My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
Q. Is Tithing an Orthodox Christian Tradition?
The answer is yes. As Orthodox Christians, we believe the Holy Scripture to be inspired by God. "Since it is divinely inspired, the Bible possesses a fundamental unity, total coherence, for it is the same Spirit that speaks on every page. We do not refer to it as "the books," in the plural, ta biblia, but we call it "the Bible," "the Book," in the singular ("E Vivlos" e "Agia Grafi"). It is one book, one Holy Scripture, with the same message throughout--one composite and yet single story, from Genesis to Revelation."
According to Saint Mark the Monk ("Mark the Ascetic," fifth /sixth century), "He who is humble in his thoughts and engaged in spiritual work, when he reads the Holy Scripture, will apply everything to himself and not to his neighbor." We are to look throughout Holy Scripture for a personal application. (Orthodox Study Bible: How to Read the Bible).
According to the Old Testament injunction we are to set aside 10% of all we possess for the work of the Lord. I recall a Methodist minister in Tampa who informed me that his entire congregation adhered to the injunction from the Holy Scripture and indeed gave the 10% to the church. "Anything above and beyond the 10% ("tithing") was considered a gift," he said.
Even the paper delivery boy or the babysitter from his parish gave 10% of what they earned. And yet the average member of my parish at Saint John's gave $150.00 a year; no matter if they were laborers or millionaires. Because of that, the parish of Saint John's struggle to meet its budget every year.
The current system of our Greek Orthodox Archdiocese is, of course, the stewardship program. The stewardship is a very Christian approach to giving and supporting the local parish and it leaves it to the individual Orthodox Christian to determine what or how much to contribute annually to the church. Today, tithes (or tithing) are normally voluntary and paid in cash, checks, or electronic funds transfers, whereas historically tithes could be paid in kind, such as agricultural products.
In recent years, tithing has been revived in Orthodox Churches as a form of stewardship that God requires of Christians. The primary argument is that God has never formally abolished the tithe, and thus Christians should offer the tithe (usually calculated at 10 percent of all gross income from all sources), usually to the local church.
Perhaps if everyone in the parish would, tithe there would be no need for the annual festival or any other fundraising events. It is something that we should seriously think about or consider. Some of our smaller Greek Orthodox parishes in our Chicago Metropolis have been able to prevent their parish from shutting down by implementing willingly the tithing program. So it does work!
In Christ's Service,
+Father George