Rejuvenating Orthodox Missionarism among the Laymen: The Romanian Orthodox Fellowship in Interwar Transylvania

Abstract

The paper discusses the interwar activism of Orthodox laymen and the founding of the organization of Romanian Orthodox Fellowship. By arguing that they subsequently answered to the call of the Transylvanian Orthodox bishops, it addresses how this initiative of Orthodox laity and clergy meant to counterbalance both the Greek-Catholic oriented propaganda in the intellectual milieus and the corrosive influences of modernity, stemming from secular circles. Another aim targeted by the paper is to emphasize that Archbishop Andrei Șaguna's 19 th century reflections about the status of the ecclesiastical collegiality between the clergy and the laymen in the institutional structures of the Orthodox Church received their actual confirmation with the formation of the Romanian Orthodox Fellowship of intellectuals and their theological framework with the theological reflections highlighting the importance of the laity laid by Fr. Liviu Stan (1909-1973).

A Contested Patriarchate

“…46 The Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna had intended lay involvement in the Church as a way of providing political representation to the otherwise disenfranchised Transylvanian Romanians, and Ionuţ Biliuţă argues that Şaguna's reforms represented the beginning 'of a consciously shaped nationalistic "political Orthodoxy" in order to mobilize the Orthodox intellectuals and clergymen around the same nationalist ideas' . 47 Stan was an active member of the Legion of the Archangel Michael during the 1930s, and he explicitly drew on both Şaguna's heritage and the example of Catholic Action as the inspirations for involving laypeople in a politicized, nationalist approach to Orthodoxy in a way that resonated with Vartolomeu Stănescu's version of Social Christianity. 48 Şaguna campaigned for several decades to establish Transylvania as a separate metropolitanate independent of Serbian control and finally achieved his goal in 1864, also incorporating two related dioceses -one in Arad and the other in Caransebeş.…”