Parish Vision

St. Mary Magdalene has been serving the spiritual needs of those living in Genesee/Livingston County since 2002.  Below is a list of values that drive the way we live out our spiritual lives as a parish family.

Living Up to Our True Potential

Every person born into this world has been endowed with the image and likeness of God and is therefore capable of eternal life in Christ. Our parish exists for NO OTHER PURPOSE than the gaining of eternal life. 

“And this is eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou has sent.” (John 17:3).

What Does it Mean to be an Orthodox Christian?

“What is Orthodoxy, especially in relation to other Christian faiths? This is an essential question. And a short answer is: In comparison to other Christian faiths Orthodoxy is not simply a replacement of certain convictions for others, of certain worship practices for others, a correct rearrangement of right ideas, an alternative way of seeing things, a different system of beliefs and practices, or a different method of reading the Scriptures. It is not all these simply because Orthodoxy is not a system, is not a method, and is not a sum of beliefs and practices. It is not external, formal, ethical, deductive, definitional, or intellectual. Our faith is life itself and it reaches down into all the sinews and corners of our souls. It is internal, inherited, informal, natural, ascetical, simple, therapeutic, and soteriological. It comes down to living—both in this world and the the world to come—the life which God has given us through his revelations from the beginning of time all the way through today, revelations to the forefathers, the patriarchs, the prophets, apostles, evangelists, ascetics, martyrs, etc. This life which God gave to our ancestors and which we inherit is the life of God himself.  He has not simply taught them things, shown them ways, and given them commandments and liturgy, but in all these, he has given them his own being, his own life. The Orthodox faith lives the life of God.

And the living of God’s life comes down to the death of the ego, not comprehension, self-mastery, and self-consciousness. The living of God’s life consists of spiritual life, out of which come all other aspects of Tradition as natural expressions of it—doctrine, liturgy, etc. Procedurally, our Tradition does not favor dogmas, out of which one would be subsequently supposed to gain a sort of right positioning before God. Rather, our Tradition does, and does always, the death of the ego, as much as we could bear. 

This is why all the aspects of Orthodoxy—doctrine, scriptural exegesis, mission—are first and foremost liturgical. To be Ortho-dox means to “glorify properly” or to “worship rightly.” Specifically, the aspects of Orthodoxy are embodied in two churches at once: the church which is brick and mortar, and the church which is the human heart. To be Orthodox does not mean to be a believer who worships a few hours a week. Rather, we are inscribed in a perpetual worship, our tie to God himself in virtue of our creation and of our re-creation in baptism. 

Yet, the extent to which this is clear to us depends on our preparation for the liturgy. This is an essential distinction: one thing is the liturgy, which is a given and which contains all things, all time and all space, and another thing is our experience and awareness of it. And this is spiritual life: the gaining of this awareness, the preparation, the integration into the liturgy so that it does not remain an external thing, an act, but it becomes the very dance of one’s inner music played out by the Spirit on the sinews of one’s soul.”

-Fr. Silviu Bunta

Spreading the Gem of Orthodoxy to the Community

Orthodox Christianity is vitally relevant to the lives of this generation. Orthodoxy in America is not a “religious-cultural museum” but the fullness of the Apostolic Faith--its teachings and traditions handed down from one generation to the next “without addition, without diminution.” For this reason, we seek at all times and in every way, to evangelize our faith to all those whom we come into contact with.