Month: June 2011

Orthodoxy and the First Shot of the American Civil War

This is about as unlikely a title for an article on American Orthodox history I ever expected to come up with! But a visit to a used bookstore in Canada a week ago has thrown up some whole new avenues for research. I found a slender volume entitled “Lincoln and...

Friday Links

I'm testing out a possible new feature here at OH.org -- links to recent articles that might be of interest to readers of our website. Please let me know what you think of this feature, and if you have any suggestions for links to include in future "Friday Links" posts....

Abp Iakovos opposed civil rights demonstrations in 1963

When I hear "Archbishop Iakovos" and "civil rights," I immediately recall that famous cover of LIFE, with the powerful Greek Archbishop standing next to Martin Luther King, Jr. during King's legendary 1965 march in Selma, Alabama. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled onto an August 14, 1963 Los Angeles Times article...

19th Century Alaskan Orthodox Calendar to be Auctioned

On Facebook, my friend (and historian of Alaskan Orthodoxy) Eric Peterson posted a link to an article on the impending (June 26) auction of a rare Alaskan Orthodox "peg calendar," dating to the late 19th century. In the article, Fr. Michael Oleksa explained, "I think the average lay person kept track...

What is an Armenian parish?

Matthew Namee’s somewhat recent post concerning what constitutes a parish caught me by surprise, as I was preparing a very similar article of my own to illustrate a problem I’ve been having in continuing to tell the story of the Armenian Orthodox Church for SOCHA.  When I agreed to assist...

2nd Anniversary of OrthodoxHistory.org

Two years ago today, June 19, 2009, we launched OrthodoxHistory.org with a post entitled, "Real Church. Real History." I've thoroughly enjoyed working on this website in the 24 months since then, and I'm very grateful for the contributions of our other authors: Fr. Oliver Herbel, Fr. Andrew Damick, Dn. Matthew Francis, Dr. William...

Hierarchical, Congregational, and the problems of the “parish”

In 1993, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts rendered its decision in (brace yourself) Primate and Bishops' Synod of Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia v. Russian Orthodox Church of Holy Resurrection, Inc. We'll just call it Primate from here on out. This case involved a Massachusetts ROCOR parish that left ROCOR...

ROCOR/OCA Episcopal Concelebration

Editor's note: The following article was written by Christopher Orr. Update (6/18/11): What follows is an updated version of the original article. On May 24, 2011 – the feast of the holy Equals-of-the-Apostles, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Enlighteners of the Slavs and the name day of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow...

The Dionisije Conundrum and why deference doesn’t work

I'm assuming, in this short article, that you've read about Serbian Diocese v. Milivojevich. But for those who haven't: the Serbian Holy Assembly deposed Bishop Dionisije Milivojevich, and Illinois courts basically overruled the deposition on the grounds that the Holy Assembly hadn't followed its own rules. The US Supreme Court...

Orthodoxy & the Courts: ecclesiastical questions are unavoidable

Until the early 1980s, some OCA parishes in the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania used the Old Calendar. In 1982, then-Bishop Herman Swaiko of Philadelphia ordered all of his parishes to switch to the New Calendar. Predictably, this wasn't universally well-received. The majority of St. Basil Orthodox Church in Simpson, PA...