Looking for Perspective and some guidance
For some background info, I come from a Coptic orthodox background in a city and a community that's only had 1 Coptic church present for 45 years now. We recently, in the last 3.5 years, have seen an surge of Catechumens and quite a few baptisms into the faith (yay). Then recently, we've been struck with some tough news that a recent lead of the catechumen class and some of the recently baptized have left our parish for another Eastern orthodox church, due to issues of Culture in the church. Issues that unfortunately have affected his family, micro-racism that truly has upset me that it still occurs towards people within a Church community. A lot of compounded moments have led to them leaving our specific parish and I guess I'm just saddened primarily by the choice made.
To my knowledge, this isn't an uncommon complaint within Orthodox parishes, it happens all the time. I guess I'm personally struggling with losing a fellow comrade in service, and honestly a mentor.
That being said, I always felt that the Body and Blood of Christ that we partake in more than enough for us. Christ and the apostles endured such treacherous moments in their lives and, in yet the present day, these cultural issues that occur in church create such a rift for many and divide communities.
I'm just at a loss of how to even approach a change when certain things are engrained in a peoples way of life and upbringing. Some moments are unintentional and unintended and people hurt, yet i do wonder what our goal is when it comes to church as whole, if these cultural issues continue to drive people away?
I know I'm rambling a bit, i hope there's even a string of thoughts in this message that actually makes sense, but would love to hear others perspective.