United States of America, Orthodoxy in the
THOMAS FITZGERALD
THE ALASKAN MISSION
The Alaskan territory became part of the United States in 1867 when it was sold by Imperial Russia. The Orthodox Church had a significant presence in the territory dating from 1794. In that year, eight monks and two novices from the Church of Russia established the first mission in Alaska. Led by Archimandrite Joseph Bolotov, the missionaries departed St. Petersburg on December 25, 1793 and arrived on Kodiak Island on September 24, 1794. They had traveled about a third of the circumference of the earth. Discovered and explored by Russian explorers from 1741 onwards, the Alaskan coastland and the numerous islands between North America and Siberia were claimed by Imperial Russia. A colony had been established in 1784 on Kodiak and became the center of trade.
While these early missionaries confronted numerous difficult challenges, their work in Alaska in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was remarkable. Spreading from its center on Kodiak to other populated regions, the Alaskan Mission was one of the largest and most significant missionary endeavors guided by the Church of Russia and supported by the imperial government. As a sign of its significance, the Church of Russia selected Fr. Joseph the head of the mission to serve as the first bishop in Alaska in 1796. After traveling to Siberia for his consecration, however, the new bishop died in a shipwreck before returning to Kodiak.
Two missionaries during this period have attracted particular attention. With little formal education, the monk Herman (1760–1837) came to exemplify the best qualities of the early missionaries in Russian Alaska. As one of the first missionaries, Herman, who was not ordained, instructed the natives both about Christianity and about agricultural techniques. He staunchly defended the rights of the natives in the face of exploitation by many Russian merchants and traders. By 1812, Herman moved to Spruce Island, three miles from Kodiak, and established a chapel, an orphanage, and a hermitage. Not long after his death in 1837, the natives began to honor him as a saint. They collected stories about his service and recorded the miracles attributed to his intercession. His formal canonization took place in 1970.
Fr. John (Innocent) Veniaminov (17971879) and his family arrived on the island of Unalaska in 1824. As part of his missionary work, the young priest created an Aleut alphabet based upon Cyrillic characters. This was followed by a dictionary and grammar. These provided the basis for his translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew and portions of the liturgy. John also wrote a basic catechism entitled Indication of the Pathway into the Kingdom.
Like Herman, Fr. John was concerned with the needs and activities of the natives. He taught them agricultural techniques, carpentry, and metalworking. During ten years on Unalaska, Fr. John constructed a school, an orphanage, and a number of chapels. Moving to New Archangel (Sitka) in 1834, he continued his remarkable missionary work among the Tlingits, a tribe generally hostile to the Russian merchants. Fr. John also traveled to other missionary outposts. He visited Fort Rus in Spanish Northern California in 1836. He also visited a number of Roman Catholic missions and met with the missionaries.
Following the death of his wife, Fr. John became a monk and took the name Innocent. He subsequently was elected bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurill and Aleutian Islands. With his return to New Archangel (Sitka), a new period of missionary activity developed. Regarded as a great educator, he created schools offering a wide variety of subjects. In 1841 he opened a seminary at Sitka which included courses not only in religious but also in native languages, Latin, trigonometry, navigation, and medicine. He insisted that his priests learn native languages and customs. Innocent was elected metropolitan of Moscow in 1868 and established the Russian Orthodox Missionary Society before his death in 1879. He was canonized a saint in 1977 and given the title “Apostle to America.”
Following the sale of Alaska to the United States, many Russian merchants and fur traders in Alaska subsequently returned to their homeland or traveled to San Francisco where there was a sizeable Russian colony. The formal interest of the Church of Russia in Alaska also diminished. Few competent clergy remained in Alaska to care for the faithful, which numbered about 12,000 gathered into about 43 communities. A new diocese encompassing Alaska and the Aleutian Islands was established in 1870, but the episcopal see was moved to San Francisco in 1872 and its affairs developed with less regular connection with the Russian synod.
The sale of Alaska also opened the territory to Protestant missionaries from the lower United States. Having little appreciation of the Orthodox Church, the Protestant missionaries proselytized among the native Orthodox, and showed little regard for their indigenous history and culture. Native languages and customs were discouraged. Assimilation was demanded. Despite this, the Orthodox Church continued to maintain a weakened presence in the Alaskan territory, and the mission continued to influence the subsequent development of Orthodoxy in the United States. The various Russian Orthodox jurisdictions which developed in the United States in the early 20th century claimed a direct continuity with the Alaskan Mission.
