It's natural for Americans, including Southerners, to see their Protestant religious heritage in terms of the recent history of their English settler forebears who created the American republic. But before that? 1. Well, it's then natural to look back to England's Roman Catholic identity from the Norman Conquest to Henry VIII. This is the England of Wulfstan of Worcester, Osmund of Salisbury, Anselm of Canterbury, Stephen Harding, William of York, Robert of Newminster, Aelred of Rievaulx, Godric of Finchale, Thomas Becket, Gilbert of Sempringham, Hugh of Lincoln, Richard of Chichester, Simon Stock, Thomas of Hereford, John of Bridlington, John Fisher, Thomas More, John Houghton, Richard Reynolds, John Stone, Cuthbert Mayne, Edmund Campion, Ralph Sherwin, Alexander Briant, Luke Kirby, Margaret Clitherow, Margaret Ward, Robert Southwell, Henry Walpole, John Boste. But before that? 2. There was the England of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Augustine of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus and Canterbury, Æthelberht of Kent, Laurence of Canterbury, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus of York, Aidan of Lindisfarne, Alfred the Great, Oswald of Northumbria, Oswin of Deira, Birinus, Felix of Dunwich, Fursey, Cedd, Chad of Mercia, Wilfrid, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, Benedict Biscop, John of Beverly, Hilda of Whitby, Etheldreda of Ely, Werburgh of Chester, Frideswide of Oxford, Mildred of Thanet, Guthlac of Crowland, Bede the Venerable, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, Boniface, Willibrord, Alphege of Canterbury, Dunstan of Canterbury, Ethelwold of Winchester, Oswald of Worcester, Edmund the Martyr, Edward the Martyr, Swithun of Winchester -- and the martyred Harold II Godwinson and those with him at Hastings. And before that? 3. There was Romano-Celtic Britain before the Anglo-Saxon migration: Alban, Amphibalus, Julius of Caerleon, Aaron of Caerleon, Mellon of Rouen, Augulus of London, Aristobulus of Britannia, Patrick, Ninian, Fastidius, Socrates of Monmouthshire, Stephen of Monmouthshire, Columba, Baithéne mac Brénaind, Lasrén mac Feradaig, Fergno Britt mac Faílbi, Ségéne mac Fiachnaí, Cumméne Find, Fáilbe mac Pípáin, Adomnán mac Rónáin, Dúnchad mac Cinn Fáelad, Dorbbéne mac Altaíni, Fáelchú mac Dorbbéni, Aidan, Finan, Colman, Eata, Cuthbert, Eadberht, Eadfrith, Æthelwold, Higbald, Egbert. John Cardinal Newman famously observed: "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." That is absolutely true! But to be even deeper into history is to cease to be Roman Catholic. This is not a question of East vs. West. Before Old Rome fell into the heresies of papalism and the Filioque, and all that came with it, the West was fully a part of the #OrthodoxChurch. Some object: "But Anglo-Saxon England was under Rome!" We answer: Yes, but Rome was then still Orthodox! That included 2. Anglo-Saxon England and 3. Romano-Celtic Britain, above, to which today's Americans and Southerners trace their roots -- if they dig back far enough and don't stop with Henry or William the Conqueror. That's why the refugees after Hastings fled not to papalist Rome or France but to Orthodox Constantinople and Rus'. Only with the Norman Conquest did we see England torn from the bosom of Orthodoxy and dragged into error (see 1., above). It's high time we stop using the unnecessary modifier "Eastern." Yes, by God's mercy Orthodoxy was preserved in the East, despite centuries of Islamic and communist persecution (and attacks by our papalist western "cousins"). But now we are re-evangelizing the West to restore the West's older, sounder Orthodox heritage that was lost in the morass of papalism and Protestantism -- followed by the so-called "Enlightenment," the Age of "Progress," secularism, socialism, and 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ to which today's Rome and Protestant sects have succumbed. It's ironic that some Protestants and papalists want to dismiss Orthodoxy as too "ethnic," while they themselves plant their flag on a skewed "Western" (or American, or Southern) cultural identity that erases or distorts the earliest heritage of the Anglo-Saxon/Celtic forebears of the American and Southern culture. St. Dionysios the Areopagite didn't dismiss St. Paul because his preaching was "too Jewish" for Greeks. Ss. Æthelberht of Kent, Clovis of the Franks, Olaf of Norway, Vladimir of Kiev, Boris of Bulgaria, and many more didn't reject Christianity because it was "too Latin" or "too Greek" for their peoples. The Anglo-Saxons didn't dismiss St. Theodore of Tarsus (then of Canterbury) because he was "too Romaic (a/k/a "Byzantine")." Nor are increasing numbers of Americans, including particularly large numbers of Southerners, rejecting Orthodoxy because it's "too Eastern." Quite the contrary! After all, what we advocate is nowhere near as alien as what St. Dionysios, Æthelberht, Vladimir, etc., accepted. Rather, it's Americans' and Southerners' very own Anglo-Saxon/Celtic tradition taken back to before the errors of the Great Schism. Finally, I want to commend Dr Harrelson and others for their misguided, rearguard action to warn people away from Orthodoxy on specious "cultural" grounds. Past experience shows that such warnings lead to more waves of inquirers at our parishes. Keep up the good work! It only helps us spread our message: Huh -- why are these guys so worked up about this 'Orthodox' thingy? I guess I'd better check it out! Meanwhile, I say to one and all, find a local Orthodox parish and come and see! #OrthodoxChurch #OrthodoxChristian #Christianity #RomanCatholic #Protestant #Papacy #Filioque #South #Southern #Dixie @OrthodoxLudwell @THEORTHOCHAT @orthodox_33ad @OrthodoxPole81 @OrthodoxEthos @OrthodoxReflec1 @OrthodoxLurker @orthodox22790 @C2Antiquity @JayDyer @DeanChatt @X_orthodox