email to orthodox churches

I want to send an email to orthodox churches to see how they are organized.  This is what I plan to send:

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subject: Service arrangement?

I would like to know how your Sunday service is organized.  Are there pews where people sit, or do people stand in the traditional style?  Are men on one side and women on the other side, or are the sexes mixed?  I am looking for a church that is not "conformed to this age" (Romans 12:2) so I prefer standing with the sexes separated.  There seems to be some support for this in Orthodox Christianity.

http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/pews.aspx
https://johnbelovedhabib.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/the-early-church-tradition-of-separate-seating-ancient-practice-not-a-cultural-anomaly/

Also please note that I am not Christian.  But I very much like the style of Orthodox churches and I like the Orthodox liturgy.  I find the Orthodox church to be an island of spiritual sanity in our spiritually insane world of modern culture.  But of course I do not want to go where I am not welcome.  So my other question is do you accept non-Christians attending your church?
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Okay?

Should reverse the second and first part. Start with "I am not Christian"

On Wednesday, December 23, 2015, fschmidt [via Mikraite] <[hidden email]> wrote:

I want to send an email to orthodox churches to see how they are organized.  This is what I plan to send:

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subject: Service arrangement?

I would like to know how your Sunday service is organized.  Are there pews where people sit, or do people stand in the traditional style?  Are men on one side and women on the other side, or are the sexes mixed?  I am looking for a church that is not "conformed to this age" (Romans 12:2) so I prefer standing with the sexes separated.  There seems to be some support for this in Orthodox Christianity.

http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/pews.aspx
https://johnbelovedhabib.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/the-early-church-tradition-of-separate-seating-ancient-practice-not-a-cultural-anomaly/

Also please note that I am not Christian.  But I very much like the style of Orthodox churches and I like the Orthodox liturgy.  I find the Orthodox church to be an island of spiritual sanity in our spiritually insane world of modern culture.  But of course I do not want to go where I am not welcome.  So my other question is do you tolerate non-Christians in your church?
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Okay?

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NAML

Here is an update:

http://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=29182

The True Orthodox church in Austin isn't promising.  It is a tiny church in a small town.  The few people in church were just local people who stumbled in, probably mostly because it was the closest church to them.  No community at all.  The priest reflected what I saw online, meaning good intentions.  But when I discussed the need to encourage people attending his church to separate themselves from modern culture, he just didn't really understand it.  He said that Orthodoxy has traditionally used prayer and fasting to build up commitment among followers.  I told him that this can't compete with TV if it is in the house, and he just shrugged it off.  I asked him if there are other True Orthodox churches that are bigger, and he said only in the northeast where there are a lot of Greek immigrants.  So this means that this religion hasn't at all figured out how to function in America.

At this point the Conservative Mennonites seem like clear winners to me.  I will visit one of their churches in the Dallas area in 2 weeks.  Of course I welcome anyone to investigate whatever religion they think is promising.

Have you considered looking into other sects of Judaism as well as Christianity? Since you regard Karaite Judaism as the closest to your own set of beliefs, perhaps it would be a good idea to find other Karaite Jews. Unfortunately, it looks like there is only one Karaite Jewish Synagogue in Daly City, California (http://www.karaites.org/synagogue.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_B%27nai_Israel_(Daly_City,_California). Maybe you could check it out during the Bay Area meetup in a few weeks?

We looked at a lot of options including the Karaite synagogue in Daly City which I visited twice.  The Karaites follow the rules of the Old Testament without really inderstanding the principles behind it.  They see no problem with modern culture at all.  This blog reflects their thinking:

http://abluethread.com/

Karaite Judaism is strong evidence that most people don't have the intellectual capacity to understand the Old Testament.

I follow the Orthodox tradition. I've never known a gender split church, in any country I've been in. However, many churches I've been in have encouraged modest dress for women.

Would a Mikraite community prohibit the use of television and other media outlets? I personally don't watch much television, but I think there is value in some old films, older children's shows that can help visual learning, historic footage, etc.

Which Orthodox countries have you been to?

We don't have any current plans to regulate media.

Well, whenever I go to a new country, I will go and find an Orthodox church, or if I can't find one, an R.C. church, in order to fulfil Sunday obligation.  

Out of the countries I have been to, I think Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina would qualify as 'Orthodox' countries in terms of it being the dominant religion. That doesn't mean everyone practices it though. But there are significant cultural resonances from it regardless. Both of those countries put an emphasis on traditionally masculine qualities for men, and feminine qualities for women, for example. And there is a strong attachment to preserving the family and home. I currently live in the UK, which is predominantly secular, so I can notice the differences fairly easily.

So you are saying that the sexes aren't separated in service in Greece?  My understand is that they are, but I could be wrong.

I do know that the sexes have been traditionally separated in Christianity, as in every other traditional religion.  Even the Catholic Church did this in Mexico when my wife was a child.  A church that fails to do this is clearly giving in to modern culture, there is no other reason to mix the sexes.

I actually didn't notice if it was in place. I was attending with a family I knew, so I was standing with the parents and children. In Bosnia it was mixed seating.

It's a shame Mexican churches no longer have that practice. I doubt that it is a reversible trend.

True Orthodoxy is reversing this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Orthodoxy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75AhGD3ft-c&list=PLBAFCA1A1CA18558A

And of course Conservative Mennonites never lost it.

I like the Mennonite style of living very much, they seem to have a good balance on being 'in the world but not of it'.