EARLY ORTHODOX IMMIGRATION AND CHURCH DEVELOPMENT
The focus of Orthodox Christianity in the United States dramatically shifted to the east coast in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a consequence of mass immigration. Thousands of Orthodox immigrants from Greece, Asia Minor, Carpatho-Russia, the Ukraine, and the Middle East came to the United States. Lesser numbers came from Serbia, Bulgaria,
Romania, and Russia. Almost immediately, the immigrants set about establishing parishes, to construct church buildings, and to find a priest to serve their community. This was done often with little or no formal direction from church authorities either here or in the Old Country.
A number of the earliest parishes began as pan-Orthodox communities containing immigrants from various ethnic backgrounds. Among these parishes were those in New Orleans (1864), San Francisco (1868), and New York City (1870). There, a notable attempt to introduce Orthodox Christianity to the wider society in New York was made by Fr. Nicholas Bjerring (1831–84). Between 1879 and 1881 his journal, the Oriental Church Magazine, published essays on Orthodox teachings and liturgical texts in English.
As the number of Orthodox immigrants increased, these early parishes and most subsequent Orthodox parishes began to serve particular ethnic and linguistic groups. Since many immigrants intended to return to their homeland, the parishes became centers in which not only the faith was preserved but also the language and customs of the old country were carefully maintained. The church buildings were a place for worship. They also offered a secure place for fellowship and mutual support. There was a natural link between the family and the parish. There was also an intimate link between faith and the culture and language of the old world. Therefore, there was little contact among these parishes with other Orthodox groups and little sense of mission beyond the needs of a particular ethnic family. The large urban centers of the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries contained neighborhoods where the various immigrant groups could maintain their faith, culture, and language, somewhat insulated from the wider society. This was true not only for the various Orthodox immigrant groups. It was also true for certain Roman Catholic and Protestant immigrants.
The accomplishments of these early Orthodox immigrants were truly remarkable. By 1920 there were about 300 organized parishes composed primarily of Orthodox immigrants. As centers of religious and cultural life in a new country, set up and financed by the laity in the main, these parishes were usually built and maintained with very little formal direction from the hierarchical authorities.
EARLY GREEK ORTHODOX DEVELOPMENTS
The largest single group of Orthodox immigrants in this period were the Greeks. Although a community of Greek Orthodox workers came to New Smyrna, Florida in 1768, there is little evidence of organized Orthodox religious life. The great wave of Greek immigration occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1920 there were about 300,000 Greek immigrants in the United States organized into about 135 parishes. With few exceptions, these parishes in the early years sought to maintain some connection with dioceses of the Church of Greece or the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople. Many of the early Greek immigrants saw themselves as temporary residents in the United States and kept in close contact with families back home.
From the early decades ofthe 20th century the patriarchate of Constantinople affirmed its responsibility for all Orthodox living in America. This was done in accord with Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and subsequent practical precedents. According to the commonly held Greek interpretation of the Chalcedonian canon, the ecumenical patriarchate had responsibility for all the Orthodox in territories beyond
the canonical borders of other autocephalous churches. However, because of the acute political and financial difficulties which the patriarchate experienced throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was not in a position to assert its prerogatives or to exercise its ministry adequately in America. Orthodox church life in the United States continued to develop during this period with very little hierarchical supervision and not always in harmony with accepted church polity and canonical order.
Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios (Metaxakis) of Constantinople (1871–1935) envisioned a united Orthodox Church in the United States in his enthronement address in 1921. The patriarchate subsequently established the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America as a canonical province. Prior to his election as ecumenical patriarch, Meletios, as archbishop of Athens, visited the United States in 1918 and 1921 and had begun to organize the Greek Orthodox parishes he found there. Nevertheless, the Greek Orthodox parishes in the Americas were deeply divided in the 1920s and 1930s because of political differences between royalist and republican sympathizers as these parties had arisen in Greece. Between 1931 and 1948, Archbishop Athenagoras Spirou (1886–1972), later patriarch of Constantinople, labored greatly to heal the divisions and to unify the Greek archdiocese. Faced with the specific pastoral needs of the Greek immigrants and with the acute divisions among them, however, little at that time could be done to broaden the patriarchate’s embrace to include all Orthodox faithful in the Americas.
