Category: Inter-Orthodox
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Remembering Metropolitan Dimitrios Couchell
This morning, February 19, 2026, Metropolitan Dimitrios Couchell reposed. Although comparatively few know his name, he was, in fact, one of the greatest men in the history of Greek Orthodoxy in America. This past…
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How Did Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem Respond to the Council of Florence?
Most Orthodox accounts, at least in English, of why the Union of Florence was rejected center on St Mark of Ephesus’ singular stand against the council, and the rallying of the laity of Constantinople…
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How Did Orthodoxy Get Into This Mess?
It almost goes without saying that the Orthodox world is a mess right now. The situation in Ukraine alone is a disaster: a Russian invasion of the country backed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow,…
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The Nine Years that Almost Destroyed the Orthodox Church
Back in March, I published a 9-part series on the global Orthodox crisis of 1917-1925. I’ve made a few revisions to that account and added an Epilogue and a partial bibliography. Today, I’m publishing…
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The Biggest Pan-Orthodox Event in American History
In 1963, between 11,000 and 13,000 Orthodox youth, from seven jurisdictions, came together for a pan-Orthodox festival in Pittsburgh. Ten bishops and more than 150 priests celebrated Vespers in an arena, and a thousand-person…
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The Pan-Orthodox Council of 1998
Beginning in the post-Communist era in the early 1990s, a faction of schismatics emerged in Bulgaria, breaking away from the canonical Bulgarian Orthodox Church. These schismatics — known as the “Alternative Synod” — elected…
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Was Crete really the first “Pan-Orthodox Council” in centuries?
In the run-up to what was hoped to be a Great and Holy Council in 2016, many church leaders and commentators emphasized that this was a monumental event, the first time in X years…
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Patriarch Athenagoras Clearly States How Autocephaly Must Be Granted
Editor’s note: On Friday, Orthodox History published a 1970 letter by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in response to the Moscow Patriarchate’s decision to grant autocephaly to the “Orthodox Church in America.” After posting the letter,…
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1970 Letter from Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras on Autocephaly
Editor’s note: In 1970, the Patriarchate of Moscow issued a Tomos of Autocephaly to its former archdiocese in North America, which was commonly known as the “Russian Metropolia” and is now the “Orthodox Church in…
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Plans for an English-speaking seminary & an Orthodox census in 1943
Back in the early 1940s, several of the Orthodox jurisdictions briefly came together to form an organization with the unwieldy name, “The Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America.” That’s ridiculous, so we’ll…