>>4125
>Did Jesus or any of the apostles make any of the converts take classes for a couple of weeks/months before joining?
Yes, for 3 years. That's literally what the point of him having disciples following him around listening to his teachings was about. Can't properly evangelize or fully practice the faith if you don't even have a solid understanding of what it is. Also, we don't believe people are instantly "saved" through baptism, and catechumen are considered part of the church, so it's not like we're denying you salvation for the duration of that process or anything.
>Why perpetuate the ethnicity aspect of the church? Its difficult for a non-greek/russian to even consider joining when youre the odd-man out and imo it serves no purpose other than to create an entry barrier to those interested.
So what's your proposed solution then, to magically assimilate Greek/Russian immigrants overnight? Immigrants are the main reason such "national churches" exist in their current form in the first place and why they have spread around the world so much, but immigrants have just as much of a right to be comfortable at church as you do. When a diocese explicitly sends out a mission for the purpose of establishing a local church in a new region on the other hand, you get a more integrated result like the OCA. But obviously, the first Orthodox churches in many places were planted by immigrants from different diocese, so that complicated matters. But ultimately, there aren't more localized Orthodox parishes around, because there aren't more local Orthodox Christians; it's a chicken-egg problem. Trivializing the issue as if there's some easy solution hidden under our noses isn't exactly helpful.