[dalnecymync]

Hello Mr Nebojsa, I am a recent convert to Romanian Orthodox so a close neighbor of yours although I now live in London. The Church I attend now is shared with an English Church in Fleet Street London but the Iconastis comes from a Church in Bucharest. The services are primarily Romanian with a little bit of English. When I have mentioned my conversion people are initially surprised but see it as a good thing and are not judgmental, however most of them are entirely unfamiliar with what it actually means. Interestingly because of their unfamiliarity (with the exception of the Greek and other Orthodox immigrant communities) it appears not to be considered something old and retrograde but more foreign and exotic and all of the Christian Orthodox I have met so far have been born into it rather than converted. Conversion may be more common in the USA than in the UK but I cannot comment on that but this may be because of the Orthodox Church of America and the primacy of English over the immigrant languages and less so in England because of the historical evolution of the Church in England. I was more likely to experience the old fashioned view with the younger generation (sub 18 years old) when I was in Romania and I found that view more common in the city than in the country where the Churches are well attended and many new ones still being built.