I guess the real question is what Panagopoulos’ claims are made on. Especially in 1966, when the book was written, a claim for “we were here first, so we get the continent” was highly sought after. It is also not rare for Greeks to simply assume all Greeks are Orthodox. Was Panagopoulos simply assuming the Greeks were Orthodox or are these references to “Greek priests” and the “Greek Church” simply assumed by the fact the New Smyrnaens were Greek and had a priest with them?

Your past arguments as to their likely not being Orthodox seem to make more of an argument based on facts.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Smyrna-Eighteenth-Century-Odyssey/dp/0916586146

What book is that?

There was a plan for a Greek priest when it was on the drawing board: the grant was to populate the colony with Protestants, but the Anglicans had already made links to the Orthodox in Russia and visiting Greeks (one Greek bishop, it is said, being the source of Methodist orders). The Orthodox Russians were also known at the time to be undermining Spain’s claim on the Pacific, as the English hoped to do in Florida. So an Orthodox priest posed no problem for the Estalished Church in London. It seems, however, that Turnbull wife, Greek but in communion with the Vatican, used that exemption to get a priest of her choosing.

As for the authorities in Old Smyrna, Turnbull was barred from recruiting, and it remains doubtful that a priest would have gotten canonical release.

I’ve posted the Episcopalian claim that the Greeks went to them to during English rule, something I haven’t seen substantiated by the contemporary sources I’ve seen, but can’t discount out of hand.
http://orthodoxhistory.org/2009/12/greeks-in-florida-1768/#comment-1059

Papagopoulos does rely on primary sources. Part of the problem is that these tend to be English-language sources (at least, the sources I checked), and thus weren’t written by people who were very familiar with Orthodoxy.

I agree that, at best, New Smyrna is basically analagous to the Ludwell story. However, Nicholas Chapman has uncovered some evidence which hints at a POSSIBLE connection between Ludwell’s son-in-law, John Paradise, and the initiation of the Kodiak Mission that reached Alaska in 1794. So, there may be slightly more to the Ludwell story than meets the eye. We’ll see what Nicholas can turn up.

What evidence did the book on New Smyrna provide that evidenced the colonists were Orthodox? How does this relate to the evidence that led you to believe they were not Orthodox? Did the book she provide show early, primary evidence or was it simply a matter of later stipulation or assumption?

I hope she provides an article on New Smyrna, too. Culturally, it is definitely important to the Greek-American community, the question is whether or not there are religious implications, as well – which the establishment of a Shrine would imply. Even if there were Orthodox, it is nice to hear she acknowledged it would be essentially a barren shoot whose history is “not significant vis-a-vis the history of Orthodoxy in America” – much like the interesting but otherwise irrelevant (“vis-a-vis the history of Orthodoxy in America”) info regarding the Orthodoxy of Col. Philip Ludwell III in Colonial Virginia.

At the same time, she acknowledged that the descendants of the New Smyrna Greeks left the Orthodox faith, and that the New Smyrna colony is not significant vis-a-vis the history of Orthodoxy in America. I hope that this lady, the head of the St. Photios Shrine, will contribute an article on New Smyrna for our website.

By the way, Orrologion, where did you see/hear my talk? Is the video/audio available now, or were you in Atlanta?