About


This website exists to study the history of Orthodox Christianity in the modern world. It was launched in 2009.

The editorial board of Orthodox History includes the following individuals:

Matthew Namee, Editor

Matthew has been the editor of Orthodox History since its inception in 2009. He is a lawyer by training and serves as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for a nonprofit called Orthodox Ministry Services. He holds a B.A. in History from Wichita State University and a J.D. from the University of Kansas.

Nicholas Chapman

Nicholas is the Director of Holy Trinity Publications, the publishing work of Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in Jordanville, New York. He was born in the British Overseas Dependent Territory of Gibraltar and was educated in Connecticut and England. After gaining a degree in Business Administration he worked for the British government as a Tax Inspector and subsequently in the private sector as a taxation and business consultant. In the early 1990s he headed a British NGO with projects in Russia, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia. An avid reader and lover of history and travel, he has worked for the past twenty-five years in the book industry whilst also writing and lecturing on Orthodoxy in early America in North America, the U.K. and Lebanon. He is amongst the contributors to the Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States ed. Mark A. Lamport (Routledge, 2016). He was the first Executive Director of the Antioch Centre based in Oxford, England and presently serves as Executive Director of the Associates of Colonel Philip Ludwell III.

Very Rev. Andrew Stephen Damick

Fr. Andrew is Chief Content Officer of Ancient Faith Ministries and former pastor of St. Paul Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. He is a 2007 summa cum laude graduate of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, graduating with Distinction with honors in Church History. His M.Div. thesis is entitled The Archbishop’s Wife: Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh, the American Orthodox Catholic Church, and the Founding of the Antiochian Archdiocese (1880-1934). He focuses on Orthodox history in America in the early 20th century. He was one of the founding administrators and editors of the OrthodoxWiki website, specializing in articles on the history of Orthodoxy in America, and is an M.A. student at Signum University in Language and Literature. He is the author and creator of multiple books, blogs and podcasts from Ancient Faith Ministries.

Melissa Kean

Melissa Kean is a founding director of The Saint Constantine School. For many years she was the Centennial Historian of Rice University. Dr. Kean holds a B.A. from Iowa State, a Master’s degree from Creighton University, another Master’s degree from Rice University, and a Ph.D. from Rice University. In addition to four history degrees, she also earned a J.D. from the University of Iowa. Dr. Kean’s leadership experience extends from her work with a private religious school for children to her service on a university board.

Samuel Noble

Samuel Noble holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from KU Leuven and is a senior researcher on the ERC-funded project TypArabic at the Center for Southeast European Studies in Bucharest. He is the co-editor of Arabic Christianity between the Ottoman Levant and Eastern Europe and The Orthodox Church in the Arab World 700-1700: An Anthology of Sources and co-translator of Arab Christians under the Ottomans 1516-1831. Some of his academic writing is available here.