EARLY RUSSIAN ORTHODOX DEVELOPMENTS
The late 19th century also witnessed the emigration of more than 150,000
Carpatho-Russians from the Austro- Hungarian Empire. In their homeland they had been Eastern Catholics, sometimes called “Greek Catholics.” Their union with Rome dated from the 16th century. While permitted to maintain Eastern liturgical practices and a married priesthood, the Carpatho-Russians had accepted the ultimate authority of the pope. The basis for the “return” of many Carpatho-Russians to the Orthodox Church after they arrived in America was primarily the refusal of local Roman Catholic bishops and priests in the United States to honor the Eastern Catholic traditions, particularly the married priesthood. Beginning in 1891, Fr. Alexis Toth (1853–1909; now canonized as St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre), a former Eastern Catholic priest, led about 65 parishes with about 20,000 Eastern Catholics into the Russian Orthodox archdiocese. By 1917 about 160 former Eastern Catholic parishes with about 100,000 faithful had become Orthodox. The Carpatho-Russian immigrants formed the foundation of a newly energized Russian Orthodox archdiocese.
Because of the increase of parishes in eastern America, the Russian Orthodox diocesan see was moved to New York in 1905 under Bishop Tikhon Belavin (1865–1925), later patriarch of Moscow, and canonized as St. Tikhon). The rapid increase of Russian Orthodox parishes comprising Carpatho-Russian immigrants radically changed the character of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States. The Church of Russia in 1900 approved the request of Bishop Tikhon to change the diocese’s title to the Diocese ofthe Aleutians and North America. Granted the title of Archbishop, he subsequently consecrated in 1904 a bishop for Alaska and Fr. Raphael Hawaweeny (1860–1915; now canonized as St. Raphael of Brooklyn) as bishop of Brooklyn to serve to oversee about six Syrian Orthodox parishes. Archbishop
Tikhon subsequently presented a plan to the Church of Russia in 1905 which envisioned a unified church in America under the jurisdiction of the Moscow synod. About 200 parishes were part of the Russian Orthodox archdiocese. In addition to parishes of the Carpatho-Russian and Syrian immigrants, the Russian Orthodox archdiocese also included in the early 20th century parishes of Serbian Orthodox, Syrians, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Albanians.
Additional diocesan developments rapidly took place among the Russian Orthodox. Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the administration of the Russian Orthodox archdiocese and its parishes was profoundly disrupted because of the effects of the political and religious developments in Soviet Russia, and because of the loss of imperial financial support for church affairs. There were at least four major Russian Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States by the year 1933. The largest was the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, frequently referred to as the “Metropolia,” which declared itself temporarily independent from the Church of Russia in 1924. Its authority was challenged by a small number of clergy and laity associated with the Russian “Living Church” movement, especially between 1922 and 1943. A diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad was established in 1927 serving Russian immigrants with monarchist sympathies who refused to acknowledge the official leadership of the Church of Russia in the period after Patriarch Tikhon, who died in 1925. Repudiating both these jurisdictions, the beleaguered Church of Russia headed by Metropolitan Sergius as acting patriarchal locum tenens established an exarchate in the United States in 1933. Each of these rival jurisdictions claimed to be the historic continuation of the Alaskan Mission in the United States. Each also expressed very different attitudes toward the Church in Russia and the communist regime in the Soviet Union.
OTHER DIOCESAN DEVELOPMENTS
In the wake of further immigration and unsupervised parish development, other autocephalous Orthodox Churches also acted to establish dioceses in the United States so as to serve their immigrant faithful. After preliminary local foundations in each case, new dioceses were subsequently established by the Church of Serbia in 1921, of Antioch in 1924, of Romania in 1930, of Albania in 1932, and of Bulgaria in 1938. The ecumenical patriarchate also established dioceses for Ukrainian parishes in 1937 and Carpatho-Russian parishes in 1938, and received Albanian parishes under its jurisdictional care in 1949.
The varied political allegiances of the immigrant communities often led to the creation of some separatist parishes and dioceses which were not part of the jurisdiction of any autocephalous Orthodox Church. With each wave of immigration, fresh political divisions in the homeland of the immigrants frequently manifested themselves in the church life of the Orthodox in the United States. Claiming to be united in faith, the Orthodox were actually fractured into numerous diocesan jurisdictions. Most had an “Old World” orientation and served a particular ethnic population. Some followed the “Revised Julian (New) Calendar” inaugurated in 1923 and others the “Old Calendar” (called the “Julian” because it was established by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE). Many parishes were marked at this time by a strong emphasis upon congregationalism which frequently challenged the leadership of the clergy. Attitudes of nationalism and parochialism pervaded much of church life. By 1933 there were no fewer than fifteen separate Orthodox jurisdictions comprising parishes serving particular ethnic communities and often reflecting political perspectives related to the old homeland. At that time, there were over 400 Orthodox parishes overall, serving about half a million believers.
