at Ole Miss and his residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Rosenblatt moved to Columbus in 2017 to practice internal medicine at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle. Myra was an optometrist for 10 years before leaving the field to be a full-time mom to the couple’s children, Lyle (8) and Clara (6).
Upon arriving in Columbus, the Rosenblatts realized that there was no Orthodox Church in town, so they drove to Tupelo to attend services. It was at one of those services in Tupelo that they met Jason and Kelsey Bigelow, also of Columbus.
“It was one of those ‘it’s a small world’ moments when we met them,” Rosenblatt said. “We started to think maybe we should consider starting a church in Columbus.”
For guidance, the two couples turned to Paul Yerger, who was Kelsey Bigelow’s priest in Clinton.
“The first thing he told us is that it was going to be a whole lot easier to drive an hour-and-a-half than to start a church,” Rosenblatt said.
In June 2018, the first services were conducted at St. Catherine Orthodox Church at 725 Fourth Ave. N. Unlike with many startup churches, the Rosenblatts and Bigelows were determined to avoid a temporary storefront location.
“We were committed to having our own permanent space,” Rosenblatt said. “Nothing delegitimizes a church more than not having that space. We bought the church, which had been a Christian Science Church that was down to just one member. We felt that was a big part of getting established.”
In its six years, the church has grown from four families and about 15 people total to a congregation of about 55 active members.
The church also has a new priest, Father Herman Garrison, a freshly-minted priest from Texas, who arrived in January.
As part of the split with the Catholic Church, The Orthodox Church celebrates Easter on a date based on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used by Catholics and other Christians churches.
That means this week is Holy Week for Orthodox Churches worldwide. Orthodox Easter this year falls on May 5.
Garrison said that while all services are open to anyone who wants to see what the Orthodox Church is all about, he suggests first-time attendees attend Saturday services, which are less formal.
“Our services are considered High Church, so a lot of what happens in the services may be hard to follow for newcomers,” Garrison said. “That’s fine, of course. But attending a Saturday service is probably an easier introduction to how we do services. And, since most of us, including myself, are converts we can relate to that. We want everyone to be comfortable and feel accepted.”
Garrison said those who might want to do a little homework on the religion before attending a service can find a lot of useful information at orthodoxintro.com.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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