Author: Matthew Namee
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The US Assembly of Bishops: A History in Pictures
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America just held its 12th meeting since it was established in 2010. Every time they meet, the bishops take a group photo. Below,…
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Do Holy Bishops First Live as Simple Monks?
Recently, on Twitter, a user named @EphraimChrist14 tweeted at our Orthodox History account, “Why are bishops not selected from those living under obedience in a monastery who have gained spiritual experience and are filled…
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The Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Turn of the 20th Century
For over a year now, I’ve been telling the story of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the nineteenth century. Here are the previous articles I wrote on the subject: The Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Mercy…
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An Interview with Meletios Metaxakis
In the spring of 1919, Meletios Metaxakis was the Metropolitan of Athens and primate of the Church of Greece. World War I had ended the year before, and the Great Powers were still sorting…
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St John of Kronstadt’s Surprising Respect for Anglicanism
W.J. Birkbeck was a living bridge between Orthodoxy and Anglicanism at the turn of the last century. An Englishman, he fell in love with Russia and spent huge amounts of time there, developing contacts…
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The Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Loss of Its ‘Privileges’ in the Late 19th Century
For over a year now, I’ve been telling the story of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the nineteenth century. Here are the previous articles I wrote on the subject: The Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Mercy…
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Antiochian Metropolitan Elections: A Brief History
The recent retirement of Metropolitan Joseph has left the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America without a primate. In the coming months, the Archdiocese will undoubtedly hold a special convention to nominate candidates to be…
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The Georgian Patriarch’s Rebuke of St Tikhon
For centuries, the Orthodox Church in Georgia was autocephalous, with its own Patriarch (also known as “Catholicos”). In fact, for a long time there were actually two autocephalous Georgian Churches, one in the east…
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The Origins of the ‘Barbarian Lands’ Theory
This paper was originally presented at the conference “The Greek Archdiocese at 100 Years,” Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, October 7, 2022. I am indebted to numerous friends and colleagues who…
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Who Had Jurisdiction Over the Diaspora in 1907?
As readers of this website surely know, a large Greek diaspora emerged at the turn of the last century, with hundreds of thousands of Greeks (and other Orthodox Christians) emigrating from their homelands, particularly…