A TIME OF TRANSITION
Facing divisions both within and beyond their flocks, Archbishop Athenagoras and Metropolitan Antony Bashir (1898–1966) of the Syrian (Antiochian) Orthodox archdiocese recognized the need for greater cooperation. Metropolitan Antony advocated the greater use of English in liturgical services and envisioned a more united church in the United States. Together with Metropolitan Antony, Archbishop Athenagoras proposed a pan-Orthodox seminary in 1934 and a pan-Orthodox journal in 1941. Strife among the Russian jurisdictions prevented common action on these proposals. However, the Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America was established in 1943. This voluntary association brought together the primates of six Orthodox jurisdictions which were in communion with one of the patriarchates. During its early years the federation did much to achieve greater recognition of the Orthodox Church, especially by governmental agencies. Because it was not then in communion with the Moscow patriarchate, the Russian Orthodox metropolia, the largest of the Russian jurisdictions, was not a member of the federation. Its absence was a major weakness in the federation, which ceased to function by 1949.
The decades following World War II marked an important period of transition for the Orthodox in the United States. Demographics were changing. There was a notable decrease in immigration of Orthodox by the 1920s. Many parishes began to lose their predominantly immigrant character. At the same time, new parishes were being established in the suburbs beyond the center of immigrant life in the inner city. Born and educated in America, most parishioners became less and less in contact with the land of their grandparents and their political concerns. There was an increase in Orthodox marrying beyond their ethnic communities. There was also a gradual increase of marriages between Orthodox and Catholics or Protestants. Moreover, persons coming from other religious traditions were beginning to embrace the Orthodox Church and its teachings. This movement would increase as time went on.
The education of clergy and lay leaders acquired new significance. Following earlier attempts to establish pastoral schools, new theological schools came into existence. The Greek Orthodox archdiocese established the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology near Boston in 1937. Likewise, the Russian Orthodox metropolia founded St. Tikhon’s Seminary near Scranton, Pennsylvania, and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological School in Crestwood, New York in 1938. Since that time, these institutions have been responsible for educating most clergy and theologians in the United States. Their presses have also published a significant number of Orthodox theological books in English.
There was also an increase of panOrthodox endeavors. Orthodox from various jurisdictions began to recognize that they shared not only the same faith but also the same challenges and obligations within American society. A number of avenues of cooperation were established, especially in the areas of retreats, religious education, and campus ministry. New catechetical materials in the English language were published. There was growing use of English in the liturgy and other services as a result of translation efforts. Joint liturgical services began to become more common in larger cities, especially on the first Sunday of Great Lent, celebrated as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Pan-Orthodox clergy associations and councils of churches also began to appear.
These developments were not without difficulties. New tensions developed in some jurisdictions related to these developments. Some felt that the role of the church as the preserver of a particular ethnic identity was being destroyed by the tendency toward greater cooperation. Indeed, additional divisions developed as new Orthodox immigrants arrived in the 1950s and 1960s, fleeing political changes in Eastern Europe. Opposing the communist governments there, rival dioceses developed among the Bulgarians in 1947, the Romanians in 1951, the Ukrainians in 1950 and 1954, and the Serbians in 1963. The larger jurisdictions, however, continued on a trajectory which recognized the growing American identity of its faithful.
THE STANDING CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS
The establishment of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA) in 1960 marked a significant move towards greater cooperation and unity among the Orthodox jurisdictions. Under the leadership of Archbishop Iakovos (1911–2005) of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese, SCOBA initially brought together the presiding bishops of eleven jurisdictions and developed a number of committees to deal with common challenges. Although SCOBA was not a formal synod, in canonical terms, many viewed it as the first step towards greater administrative and canonical unity.
Each jurisdiction continued to maintain its own identity, yet SCOBA provided a significant means of cooperation. Unlike the earlier federation, SCOBA included the Russian Orthodox metropolia as well as the Moscow patriarchal exarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (the Synod Abroad) refused to cooperate at this time, citing its opposition to those who recognized the leadership of the Church of Russia.
