Offline
This came up in a discussion today: Let's say for whatever reason you are Russian Orthodox and want to start going to a Greek Orthodox Church. Do you need to do anything at all or can you just start showing up to the Greek Orthodox service and be fine?
Does anyone ever really make that sort of switch?
Offline
If you are referring only to Eastern Orthodox Churches in full communion with each other then my understanding is that you can attend anyone of them. Usually, you would only change because you moved somewhere where the only Orthodox church was a different kind to the one you used to attend, or some similar reason.
Of course, Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East are a different matter.
Offline
Yeah, I just mean the different ethnic varieties of the Eastern Orthodox Church. I know they have different liturgy, so I wasn't sure if there was any kind of transfer process or confirmation or anything like that.
Offline
Not confirmation. The priest might want to make sure you were a properly baptised member of a valid Eastern Orthodox Church, but apart from that you can take communion in any such church.
Some Eastern Orthodox parishes in Western countries can be quite ethnically based, and not entirely welcoming to outsiders, so that might be a practical difficulty, though the priest will no doubt not put you off taking part in worship there. Other parishes, whether ethnically based or not, can be very open to outsiders.