The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas
St. Vladimir’s lecture
The talks from the recent conference at St. Vladimir’s Seminary may now be viewed online, courtesy of St. Andrew House in Detroit. You can also listen to the audio at Ancient Faith Radio.
The video of my own talk, “The Myth of Past Unity,” can be found here:
For audio only, click here.
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#2 written by Matthew Namee 3 years ago
Richard, that’s a great question. You left out another piece that makes the New York situation even more complicated — after all that effort to get in touch with the Patriarch of Constantinople, the priest who ended up coming to serve the community was from the Church of Greece.
There was more than one way to form a parish back in those days, and the Chicago and New York models illustrate that complexity. While the Chicago situation sounds more straightforward, I noted in another post that the Orthodox community there dealt with no fewer than four different Old World Churches — Russia, Greece, Serbia, and the EP. The first three of those Churches sent clergy to Chicago, and the first two parishes in Chicago were under Russia and Greece. It was a rather convoluted mess.
I suspect the founding members of the various parishes put their own knowledge to work. Some might have contacted the local bishop back home; others might have appealed directly to the central authority (whomever they perceived that to be). You might have had multiple people in the same community appealing to multiple Old World authorities. Because there was no clear-cut, undisputed hierarchical authority, multiple avenues were used, depending on the group.
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A question occurs to me in reviewing your presentation. You mention that the “Society of Athena” Greeks in New York followed a rather convoluted chain of communication; first to Archbishop Methodios of Syra, who then spoke with “a dignitary at Athens,” who then contacted the Patriarch of Constantinople. By contrast, the Society of Lycourgos Greeks in Chicago contacted the Metropolitan of Athens, who dealt with the matter directly.
What do you make of this difference?