SCOBA set about coordinating various national pan-Orthodox activities which had begun in earlier decades. These included programs related to religious education and campus ministry. An Education Commission and a Committee on Scouting were established in 1960. These were followed by a Campus Commission in 1965. The Orthodox Theological Society was established in 1965. With the development of the ecumenical movement, SCOBA became responsible for establishing formal bilateral theological dialogues with the Episcopal Church (1962), the Roman Catholic Church (1966), the Lutheran Church (1968), and the Reformed Churches (1968). A commission for dialogue with the Oriental Orthodox Churches was established in 2000.
In more recent years, SCOBA has formally sanctioned the establishment of a number of additional agencies. Among the most notable are the International Orthodox Christian Charities (1991), the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (1994), and the media outreach of the Orthodox Christian Network (2003). A Military Chaplaincy Commission supports chaplains for Orthodox Christians serving in the armed forces. In addition, seven other pan-Orthodox organizations have received SCOBA’s endorsement. All the activities of SCOBA have provided rich opportunity for clergy and laity to join together in pan-Orthodox witness. These activities also served to deepen a desire for greater Orthodox unity.
The initial achievements of SCOBA occurred at a time when the Orthodox Churches on a global level were also engaged in a process of renewed conciliarity. Between 1964 and 1968, four pan-Orthodox conferences took place and began to address issues affecting all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches. These meetings led to the establishment of a conciliar process designed to prepare for the convocation of a Great and Holy Council. Among the topics which deserved attention by the churches was the so-called “Diaspora» the developing Church in America, Western Europe, and elsewhere.
In the light of these developments, the bishops of SCOBA in 1965 proposed to the autocephalous churches that it should be recognized as an episcopal synod having full authority to govern the life of the Church in America within the jurisdiction of the ecumenical patriarchate. A similar proposal was made in 1968 with the request that the American situation be placed on the agenda of the global pan-Orthodox conferences. While no action was taken by the ecumenical patriarchate or the other autocephalous churches, the appeals of SCOBA indicated that the situation in the United States could not be long ignored.
The conciliar process both in America and at the global level was, to an extent, disrupted in 1970 when the patriarchate of Moscow moved to grant autocephaly (selfgoverning status) to the Russian Orthodox metropolia. From then, the metropolia has been known as the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). This action regularized the formal relationship between the metro- polia and the Church of Russia which had been lost in 1924, but the grant of autocephalous status to the OCA was not recognized by the ecumenical patriarchate or by most of the other autocephalous churches. This disputed status of the OCA immediately increased tensions among the jurisdictions in the United States. Eventually, it led to new discussions related to the presence of Orthodoxy in the United States and the meaning of autocephaly. Currently, while continuing not to recognize the autoceph- aly of the OCA, the ecumenical patriarchate determined to cooperate with it in the hope of encouraging a more comprehensive resolution of the overall canonical position of Orthodoxy in America.
Throughout the early 1970s the ecumenical patriarchate initiated a number of discussions on themes preparing for a Great and Holy Council. A list of ten topics for study was agreed upon by the representatives of the autocephalous churches in 1976. This list included the topics of the so-called “Diaspora” and the question of autocephaly. After dealing with a number of other topics, the theme of Diaspora was examined in meetings of the pre-conciliar committees in 1990,1993, and 1995. In light of these discussions, a historic meeting of all Orthodox bishops in the United States was held in 1994. On the eve of a new millennium, the bishops issued a historic pastoral letter entitled And the Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us, which spoke about the responsibilities of the church and Orthodox Christians in contemporary society. Subsequent meetings of all the bishops were held in 2001 and 2006.
A number of significant developments occurred in several of the jurisdictions. Divisions among the two rival Syrian Orthodox (Antiochian) jurisdictions were healed in 1975, creating a unified Antiochian Orthodox Christian archdiocese. This provided a basis in 1987 for the reception of a number of convert clergy and 20 parishes of various evangelical Protestant traditions. The Serbian Orthodox dioceses healed their internal divisions in 1988. The two Romanian Orthodox jurisdictions began a dialogue aimed at reconciliation in 1992. The ecumenical patriarchate in 1996 restructured the Greek Orthodox archdiocese into an archdiocesan district and eight metropolises. In 1995 it also regularized the canonical status of a number of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops, clergy, and parishes. Likewise, the Antiochian Orthodox archdiocese in 2003 received a “self-rule” status from the Church of Antioch which also established nine dioceses. These new developments, as well as leadership changes and some financial difficulties in the OCA, led to some internal strife. The difficulties often served to highlight the need for greater unity among the Orthodox in America.
