Are protestant churches in east European countries schismatic?
My question is about countries where the historic/national church is Eastern Orthodox (Russia, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece). In these places the dominant, institutional church with apostolic succession claims, ancient cathedrals, and cultural establishment is Orthodox, not Protestant.
How do you view Protestant churches planted in these countries over the last 200 years (missionary plants, Baptist, Pentecostal, evangelical, Lutheran remnants, etc.)?
- Are they considered schismatic in your framework, since they exist outside the historic national Orthodox church?
- Or does the “stick with the historic mainline” principle only apply within already-Protestant traditions/countries, and new Protestant plants in Orthodox lands are a different category (more like legitimate missionary work or “new ground” rather than schism)?
- Would you encourage faithful Protestants living there to eventually join the local Orthodox Church, or is it acceptable for them to remain in Protestant congregations?
-If there are literally no classic Protestant churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican) in a big region and the only ones available are non-denominational or Pentecostal, would somebody regularly attending that church be committing the sin of schism?
I’m asking because your schism theology makes a lot of sense in Western contexts with established Protestant bodies, but it’s less clear how it translates to traditionally Orthodox nations.