Churches continue to recover after shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in decreased in-person attendance. One church that is seeing pre-pandemic recovery is Orthodox churches. In 2022, Orthodox churches saw a 78% increase in converts compared to numbers in 2019. Even more surprisingly, many of these converts are young men and many are coming from Protestant denominations that have grown increasingly liberal over the past decade. Such a shift away from “traditional” values like traditional marriage, male leadership, and traditional church staples like hymns or the sacrament of Communion, has created a yearning for a return to an earlier or, as Tara Burton of The New York Times writes, an “anti-modern” way of faith. “More and more young Christians, disillusioned by the political binaries, economic uncertainties and spiritual emptiness that have come to define modern America, are finding solace in a decidedly anti-modern vision of faith, wrote Burton.

he New York Post featured the story of 27-year-old Ben Christenson of Fairfax, VA. Raised in the Anglican church, Christenson became alarmed by the growing shift away from tradition, such as replacing choirs for worship bands or permitting of LGBTQ+ priests. “It seems to me like the mainline denominations are hemorrhaging people. If you still are serious about being a Christian now that there isn’t really as much social status tied up in it, and you want something that has some heft to it, there’s more of an awareness of Orthodoxy than there used to be,” he said. At 25, he converted to the Orthodox church.

Part of the appeal of Orthodox churches lies in their structure. Writing for Engage Orthodoxy, Jacob Sparks listed three ways the Orthodox church appeals to younger people: it offers structure, a sense of purpose, and orthodoxy contains a sense of history and connection to the past. Orthodoxy appeals to men in particular because of its more “masculine” approach to worship. Zachary Garris of American Reformer pointed to how Orthodox churches speak to the innate desires of men. “We live in a day and age where modern academics, politicians, and religious leaders are destroying our traditions. They tear down our statues. They erect ugly buildings. They whitewash our history. We are in a battle for the future, and that means we are in a battle for the past. Young men and women need history. They need tradition. They long for it.” Garris, however, took issue with some of the focuses of orthodoxy, such as a focus on icons over Scripture. He called for a “masculine Protestantism” that focused on Sola Scriputra, or the Bible as the ultimate authority of the church. “Men don’t always know what they need. But modern men know they are looking for something. They want tradition and grounding. And Orthodoxy and Catholicism will win the day so long as Protestants continue to spurn their tradition. “Men don’t always know what they need,” he warned. “But modern men know they are looking for something. They want tradition and grounding. And Orthodoxy and Catholicism will win the day so long as Protestants continue to spurn their tradition.”