A Brief History of the Orthodox Church in North America
The
Orthodox Church or more simply the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church, was founded by Jesus Christ and has a continual history since
that time. Born in Palestine, it spread east and west following roughly
the outlines of the Roman Empire though actually going well beyond its
frontiers. Unfortunately due to cultural and theological tensions the
Western part of the Church eventually separated from the rest of the
Church in the 11 th century forming today's Roman Catholic Church. The
Roman Church suffered internal schisms in the 15 th century resulting
in formation of the Protestant churches. The original Church became
known as the “Orthodox Catholic” or “Eastern Orthodox Church” and
continued to spread throughout the Balkans, into Russia, Ukraine and
even China. Essentially unchanged since apostolic times, it is the
second largest Church in the World today.
The
first Orthodox folk in North America were a group of Greeks who
attempted to found a colony in Florida called “New Smyrna”. This
expedition failed and the remaining colonists were absorbed into the
Spanish Colony of St. Augustine. The next group of Orthodox Chrisitans
coming to North America were Russians and came to the Russian Colony
now know as Alaska. A group of monks came to minister to the colonists
and found them pre-occupied with the fur trade and little interested in
religion. However the Native American population was interested in
their message of Faith and often eagerly converted to Orthodoxy. The
first saint canonized in North America, St. Herman of Alaska, was among
these first missionaries Another Saint, Innocent, became the first
ruling bishop in the New World, provided the Navtive Americans with a
written language and adaptations of church custom and practice that
fitted their way of life. He created the first diocese, which still
exists. To this day the Inuit, Ypik, Tlinket, and Aleuts of Southern
Alaska are largely Russian Orthodox attested by the onion-domed
churches that grace almost every village..
In
the late 19th Century, Arabs, Greeks, Romanians, Bulgarians, Russians
and other Eastern Orthodox Christians came to the United States seeking
to escape the oppression of the Ottoman Empire. Especially after World
War I, in 1918, a flood of refugees now fleeing Communism or the
poverty of post war Greece came to America and began to settle.
Churches were built and communities developed. Diocese were founded and
the Church was organized largely along ethnic lines called
jurisdictions. There are now an estimated 2 and a half million Orthodox
Christians in the U.S. with almost as many in Canada. In due time there
will eventually be a centrally organized American Orthodox Church that
is administratively unified. Until then the various jurisdictions
operate in communion with each other and attempt to not only
spiritually nurture their own constituents but also to bring the
ancient Faith “once delivered to the saints' to all who might find it
of value.