Category: Orthodoxy in the Americas
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The Forgotten Greek Archbishop
Last week, I wrote about the remarkable pan-Orthodox youth festival in Pittsburgh in 1963. In that article, I mentioned in passing that the youth ministry alliance that put on the festival — CEOYLA — was, itself, organized with the blessing of Archbishop Michael, primate of the Greek Archdiocese in from 1949 to 1958. Archbishop Michael…
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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 pan-Orthodox youth choir sang. This was the biggest pan-Orthodox event in American history, and most Orthodox Christians today are completely unaware…
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Under-30 American Orthodox Priests Are Disappearing
A few weeks ago, I published some preliminary data from a study I’m conducting on the ordination ages of American Orthodox priests, as well as the waiting period between convert priests’ conversions and their ordinations. Since publishing those articles, I’ve expanded my sample considerably. Today, I am sharing some updated data. I now have ordination…
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How long do converts wait before ordination?
Last week, I wrote about the ordination ages of American Orthodox priests. In that article, I made some preliminary observations about the length of time converts to Orthodoxy wait before ordination to the priesthood — but I only had waiting period data for 47 convert priests. Since then, I’ve expanded that to 111 priests, which…
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How old are American Orthodox priests at ordination?
A few weeks ago, I published some data about American Orthodox bishops, including the fact that 58% of bishops in American Orthodox history were ordained to the priesthood before they turned thirty — this, despite the fact that the canons require a minimum age of thirty for priestly ordination. Today, I will dig deeper into…
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Statistics on Celibate & Widower Bishops in American Orthodoxy
I have a list of 213 Orthodox bishops who have served in America. Of these, 179 were never married (we’ll call them “celibates”), and the other 34 were widowers. So 84% celibates, 16% widowers. (Two of the “widowers” are special cases, because they were widowed before they joined the clergy, so they never served as…
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Widower Bishops in American Orthodox History
Everyone knows that Orthodoxy doesn’t allow married men to become bishops. This is kind of a live issue here in America, because a lot of our jurisdictions have trouble finding qualified episocopal candidates, while excellent priests are ineligible if they are married. I wouldn’t hold my breath for a revival of the married episcopate, for…
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The Equal of Martyrdom: An Audio Documentary on Fr. Nicola Yanney
Back in October, I was honored to be part of a pilgrimage in Kearney, Nebraska to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the holy death of Fr. Nicola Yanney. My good friend and fellow SOCHA founder, Fr. Andrew Damick, was also present at the pilgrimage. He came on behalf of Ancient Faith Radio, with the ultimate…
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The Legacy of Father Nicola Yanney
What follows is the text I used for a talk on Fr. Nicola Yanney on October 28, 2018, at a pilgrimage in Kearney, Nebraska, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his repose. Audio and video recordings were made of the talk, and those should be available at some point. I think the first time I became…
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Who was “Agapius Honcharenko”?
Note: Last week, we met Fr. Agapius Honcharenko, who served the first known Orthodox liturgies in New York (or, for that matter, the United States of America — remember, this is when Alaska was still part of the Russian Empire). (Click here to read that article.) Today, we continue the story, focusing on Honcharenko’s life…