Category: Orthodoxy in the Americas
-
Amazing 1915 Letter on Jurisdictionalism in American Orthodoxy
The following remarkable letter appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on March 18, 1915. It offers a well-informed but obviously partisan perspective on the Orthodox reality in America and globally in 1915 — in the midst of World War I. There’s so much happening in this letter, so many layers. It has to be one of…
-
Freemasonry and the Orthodox Church
If you search the internet for Orthodoxy and Freemasonry, most of what you’ll find will be condemnations of the movement. You might also find my 2012 article on Freemasonry in American Orthodox history. But, as far as I know, there hasn’t been much work done to document the basic history of Orthodoxy and its interaction…
-
New Book on American Orthodox Saints
Holy Trinity Publications, out of Jordanville, NY, has just published a book that will surely be of interest to many readers of this website: Glorified in America: Laborers in the New World from Saint Alexis to Elder Ephraim. Originally published in Greek, the book was written by the monks of the Monastery of St John the Forerunner…
-
Fr Seraphim Rose and “Corrective Baptism”
There is not universal agreement about the manner in which converts are received into the Orthodox Church. In some Orthodox jurisdictions, all converts are received via baptism and chrismation, regardless of whether they were previously baptized in a heterodox tradition. Others receive these types of converts via chrismation only, provided that their heterodox baptism was…
-
Patriarch Athenagoras, the CIA, and the State Department
Last fall, I spoke at a conference at Hellenic College-Holy Cross, commemorating the centennial of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. I’ve already posted my main paper from that conference, on the “barbarian lands” theory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. At that conference, I also spoke briefly about Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, who, prior to becoming Patriarch,…
-
Murder in San Francisco? The Mysterious Death of Fr Paul Kedrolivansky
Fr. Paul Kedrolivansky died on the evening of June 18, 1878, in the prison hospital in San Francisco, the victim of an apparent blow to the head. Since December 1870, Kedrolivansky had been the dean of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in San Francisco. In what must have been an awkward arrangement, his predecessor, Fr. Nicholas…
-
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, you can view a slideshow of all of these photos over the years. My thanks to Fr Andrew Damick for his…
-
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 the next Metropolitan, and then the Holy Synod of Antioch will elect one of those nominees. Remarkably, this will be just…
-
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 reviewed the paper in advance and provided feedback. I am especially grateful to M., who provided original translations of the 1908…
-
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 to the United States. These new immigrants established churches that were loosely tied to various Old Country hierarchies — some looked…