The SCOBA member jurisdictions as of 2010 are: the Albanian Orthodox diocese (Bishop Ilia), the American Carpatho Russian Orthodox diocese (Metropolitan Nicholas), the Antiochian Orthodox Christian archdiocese (Metropolitan Philip), the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church (Metropolitan Joseph), the Greek Orthodox archdiocese (Archbishop Demetrios), the Orthodox Church in America (Metropolitan Jonah), the Romanian Orthodox archdiocese (Archbishop Nicolae), the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Metropolitan Constantine), and the Representation of the Moscow Patriarchate in America.
THE NEW EPISCOPAL ASSEMBLY
In October 2008, at a special synaxis of the heads of Orthodox Churches which he called at Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew (b. 1940) proposed that renewed attention be given to the so-called “Orthodox Diaspora.” His proposal was unanimously accepted by hierarchs representing the other thirteen autocephalous churches. This historic gathering led directly to the Fourth
Preconciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference, which met in Geneva on June 6–12, 2009. This meeting approved the creation of an Episcopal Assembly in North and Central America, as well as in eleven other regions. The new Assembly would bring together all the canonical Orthodox bishops from all jurisdictions in North and Central America to strengthen the unity of the church and to address together critical issues. At that time, there were over fifty canonical Orthodox bishops in this region.
During his visit to the United States in October 2009, Patriarch Bartholomew met with the presiding bishops of the SCOBA jurisdictions under the leadership of Archbishop Demetrios (b. 1928) of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese and exarch of the ecumenical patriarchate. Patriarch Bartholomew formally announced the decision of the synaxis in 2008 and the more recent decision of the fourth Preconciliar Pan Orthodox Conference. He urged the SCOBA bishops to begin the process of establishing the new Assembly. This body would build upon the significant work begun by SCOBA in 1960, and would be envisaged as succeeding and replacing SCOBA. Unlike SCOBA, however, the Assembly would now have the full recognition and support of the ecumenical patriarchate and the other autocephalous churches.
The new Assembly provides an important opportunity for the Orthodox Church to address the serious challenges and opportunities it has placed before it. The ongoing division of Orthodoxy in the United States into separate jurisdictions continues to weaken its mission and witness. Within most of the jurisdictions, the process of acculturation has not always been easy. As some of the jurisdictions move beyond their reliance upon ethnic loyalties, however, they are obliged to speak more clearly about the distinctive features of the Orthodox Christian faith within a religiously pluralistic society. They must express the Orthodox faith in terms which are understandable and develop ministries which respond to the spiritual need of persons living in this complex modern American society. The Orthodox in this context now need to distinguish between old world cultural practices, perspectives that are not essential to the faith, and those essential affirmations which are at the heart of the faith. Without diminishing the importance of worship, the Orthodox are challenged to enable greater participation in liturgical life, and relate this to all aspects of life. This will mean that a new spirit ofmission must be cultivated and that a proper relationship between clergy and laity must be expressed at all levels of church life. In addition, the role of women and their contribution to the church will need to be appropriately recognized. With its profound affirmations about the loving triune God, the theocentric nature of the human person, and the deep divine blessing within the creation, Orthodox Christianity has much to offer American society and to contemporary Christianity in America. Even so, this offering can take place only if the Orthodox themselves take seriously their responsibility to this society and to all its people.
There are today about 3 million Orthodox Christians in the United States gathered in more than 1,500 parishes. The church has about twenty monasteries, three graduate schools of theology, a college and a number of other schools and charitable institutions. The Orthodox in the United States sponsor missions in Africa, Albania, and Asia. Likewise, the International Orthodox Christian Charities presently provide humanitarian assistance in over a dozen countries. Through their books and lectures, Orthodox theologians from the United States are influencing the church in many other parts the world. The Church in the United States is composed primarily of American members of a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds who treasure the faith of Orthodox Christianity.
SEE ALSO: Constantinople, Patriarchate of; Greece, Orthodox Church of; Russia, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; St. Tikhon (Belavin) (1865–1925)
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Bogolepov, A. (2001) Toward an American Orthodox Church: The Establishment of an Autocephalous Church. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Bolshakov, S. (1943) The Foreign Missions of the Russian Orthodox Church. London.
Constantelos, D. J. (1967) The Greek Orthodox Church: Faith, History, Practice. New York: Seabury Press.
Litsas, F. K. (ed.) (1984) A Companion to the Greek Orthodox Church. New York: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America.
McGuckin, J. A. (2008) The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Its History, Theology and Spiritual Culture. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ware, K. (1997) The Orthodox Church. London: Penguin.