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The hierarchs have approved a sign language lexicon and are continuing work on a common catechism, according to the Orthodox Observer.
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Three reasons: 1. Fr. John Romanides and figures like him still have a lot of influence on theology in the English-speaking world, especially under the Greek and Antiochian archdioceses. Until that theology gets purged out of the system, we risk a catechism stuffed with the "scholastic vs. mystical, legal/juridical/forensic vs. ontological/therapeutic" dichotomies, plus the "Charlemagne, Ockham, and Scotus ruined the West" stuff. It's false, and it will scandalize people who know better. 2. Catechisms are arguably being abused across denominations worse than ever. Right now young people are using or misusing them en masse: learning out of order; DIY, treating catechetical materials as exhaustive sourcebooks; as debate weapons; as checklists of doctrinal and moral positions to dodge the hard work of virtue and formation; one-size-fits-all answers on sensitive pastoral topics; as a way to shut down thought instead of deepening it. It's easy to say "any misuse is their fault" or "don't worry, we'll frame it properly with the right guidance," but that's irresponsible on one hand and unrealistic on the other. 3. I'm seeing signs that some in GOARCH specifically are willing to use LLM-powered AI to write or translate Church copy, and don't seem particularly informed about what they're doing. If LLMs are used to translate, localize, or worse, compose, curate, synthesize or advertise…
And 4., which will probably sound the most offensive and arrogant. Let me start by saying I'm just some dude, not someone who should be writing an AoB catechism. But I think we're in an era of scholarly decline. We just don't have the scholars we had 20 years ago. Given that, I worry the excellence needed to do this right simply isn't practically within reach.
I could be wrong, but I believe Fr. Eugene Pentiuc is leading the catechism project. People's opinions may differ, but I think he's a very capable scholar and not one to fall for oversimplified "East vs. West" dichotomies.
I hope so, Fr.! I also hope it isn't full of incomprehensible Greek-English cognate pidgin like: "And the theophanic procession of our pan-hellenic 'moment' must be balanced with philanthropic anti-xenophobic paradigms concerning the cosmopolitical mission of a theanthropic social economy, founded on the kyrigmatical principle of philocosmia and a dialectical commitment to inter-personal ecstasis."
"We just don't have the scholars we had 20 years ago. I worry the required excellence needed to do this right is not practically reachable, given this." The directors who put this program together are Fr Eugen Pentuic and Jim Skedros; are you questioning the scholarship of these two? The rest of the instructors in this series are also HCHC seminary professors.
I'm not deaf, I know a bit of sign language though, and the point about using an LLM to translate, localize or otherwise create material really concerns me. There are various dialects of signed English for one thing, and are actual deaf people consulting on this project, giving input on the adaptations they'd need, or is this happening without consulting the community? There are cultural nuances an LLM just can't grasp. My limited exposure to the deaf community has taught me I barely grasp some of the nuances myself. I get a few inside jokes others might not, but that doesn't mean I understand the deaf experience. I hope I'm not speaking over someone where I shouldn't, I'm just concerned for the people the church is trying to reach and wondering if that community has some involvement. I've only read the headline and discussion, but from advocacy work on my own issues I know how important it is to include the people you're advocating for, so you actually serve their needs rather than use them to serve your agenda. At the end of the day it's another human being bearing the image of God they're trying to catechize, and they deserve real scholarship and experience from deaf community members shaping these materials if people want to give input. The epistles warn that not everyone should be teachers and that teachers are held to a higher standard; I hope all teachers keep that in…
Let's be clear here: the catechism and the ASL lexicon are two unrelated efforts being discussed in this thread.
The American Deaf Association doesn't use AI for their signs, and they take it very seriously that deaf people contribute to the project.
I wasn't talking about the sign language part.
Here's a link to the Orthodox Deaf page for anyone interested.
I don't know where you're getting the idea that GOARCH is going to lazily outsource its theology to an AI.
Well, they recently put up a catechetical initiative website with an OpenAI slop AI icon and what looks like Claude marketing text, and they seem to be using it for various articles and such.
