I’ve read of a few instances where an entire Christian congregation, or a substantial majority (including the leaders) converts to another Christian tradition
e.g.
I’ve also heard tell of Protestant congregations converting wholesale to Eastern Orthodoxy.
How does this work in real life? Do clergy from the desired faith come and teach classes to everybody, and administer sacraments en masse (no pun intended) as needed?
What happens, practically, with members who don’t want to convert? Do they get expelled from the congregation?
Interesting question. For a long time I was a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), PC(USA). I still read the Presbyterian Layman, the newsletter of conservative faction, some. As with many denominations now, it is racked with dissension over homosexuality. Many congregations have left it for more conservative Presbyterian denominations. Often there is a minority that opposes the move. It is quite common for them to ally themselves with the regional body, presbytery, go to court and ask to be declared the true church and retain the congregations property. Court results have been mixed. In some cases, the courts have washed their hands of it and said settle it yourselves. I think there was at least one case of the entire presbytery going to a different denomination.
In most cases, the minister lead leaving and remains as minister in the new denomination. I am not sure how much retraining is done.
I did not leave the PC(USA) for that reason. It was more that I was getting nothing out of services that started with 20 minutes of drum music. I view it as a matter of personal taste.
I have tried to stick to the facts I know. Details vary. I am sure others will supply different ones. You may find more details with a conservative viewpoint at http://www.layman.org/Home.aspx
This has to depend on the denomination from which they are coming, and the denomination to which they are going. If those two denominations resemble one another sufficiently closely, the congregation may not think of themselves as “converting” at all, but rather making a purely organisational change.
In general, though, a congregation leaving one of the Protestant denominations and affiliating with an older Catholic or Orthodox tradition (as in the OP’s example) will see itself, and be seen, as making a more significant change. There will probably be a formal reception of members of the congregation, as individuals, into the faith tradition that they are. There will presumably be a period of preparation for this. Some, undoubtedly, will not want to make the change, and will leave the congregation when this happens, or beforehand. It strikes me as unlikely that they will wait to be expelled.
The minister of the congregation will probably need to be re-ordained into the ministry of the denomination they are joining, and will very possibly have to accustom himself to new models of church government and administration - e.g. being appointed by, and reporting to, a bishop, rather than to a specific congregation, or to the elders of a specific congregation.
There can be legal issues which, again, can vary depending on the denominations involved. If the converts are coming from a denomination which has a congregational form of government/administration, the likelihood is that they will own their own property, and will wish to take it with them. That may be disputed by the central authorities of the denomination concerned, and/or by members of the congregation who don’t want to make the move and who plan a reduced “continuing” congregation in the old denomination. The converse problem can arise in the receiving denomination. In the US, the courts have traditionally been averse to involving themselves in sorting out these disputes, not wishing to infringe on the rights of religious bodies to regulate their own affairs.
They do indeed. And that’s why I say that the mechanics of the move must depend on the two denomonations concerned, and on how much they already have in common.
Pretty well all the mainstream Christian denominations will recognise one another’s baptism (though, obviously denominations practising believer’s baptism don’t accept the sufficiency of infant baptism). And quite a lot of Protestant denominations have no very strong concept of ordination, and so aren’t bothered by it. So the transition between them might be fairly smooth.
Indeed, if two traditions have enough in common, the transition can be very smooth indeed. There is a signficant history of Eastern Christian churches entering into full communion with the Roman Catholic church, and so effectively shifting from the Orthodox camp to the Catholic camp, while retaining all their distinctive character, liturgies, autochthonous government, and so on. That is the origin of most of the Eastern rites within the Catholic church. Those shifts mostly happened a long time ago, but I suspect that what you had there was entire local churches formally submitting to Rome with no requirement for individual re-baptism, re-ordination or re-anything. Those who weren’t happy with this would have had to leave their churches and start participating in another church, and no doubt there were some arguments over church buildings. But the change was effected at a corporate level; the default, if you did nothing and continued to participate in the church you had always participated in, was that you found yourself classed as a Catholic rather than an Orthodox Christian. If you wished to remain an Orthodox Christian you’d have to leave your church, and find an Orthodox church to participate in.